Introduction: Contreras of Santiago De Pinos, Jalisco

Greetings all.

My name is Ricardo Contreras Infante. Genealogy has been a passion of mine for over five years. This all started back in 2010, when my paternal grandfather passed away. At the time of his death, I did not know how he looked nor what his name was. The same goes for my grandmother who died prior to me being born. After finding my father's birth certificate, which listed the names of my grandparents, great grandparents, and where they lived, I became interested in ancestry. After years of searching through every single microfilm in the San Sebastian Del Oeste archives on Familysearch.com, I was able to use this information to find the names of my grandparents's family. In 2015, I traveled to San Sebastian Del Oeste on my own to locate potentially family members. Despite not speaking Spanish well enough, I was able to track down my grandmother's last living sister, who also lead me to my grandfather's surviving siblings who now live in Mexico city. I take solace in that despite not meeting my grandparents, I got to know them through their family and through visiting the rancho.

Though I've barely opened an account here, I've actually been a frequent viewer of this site. I greatly appreciate the users here in the past who have posted very informative information here concerning genealogy for Jalisco and Aguascalientes.Through this website, I have wider grasp on things such as the Casta system used by the Spanish and the terms one has to be knowledgeable when reading records.

After years of research,I was able to trace my lineage back to Xptobal(Cristobal) De Contreras and Catharina Sanchez of Mascota, Jalisco. Both individuals were born in the late 1600s and fathered a son named Xptobal De Contreras Sanchez, who was born around 1702 and whom later went on to live in Santiago De Pinos in the San Sebastian Del Oeste municipality. Unfortunately, the records for Mascota only go to the 1800s. I also believe that Mascota may not have had a church in the 1700s as evident by all the people who lived there who would go to San Sebastian Del Oeste to get married and to baptist their children. However the most of the records for the early 1700s and the 1600s in San Sebastian are missing. It's my belief that they were lost in an earthquake in 1868 when the church was damaged.

Anyway, what got me to make an account here is what a user said in this topic: Gmotovar :"Este Alonso de Contreras sería el genearca de varios de ese apellido en la región (antigua Provincia de Avalos)" http://www.nuestrosranchos.com/en/node/20132?page=3

It is my belief that my oldest ancestor, Xptobal De Contreras of the village of Mascota, Jalisco, is possibly a great great grandson of the Conquistador. Alonso De Contreras Lerma. This conclusion is based on the on what Gmotovar said as well as researching the whereabouts of Alonso known descendants whom lived in areas like Autlan, Cocula, Zacoalco, Tljaomulco, Tecolotlan, and Sayula. All these locations are very close to Mascota.

If anyone can confirm that Alonso is the ancestor of the Contreras family members, who settled in Western Jalisco in the early 1600s, that would be greatly appreciate.
If anyone can give me any hints on where to look for baptism records for people in Mascota for the late 1600s, I would be very grateful.

Thanks
Ricardo