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Surprising surname changes with ancestors?


By V.Q.C. - Posted on 12 July 2011

Hi, I would like to share a quite funny, or surprising, discovery I have just made. On the marriage act of my third great-great grandfathers José Gerardo Tapia and María Josefa Gímenez on July 15, 1815; there was quite a tornado of changes in their surnames.

José Gerardo Tapia, a mulato from Aguacaliente, Cocula; was the legitimate son of José Antonio Placido Rodríguez and María Mauricia Tapia. So, his real name would have been José Gerardo Rodríguez Tapia.

But I am certain that he his my great-great grandfather Gregorio Tapia's paternal grandfather because family testimonies state that Gregorio was very much dark-skinned. So it might have been that José Gerardo changed his surname to Tapia for reasons yet unknown.

Second surname change is of his bride and then after wife María Josefa Gímenez, who was stated as the an Amerindian laborer woman of La Sauceda, the legitimate daughter of José Leonisio Gutiérrez and María Magsima (or Maxima) Ruelas. So her real name would have been María Josefa Gutiérrez Ruelas.

In the baptism of one of their sons Seberiano Tapia Villegas, Josefa's surname is changed as Villegas Jímenez, as it is stated that Seberiano's maternal grandparents were León Villegas and Macima (again, Maxima) Jímenez. So, Seberiano Tapia Villegas (a lobo or zambo, according to the cuadro de castas) son of Gerardo and Josefa, was if the surnames were actually authentic: Seberiano Rodríguez Gutiérrez.