Book Signing and Presentation: "Baca Family Connections to the Socorro Land Grant"

 Yay! The time is nearly here. I will have my first official book signing at the Albuquerque Genealogy Center (Albuquerque Main Library), 501 Copper NW, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 2nd Floor, on November 22, 2025, between 10:30 and Noon. 

My book "History and Families of the Socorro Land Grant, Part I: The Baca Family and Their Descendants" will be on sale on Amazon.com on November 3rd. I'll put a link on this blog on that date. Retail price is $50.

I'll be reading from the book and answering questions.

I will sell and sign the book at the event for the discounted price of $40. Please bring cash or check. Cards will not be accepted.

Click on this Link to See or Print out the Flyer.

Robert's updated Ancestry.com DNA results

 

Ancestry recently updated its DNA results. I don't completely agree with the current results. The last results showed that I had about 50% Iberian Peninsula results. The current results show that I only have about 38%. I do like the Native American breakdown - it's more specific, and similar to what I had before - around 25%. The other European results confuse me though (not shown in the picture above, click on the link below.) There's a lot of Great Britain percentages: Southeastern England & Northeastern Europe, East Midlands, Northern Wales, and Central Scotland & Northern Ireland. There are also results in Denmark, Southern Germanic Europe, and Sicily. There is even some French Canada: Quebec and Acadia. There is also two separate Sephardic, and one Ashkenazi Jewish results that add up to a total of 6%.

What I know about my ancestry is that I have Spanish and Mexican ancestry. Basically, Iberian Peninsula/ Native America admixture. I also have two great-grandfathers who were from Germany and Switzerland, separately - which should be around 6% of my DNA for each of those ancestors. 

With my Iberian ancestry, there is no doubt some Jewish mixture, and possible mixture from other nearby European countries. For instance, the Pino family which is in my bloodline were from Italy. My German ancestor, Philip Bourguignon, may have also been part French, based on his surname. However, he himself identified as German and was from the Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt. 

One last possibility: my Y-DNA results from FamilyTreeDNA are often seen as a Celtic variation. It was once known as R1b1b2 but is now known as R-M269. The Celtiberians were an ethnic group in early Iberia. I do have a few matches in my Y-DNA of people with Irish ancestry.

See my full ancestry results in the link below:

Robert's Ancesty.com DNA results

"History and Families of the Socorro Land Grant, Part I" Book Available November 3rd!

 If you follow me on Facebook, you may have learned that I'm publishing my book "History and Families of the Socorro Land Grant, Part I: The Baca Family and Their Descendants". It will be available on November 3rd on Amazon.com.

Below is an image of the proof copy of the book.

Last week I did a final edit of the book and submitted the final draft to Amazon. 

The book details the genealogies of 34 descendants of the Baca family who were among the founders of the Socorro Land Grant in 1815. These are not just people with the Baca surname, but also the Abeyta, Chaves, Gallegos, Garcia Jurado, Padilla, Sanchez, Tafoya, and Trujillo families, among others. The genealogies begin Cristobal Baca and Ana Ortiz, who arrived in New Mexico with their family in 1600, and continues another 8 generations. The descendant narratives extend into the 1800s, and in a few cases into the early 1900s. Additionally, I've included one other Baca family, the descendants of early Socorro settler Juan Dionisio Baca. He was not actually descended from the Baca family, but rather from Petronila Garcia Jurado and an unknown father. Juan Dionisio Baca was the ancestor of famed lawman Elfego Baca, New Mexico Archbishop Robert Fortune Sanchez, and many other Socorro residents.

Other sections of the book explore a brief history of the Socorro Land Grant, five-generation pedigree charts for each of my four grandparents, and a series of vignettes. These stories highlight the connections between the Torres and Baca families, the role of the Cabeza de Baca lineage in the Socorro Land Grant, the Montoya family as defenders of the grant, and the legacy of María Guadalupe Torres, a matriarch whose descendants include many prominent members of the García and Baca families of Socorro.

Lastly, within the descendant narrative, you will find transcriptions of census records, obituaries, and even short family histories. It's not just names and dates - I flesh out many of these families' stories.

The book is over 550 pages, with extensive citations, and a name index of over 3,000 people. I have been researching my family for over 25 years, which includes many founders of the land grant. You will find this book to be the most extensive Socorro Hispanic family history, and I'm just beginning! There are another 31 founders who I will profile in subsequent volumes. 

When it is released, it'll look a little different from my proof copy: it'll have a green cover! The cost is $50, which is a bargain for a genealogy like this. If you are interested in New Mexico genealogy and history, you'll find this book to be just what you are looking for!