A Summary of a Report to Congress Regarding the Cabeza de Baca Family

 I decided to summarize a report to the House of the Representatives, 1st Session of the 36th Congress, regarding the petition by the Heirs of Luis Maria Cabeza de Baca. I read the entire report, but it found it a little daunting, so I used A.I. to help me summarize it. 

Luis Maria Cabeza de Baca was my fourth great-grandfather. His son Jose Mateo Mauricio (or simply Mateo) was my third great-grandfather. Mateo's son Martin was my 2nd great-grandfather. All three are mentioned in the summary.

Luis Maria was granted a large tract of land in 1821 in the area around present-day Las Vegas, New Mexico. Due to complications including revolutions, wars, regime change, and raids by Native American tribes, Luis Maria lost the land. Other families took possession of the land by 1835 and were issued title for the land. When the heirs of the deceased Luis Maria petitioned the government, they ended up getting up receiving 5 tracts, or "floats", of land in New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado. Click on the following link by to an article about the Baca Floats in the American Surveyor website.

My summary is in the link below:

The Heirs of Luis Maria Cabeza de Baca

Heirs of Luis Maria Cabeza de Baca

A wealth of information, including the names of descendants of Luis Maria Cabeza de Baca and the residents of Las Vegas, New Mexico in 1860, can be found in in U.S. House of Representatives Documents in Google Book.

It's fascinating. It includes testimony given by a number of New Mexicans.

My second great-grandfather Martin Baca is mentioned in the lawsuit as one of the sons of Mateo Baca, son of Luis Maria Cabeza de Baca

From the document:

"To the Hon William Pelham surveyor general of the Territory of New Mexico under the act of Congress approved July 22 AD 1854 Your petitioners the surviving heirs at law of one Luis Cabeza de Baca deceased would respectfully state that on the 16th day of January 1821 the provincial deputation of the State of Durango granted to the ancestor of your petitioners Luis Cabeza de Baca a tract of land called the Las Vegas Grandes and which said grant was afterwards ratified by the provincial deputation of New Mexico and which said grant has for its boundaries the following landmarks to wit On the north the Chapellote river on the south the boundary of San Miguel del Bado on the east the Aguage de la Llegua and the boundary of Antonio Ortiz and on the west the summit of the Pecos mountains all of which will more fully appear by reference to the said grant now on file in the office of the surveyor general No 137 and the grant to Antonio Ortiz No 727 and the grant to San Miguel del Bado No 125 to all of which reference is hereby made Your petitioners further state that said lands marks and boundaries are well known and easily discovered but inasmuch as no survey of said lands has as yet ever been made the quantity of land included within said boundaries is unknown to your petitioners Your petitioners further state that it will appear by reference to said grant that it was made to the said Luis Cabeza de Baca and his male children and invested him and his male children with an absolute title to said lands."

Check out the link below:

Town of Las Vegas vs. Tomas Baca, et.al.