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Is it OK to ever consider crossed out information as legit?


By Steve G. Apodaca - Posted on 28 November 2012

A while ago, I found out that my ggg-father Francisco Bonal is listed as "hijo de padres no conocidos"(parents unknown) in both his marriage certificate and matrimonial information. I haven't been able to find his baptism, so I started looking at his children's baptisms for clues. Interestingly, I found that some of their godparents had the surname Bonal. That led me to the marriage of Felix Santiago Cabrera and Maria Josepha Bonal (godparents of the youngest of Francisco's child).

I researched this couple, suspecting that Maria Josepha Bonal might be related to my ggg-father, and guess what I found on her, she's also "hija de padres no conocidos" (parents unknown). Well, that disheartened me a little because I couldn't prove anything. However when I looked at their matrimonial information, I found a letter that the priest wrote about the couple. In that letter, he still writes that Maria Josepha Bonal is daughter of unknown parents and there's something crossed out after that statement. When I zoomed into the image, I was able to read what the priest tried to cross out: "criada en la casa de Nicolas Bonal y de Juana Maria Perez" (raised in the house of Nicolas Bonal and Juana Maria Perez). Here's the link to this image if you want to read it: https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-18698-24217-39?cc=1874591&wc=12511758

Interestingly, this couple, Nicolas Bonal and Juana Maria Perez, are also the godparents of another of my ggg-father's children. And also, they appear as the godparents on Maria Josepha Bonal's marriage. Did the priest just try to cross out a mistake he wrote? Were they really the step parents of Maria Josepha Bonal and the priest decided, after writing the names, that that was too much information? I hope my message was not confusing. There's enough proof that all these people knew each other. I understand that there's no proof for what I'm about to write, but I have a feeling that my ggg-father Francisco Bonal got his surname from this crossed out couple. No, I'm not writing this on my family file yet, but I can't stop thinking about this.

What do you think?

Steve in NC.