Genealogy Report: Descendants of Bachiller Don Diego de Terrazas
Descendants of Bachiller Don Diego de Terrazas
1.BACHILLER DON DIEGO1DE TERRAZAS was born Abt. 1460.
Notes for BACHILLER DON DIEGO DE TERRAZAS:
Bachiller Don Diego de Terrazas.
According to Esquibel in his book, The Spanish Recolonization of New Mexico, "The earliest individual with the Terrazas surname in Nueva Espana (Mexico) was Don Francisco de Terrazas, a Conquistador who came with Herman Cortes. Prior to joining with Cortes, he attained the rank of Captain by participation in other New World expeditions. He a native of the town of Fregenal, Spain, where he was born circa 1489 to Bachiller Don Diego de Terrazas.
In 1518, at about the age of twenty-nine, he came to Cuba where he encountered Hernan Cortes. The name of Francisco's first wife is not known but he had four sons and a daughter from this union. Then, in 1532 he married Dona Anta de Castro in Mexico City and within fifteen years of marriage they had three sons and a daughter. In addition, Francisco was known to have had one natural son and two natural daughters.
There is no documentation connecting him to the first Gallegos to come to New Mexico. The real mystery is why and where the Gallegos part came in.
Robert Himmerich y Valencia in his book, The Encomenderos of New Spain, lists Francisco de Terrazas as from Fregenal de la Sierra which is in the Maestrazgo LEON, a sparsely populated mountainous region in southern Extremadura. Francisco de Terrazas according to Robert Himmerich y Valencia, is a relation of Cortes.
Extremadura is an entirely different region than Galicia. Extremadura is in Central Spain while Galicia is in the Northern Part of Spain, and has an entirely different history and make up than Galicia.
Assuming that Luis GALLEGOS (GALLEGO) de Terrazas is the grandson of Francisco de Terrazas opens up the question where the GALLEGOS (GALLEGO) came from since Francisco de Terrazas was from Extremadura not Galicia where the Gallegos or GALLEGOS (GALLEGO) name is suppose to have originated.
It is with sadness and no pride that I may be Francisco de Terrazas' descendant. After the destruction by Cortes and his men of the Aztec empire, Cortes created the Encomienda awarding them to his men. According to The Encomenderos of New Spain, the encomienda, "...was a grant to a Spaniard of the Indians of a prescribed indigenous policy, who were to provide the grantee (encomendero) tribute in the form of commodities and service in return for protection and religious instruction (neither of which were given, in many cases)."
To summarize in plain english, "I am giving you a huge piece of land that has many Indian men, women, and children. You can use them free of charge for whatever you want. With their toil, you can build yourselves as many castles as you desire, and you can have as many children as you want from any many Indian woman as you want, etc."
Francisco de Terrazas did have several natural children as many of Cortes' men that were given encomiendas. I find it highly unlikely that the mothers of these children were Spanish women which leaves only one option.
Internet site: http://members.aol.com/josegallegos/josegallegos/GallegosFamilyHistory/rr01/rr01_001.htm
Parentage
The practice of identifying individuals with their parents, especially their fathers was almost universal.In Spain, as in other lands, a short hand method of showing one's parentage was developed by adding an es, as, is, or os (common to Portuguese surnames) or an ez, az, is, oz (common to Castilian or Spanish surnames) to the end of the father's name.Hence "Juan, hijo de Rodrigo" (John, son of Rodrigo) became "Juan Rodriguez" (John Roderickson) in Spain and "Juan Rodrigues" in Portugal. These surnames are now called patronymic surnames and some typical examples are: "Mendez" (son of Mendo), "Alvarez" (Alvaro), "Gonzalez" (Gonzalo), "Ortiz", (Ortun), "Ibañez" (Iban), Jimenez (Son of Ximena).
Geographical location
While patronymic surnames (Rodriguez, Alvarez, etc.) are the most common Hispanic surnames, geographical surnames, comprise the greatest number of individual Hispanic surnames.The many towns, villages, fortresses, hills, bodies of water, valleys, mountains, and regions were a very rich source of surnames.
For instance, a man by the name of Ricardo living in the town of Lugo, might be called "Ricardo de Lugo" or if he lived in or near caves "Ricardo de las Cuevas".Names like "Vasco" (Basque) or "Vasquez" (son of a Basque) might indicate nationality as well as place of birth. Surnames like "Ebro", "Duero" and "Sosa" refer to the names of rivers. "Torre" and "Torres" refer to towers and "Castillo" to a castle, "Cuesta" and "Llanos" to a hill and a valley, "del Mar" to the sea, "Costa" and "Acosta" to the coast, etc.
Terrazas, Francisco - Father: Diego de Terrazas. Settled in Mexico City. A son came from Spain and married the daughter of the Conquistador Bernardino de Santa Clara, Maria Gutierrez. Francisco married Ana de Castro (a widow with 5 children) and they had 3 sons and a daughter. A namesake son became a poet. Francisco also had 3 natural children. A daughter married: Sebastian Vazquez. Grandsons: Francisco, Luis and Pedro de Terrazas. Natural grandsons: Hernando de Terrazas,
Diego Marquez and Hernando de Castro. With natural great grandsons being Hernan Gutierrez de Terrazas and Cristobal de Aguilar.
Source Site:http://members.tripod.com/~GaryFelix/index4.htm#Terrazas
Child of BACHILLER DON DIEGO DE TERRAZAS is:
| 2. | i. | FRANCISCO2DE TERRAZAS, b. Abt. 1489, Fregenal de la Sierra, Maestrazgo Leon, Espana; d. Abt. 31 Jul 1549. |