Blas Maria de la Garza Falcon

This site has information about my ancestor:
I am decended from Blas Maria de la Garza Falcon mentioned on this page
below.
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/GG/fga66.html

In the following page I am descended from Capt. José de Goseascochea, but
what is interesting to me is how he canceled the debt that Juan Jose de la
Garza Montemayor owed to the crown. King Carlos III gave all that land to
Juan Jose de la Garza! To me, that says there must be some relation to the
crown of Spain for those Garzas. I just wish I could find it.
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/GG/fganw.html

My ancestor Jose Salvador de la Garza was granted 200,000+ acres from the
King of Spain. I have found Garza listed on Buber's Basque web page. I know
I have some Basque heritage because my great grandmother on my mom's side
had the surname Arismendi. I know that name is of Basque origin and means
"mountain of the oaks."
Here is Buber's entry on Garza:
http://students.washington.edu/buber/Basque/Surname/G/garza.html

I can trace my ancestry in the new world back to the 1580's from a Marcos
Alonso de la Garza y Arcon who came to the new world from Spain. I do not
know his history or his family relations in Spain.

Here is a site that shows the connection of Blas Maria de la Garza Falcon to
Marcos Alonso de la Garza y Arcon:
http://www.caller.com/autoconv/laonda98/laonda8.html

This is going to sound kind of weird, but both my parents have the surname
Garza. My grandmother on my mom's side has the surname Tijerina, but if you
go back far enough, there are Garza Falcon's there.

I also know from the web that Blas Maria de la Garza Falcon's mother's name
was Beatriz de Villarreal. That name may have Sephardic ancestry and has a
yellow Star of David on the coat of arms:
http://members.aol.com/daniel5822/Coatofarms.html

Here is a letter my grandmother sent me this last weekend. It was written by
one of her relatives.

How long Have You Been In This Country

I have titled my short talk, How Long Have You Been In This Country, because
this is a question that I have gotten throughout the years. Other questions
have been Did Your Parents Come from Mexico? And, How Many Generations Of
Your Family Have Been In This Country? One FDAer told me to add, Are You
From Mexico?

When people ask me this, the first thing I think about is why are they
asking me this. The questions do not upset me, in fact, I like to be asked
that because then I can tell them that my family on both my father's side
and mother's side have been here for several generations and they are going
to be surprised when they hear what I have to tell them.

My ancestors were here when the territory was part of Spain. So my ancestors
were from what was called New Spain. Then Mexico got its independence from
Spain in 1821, so now my ancestors were from Mexico. Then Texas got its
independence from Mexico in 1836, so now my ancestors are from the Lone Star
State of Texas. Then Texas became part of the U.S. on December 29, 1845, so
now my ancestors from the U.S. of America.

I was born near Brownsville, Texas. My mother is 92 years, in good health,
and is living near Brownsville, Texas. My father passed away last year at
the age 92 and he owned about 100 acres of land right on the Rio Grande
River. This land came from Spanish Grants and my mother now owns this land.
This land was part of over 300 acres of land that my grandparents owned. My
mother also owns 125 acres close to Corpus Christi, Texas, and which also
comes from Spanish Grants.

In tracing my ancestors on my father's side, I am going to go back about 250
years to around 1745. At this time a Captain in the Spanish Army was sent to
explore the southern part of what is now South Texas.

His name was Blas Maria de la Garza Falcon and his wife was Catarina Gomez
de Castro. They had 3 children: Maria Gertrudis, Jose Antonio, and Juan
Jose. It is through Maria Gertrudis that I am following my ancestors.

Maria Gertrudis Falcon married Jose Salvador de la Garza. They had 2
daughters and 1 son: Francisca Xaviera, Maria Antonia Margarita, and Blas
Maria. In 1767 Jose Salvador de la Garza owned almost all of what is now
Cameron County with 284,414 acres.

One of his daughters, Francisca Xaviera de la Garza, married Jose
Goceascochea and they had 2 daughters, Estefana and Feliciana. Jose
Goceascochea was the highest ranking officer in the Spanish Cavalry
Mililtia. He was murdered in 1813.

One of his daughters, Feliciana married Juan Jose Tijerina and they had 8
children, one of them being Antonio. The others were Maria Narcisa de los
Dolores, Casimiro, Maria Eulalia, Maria Magdalena, Gertrudis, Miguel and
Carlos.

Antonio Tijerina(my great grandfather) was born in 1821 and he married
Catarina Cavazos and they had 4 children, one of them being Tomas. The
others were Dolores, Miguel, and Santiago.

Tomas Tijerina(my grandfather) was married to Lucinda Baili Garcia, and they
had 10 children, one of them being Jose Tomas(this was my father). The
others were Hortencia, Dolores, Zoyla, Consuelo, Evangelina, Raul, Antonio,
Juan, and Eulalia.

Jose Tomas Tijerina married my mother Estefana Perez Gonzales in Premont,
Texas on May 30, 1929 and they had 4 children, one of them being Juan
Antonio. They others were Tomas Raul, Alberto Alfonso, and Elodia Tana.

Juan Antonio Tijerina married Lidia Flora Jimenez in Brownsville, Texas on
February 8, 1969 and they have 1 daughter, Lydia, born in Dallas on January
15, 1971.

Counting my generations, that is 8 generations. I have a boook of the
Tijerinas that lived and settled near Monterey, Mexico that go back to the
1600's, but I have not looked into that.

On my mother's side, my ancestors settled close to Corpus Christi, Texas and
they owned thousands of acres in each family. My granfather on my mother's
side owned over 2000 acres of land and like I stated before, my mother still
owns 125 of those acres.

I can trace my ancestors on my mother's side a few generations, but I would
rather tell you some interesting facts.

Education was and is very important in my family. Both of my parents and 3
of my grandparents were belingual. My father was a farmer and back in the
1930's he and 2 other farmers founded a school district. It is called Villa
Nueva Independent School District. There were no schools out in the country,
so somehow they got together, founded the school district, passed school
bonds, and had a school built about 2 blocks from where we lived. My father
then served on the school board for over 35 consecutive years.

On my mother's side, my grandfather, Hesiqulo Norberto Gonzales, graduated
from the University of Texas, but at that time it was called Austin College.
My grandparents had 4 daughters and one son. The son was sent to grade
school in Laredo, Texas and then to High School in Antonio. From there he
went to Texas A & M and then went on to Tulane University in New Orleans
where he graduated from the Medical School in Galveston. My uncle served as
an M.D. in France and Italy during WW2 sort of like the doctors in the TV
show M.A.S.H., but he told me it was ugly and not funny at all. Other
members of my family also served in the military, some in WW2, some in the
Korean War(including myself) and some in the Vietnam War.

I have a lot of interesting stories to tell about my family and it is a
large family, some of them I have not met. I want to end this talk by asking
you to think about my talk and if you see or meet a Hispanic you do not
know, do not ask How Long Have You Been In This Country. That person might
be related to me.

Thank You.

----- Original Message -----
From:
To:
Sent: Wednesday, June 02, 1999 12:00 AM
Subject: RE: Can you verify this information?