Spanish Surnames For Indigenous Peoples

Guenter and others:
I do not know when the practice began of assigning Spanish names to the
indigenous populations in Mexico, but I wouldn't doubt if it happened from
the beginning of the missionary times, because that was their purpose, to
convert the "savages" to Catholicism. That is literally the term they used
in one baptism record I found for the late 1700's from the Mission Santa
Ysabel, Chihuahua, calling the mother and father of the child "savages of
the Apache Nation." The child's name was, of course, Josefa, and the
parent's were Jose and Maria, no last names. The entire book on baptisms of
the Huichol Indians of Huejuquilla El Alto for the late 1700's and early
1800's, were of only Spanish names, all Jose and Maria Valenzuela or
Gonzalez. A very common name used was Juan Nepomuceno and Maria de Jesus.
Given the fact that so many of the villages, pueblos, and ranchos had names
like Papagochic and Uruachic and Memelechic, etc., it is not too surprising
to learn that, when the indigenous person's real name is given, it also ends
in "chic."

I like what Alicia Carrillo said, that "it's the discovery of the new and
unknown" that is the real thrill of genealogy. She got it exactly right for
myself. I mean, all these people I am finding are dead, but piecing
together their lives, filling it out with the history and the geography,
brings it to life in my imagination. It is really fascinating to me and I
feel like I am an explorer, searching for each step on the path that my
ancestors once took and where it led them. To think that part of it
actually led to me, with my brown hair and my brown eyes and my olive skin,
sitting here typing a message to people in other countries, well, that is
amazing!

I am also doing my husband's family history research while I wait for
microfilms of Mexican records to arrive. It has added more interest to the
quest, in that, he is French and English, so I am making some interesting
discoveries that parallel my family ancestry in Spanish and German. Such
as, our own American history begins with the English, the French, and the
Spanish. There are many Spaniards that came to Louisiana, as we know from
history, but to find the same surnames in my husband's family history search
as my own is funny. Like the name, "Sosthene." That is the given name of
his French grandfather and great-grandfather, Sosthene Ardoin. Well, I have
found a few "Sostene's" in Guadalajara, though they are followed by Sanchez
or Vasquez, etc.

Yes, Mexico is a melting pot, part of the New World, just as the USA, with
people immigrating there from all around the world. The Chinese were
brought there to build for the Spanish just as they came to the United
States to do the same and, sadly, Africans were brought to be slaves in New
Spain, too.

Well, my granddaughter just woke up! Gotta go!
Adios, Ciao, Arrivederci, Bon Soir!
Corrine Ardoin
Santa Maria de la Isla de California