Sanchez de Iñigo

People researching the origins of Sánchez de Iñigo family of New Mexico (ONMF: 279-280) have been stumped for many decades. New evidence extracted from seventeenth century records offers a promising breakthrough in the genealogy of the Sánchez de Iñigo family. The findings are presented in “The Sánchez de Iñigo Puzzle: New Genealogical Considerations” by José Antonio Esquibel, and are published in El Farolito (Vol. 6, No. 4, winter 2003: 8-17), with attention to citation of original sources. 

Here are a few excerpts from the article: 

The genealogy of the Sánchez de Iñigo family of seventeenth-century New Mexico has been a puzzle for researchers interested in uncovering the paternal origins of this distinct New Mexican family. Fray Angélico Chávez identified the progenitor of the Sánchez de Iñigo family as Juana López, the mother of Jacinto Sánchez de Iñigo and Pedro Sánchez de Iñigo, and presumably the mother of doña Francisca Sánchez de Iñigo. A pre-nuptial investigation record for Pedro referred to his mother, Juana López, and did not offer any clues as to the identity of his father. Similar records for Jacinto Sánchez de Iñigo and doña Francisca Sánchez de Iñigo do not identify the names any parents for these individuals. The origin of the Sánchez de Iñigo surname used by these individuals has stumped New Mexico genealogical researchers for the past fifty years, particularly because there have not been any records extracted for a seventeenth-century settler of New Mexico with this surname. As such, it has been thought that the Sánchez de Iñigo children were perhaps the children of one or more men living in New Mexico during the latter half of the 1600s. Now, recent research into seventeenth-century Inquisition records pertaining to New Mexico has lead to uncovering records for a man who was accused of “living scandalously” with a woman named Juana López de Aragón in 1663, and the surname of this man’s mother was Sánchez de Iñigo.

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The name of the father of the Sánchez de Iñigo siblings has remained a mystery since the publication of Origins of New Mexico Families fifty years ago. Fray Angélico Chávez speculated that the Sánchez de Iñigo children were fathered by a member of the Domínguez de Mendoza family and that Juana López “could well have been” a daughter of Diego López del Castillo. This statement has led some researchers to identify Juana López as Juana López del Castillo. As discussed below, records indicated that Juana López may instead have been a member of the López de Aragón family. Also, recent research into Inquisition records of New Mexico has uncovered information that Juana López de Aragón had an affair with a man whose maternal family surname was Sánchez de Iñigo.

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One friar, fray Francisco Muñoz, was denounced by Diego Pérez Romero, who in August 1663 stated that Muñoz “vivido siempre muy escandolossamente” (“always lived very scandalously”) with a daughter of Capitán Diego de Trujillo referred to as ‘La Donosa’ and her first cousin doña Juana López de Aragón.    ………….Fray Francisco Muñoz, who at age eighteen took the habit of San Francisco on December 20, 1646, in Mexico City, was as a native of Puebla de los Ángeles, New Spain, and a son of Jacinto Muñoz doña Madalena Sánchez de Iñigo.

The Sánchez de Iñigo article includes other evidence that supports the consideration of Fray Francisco Muñoz and doña Juana López de Aragón as the progenitors of the Sánchez de Iñigo family, and includes the marriage record of the paternal grandparents and names of the paternal great-grandparents of the Sánchez de Iñigo children of New Mexico.

Fray Francisco Muñoz was a native of Puebla de los Ángeles, Nueva España, born circa 1629, and a son of Jacinto Muñoz and doña Madalena [Magdalena] Sánchez de Iñigo. The surname of Sánchez de Iñigo is quite uncommon, as is the given name of Jacinto. It is possible that any children of fray Franscico Muñoz may have been given his maternal surname.

In the late 1600s and early 1700s the two sons of Juana López were named Jacinto Sánchez de Iñigo (b.ca 1663) and Pedro Sánchez de Iñigo (b.ca 1673-1674), and Francisca Sánchez de Iñigo was apparently their sister. The given names that appear in the early generations of Sánchez de Iñigo family of New Mexico —such as Jacinto, Pedro, Francisca, Francisco, and Juana— are also found in the genealogy of fray Francisco Muñoz and doña Juana López de Aragón, which is in accordance with the tradition of naming children after immediate relatives.

Unfortunately, there are yet no archival records to fully confirm this familial relationship of the Sánchez de Iñigo family of New Mexico to the family of fray Francisco Muñoz. For now, few scatter fragments of critical information have been uncovered that serve as important pieces of the family puzzle. As such, the pattern of given names within the Sánchez de Iñigo family coupled with the distinctive surname of this family and the accusation of ‘scandalously living’ against fray Francisco Muñoz offer an argument for considering Muñoz as the father of the Sánchez de Iñigo siblings.

The following chart provides an illustration that lends support to what is proposed with regard to fray Francisco Muñoz as the progenitor of the Sánchez de Iñigo family. The information is provided to assist with further research.

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When María Luján (ONMF: 213 & 280), widow of Pedro Sánchez de Iñigo (279-280), recorded her last will and testament on 13 December 1734, she declared that during the course of their marriage they had a total of eleven children and were named in this order: Antonia, Manuela, Antonio, María, Olaya, Joseph [José], Juana, Lugarda, Figenia [Efigenia], Francisca Xaviela [Francisca Xaviera], and Xptoval [Cristóbal].

Of these children, only Lugarda was deceased at the time when the will was recorded. She also mentioned that her husband was deceased. María Luján gave the following possessions to her children:

A crucifix from Michoacán to Cristóbal.

A painting of San Pedro to Francisca Xaviela.

A small painting of San Isidro to Juana.

A copper jar for drinking water and an iron roaster to Figenia.

A "colchon escoplo y asuela," the iron brand, and a door from the bedroom to Joseph.

The window and "una fresada Blanca" to Francisca Xaviela.

"Una fresada pinta" to Manuela.

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In his compilation of The Spanish Archives of New Mexico, Vol. I, Ralph Emerson Twitchell catalogued a sale of land (SANM I: 828) from Pasqual Trujillo to Pedro Sánchez (ONMF: 279-280) in the area of La Cañada in 1713. In his book, Twitchell provides a translation of a document which he mistakenly attributed to Pedro Sánchez, the elder (Twitchell, The Spanish Archives of New Mexico, Vol. I, no. 828) and which appears to actually be in regard to his son Pedro Sánchez, the younger. The translated document is not part of SANM I: 828, instead it is part of a collection of documents under the Ramón Vigil Grant (SANM I, Roll #16, fr. 1474 - 1477). A closer look shows that the request of Pedro Sánchez with a family of twelve children and three orphan nephews was not that of the elder Pedro Sánchez who was dead by 1720, but that of another Pedro Sánchez, most likely his son and namesake, the younger. A royal land grant was given to this second Pedro Sánchez on 20 March 1747, and the boundaries of the property were given as: north—lands of the Indians of San Ildefonso; south—lands of Capitán Andrés Montoya; east—the Rio del Norte [Rio Grande]; west-the Sierra Madre [Jemez Mountain Range].

Additional documents pertaining to the Ramón Vigil Grant verify that the property of this second Pedro Sánchez was purchased by Francisco Sánchez on 15 August 1749. Over a hundred years later, a man identified as Antonio Sánchez sold the grant to Ramón Vigil on 8 August 1857. At this later time, the boundaries of the property were regarded as: north—the Rio de los Ayuages and the Pueblo of San Ildefonso; south—the Río de los Frijoles; east—the Rio Grande; west—the top/highest part of the Sierra Madre [Jemez Mountains].

Researchers: José Antonio Esquibel and James Moore

Source: Gov. Prince Papers, Ramón Vigil Grant, Will of María Luján, 13 December 1734; Spanish Archives of New Mexico (SANM), Series I, no. 828, and Roll #16 (frs. 1473-1496); Ralph Emerson Twitchell, comp. The Spanish Archives of New Mexico: Compiled and Chronologically Arranged…(Cedar Rapids, Iowa: Torch Press, 1914): no. 828.

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Pedro Ygnacio Sánchez and María Manuela Vigil had a son, Juan Ygnacio Sánchez, born circa 1770, who married María Guadalupe Valdez on 25 June 1790 in Abiquiu. According to this prenuptial investigation Juan Ygnacio died and his widow was seeking to remarry (Andrés Trujillo and María Guadalupe Valdez, Santa Cruz de la Cañada and Pojoaque, 11 Oct – 22 Dec. 1806, AHAD 362, f 393-98).

Andrés Trujillo, thirty-seven, widowed of Juliana Peña, was the legitimate son of the late Pedro Trujillo and Josefa Gómez del Castillo and a citizen of the Pojoaque jurisdiction. María Guadalupe Valdez, twenty-six, was the widow of Juan Sánchez and legitimate daughter of Bernardo Valdez and María Manuela Suazo, citizen of the jurisdiction of Santa Cruz. They were related in the fourth degree of affinity on the basis of copula ilicita. María Guadalupe was a poor widow with four small children and living on the meager means her late husband left her. Andrés would be able to provide for her. The couple asked that the proceedings be forwarded to Father Castro, María Guadalupe’s priest. Andrés stated that he had had carnal relations with her before he knew they were related. Having learned about the relationship six months earlier, they had abstained from further sexual relations. They had not had sex to facilitate a dispensation.

Witnesses for Andrés were Paulín Espinosa, age sixty-two, who explained that María Guadalupe’s children was an eight year old boy and the other three younger girls, and Cristóbal Archuleta.

Juana Luján                                        Siblings           María Luján

Francisco Gómez (del Castillo)          1st Cousins      Figenia Sánchez

Josefa Gómez                          2nd Cousins     Pedro Ignacio Sánchez

Andrés Trujillo                       3rd Cousins     Juan Sánchez

Father Martínez de Arellano forwarded the proceedings to Father Castro in Santa Cruz. On 26 October 1806, Father Castro questioned María Guadalupe Valdez. She stated that she had lived in that area for twelve years and for fifteen years in the Abiquiu area.

Witnesses: Joaquin García, age sixty-six and citizen of the Santa Cruz jurisdiction; Antonio Ascencio Lucero, age sixty-three and citizen of the Santa Cruz jurisdiction.

Father Castro forwarded the proceedings to Durango on 28 October 1806. On 22 December, Vicar General Millán Rodríguez granted a dispensation.

Burial Certificates

In Santa Cruz on 4 May 1798, Father Ortega buried Juan Sánchez, twenty-nine, husband of María Guadalupe Valdez.

On 2 September 1801, Father Hozio, interim priest of the Santa Fe presidio buried Juliana Peña, wife of José Andrés Trujillo, citizen of Pojoaque.

In the will of María Luján, María was the widow of Pedro Sánchez de Iñigo. In her will she listed her children among who was Efigenia Sánchez. This information confirms the identity of Efigenia Sánchez as a daughter of María Luján and Pedro Sánchez de Iñigo.

Researchers: Pat Sánchez Rau, John B. Colligan

Sources: John B. Colligan (compiler) and Rick Hendricks (editor), New Mexico Prenuptial Investigations From the Archivos Históricos del Arzobispado de Durango, 1800-1893, Río Grande Historical Collections, New Mexico State University Library, 2001: 53 (11 Oct – 22 Dec. 1806 AHAD 362, f 393-98).