Paredes
María de Paredes
María de Paredes, wife of Felipe Montoya, is a common ancestor for many people with deep family roots in New Mexico. There are still no known records that confirm the names of her parents and very few historical documents to tell us about her life. What we know is that her name appears in eighteenth-century prenuptial investigation records preserved in the Archives of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe regarding her children.
María de Paredes was a native of New Mexico most likely born around or after 1660 and was living in New Mexico when she married Felipe de Montoya prior to 1680. Felipe de Montoya, a native of New Mexico, was born circa 1652 (Fray Angélico Chávez, Origins of New Mexico Families, 78). By 1680 he and María had four sons whose names are not known.
She escaped the Pueblo Revolt with her husband and children, their lives drastically altered by the events of the uprising (Charles Wilson Hackett, Revolt of the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico, Vol. I: 140). In exile they settled at El Paso del Norte and on September 26, 1681, Felipe Montoya received payment that was made to settlers. He declared he was twenty-nine years old and married and he was described as being of good stature, slender, with an aquiline face, scarred by smallpox, and having a thick beard (Hackett, Revolt of the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico, Vol. II: 110-111).
Clement Montoya, a son of Felipe Montoya and María de Paredes, indicated he was born in 1681 (AASF, DM 1701, no. 3, Santa Cruz, in which Clemente gave hos age as 20 when he sought to marry Josefa Luján).
In 1684, Felipe Montoya was listed as a a resident of the jurisdiction of Corpus Christi de Isleta in the jurisdiction of El Paso del Río del Norte with "su esposa," his wife, whose name was not recorded, but it is assumed his wife was María de Paredes (Archivo General de la Nación, México Provincias Internas 37, expedientes 5-7, folio 203v, Correspondencia de Domingo Gironza Petris de Cruzate, gobernador de Nuevo México, 1684-1685).
Curiously Felipe Montoya and his wife, María Domínguez, were padrinos for a child baptized at Guadalupe del Paso on January 8, 1685 (John B.Colligan, "Spanish Surnames Found in the First Book of Baptisms of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe del Paso del Norte, 1662-1688"). Since we know that Felipe Montoya was married with María de Paredes between the years 1681 and 1692, it appears that María de Paredes was also known as María Domínguez. Thus, it was reasonable for Fray Angélico Chávez (ONMF, 78 and 85) and others to consider that María de Paredes was a daughter of Álvaro de Paredes and doña Damiana Domínguez de Mendoza.
There is no information to confirm that María de Paredes survived the twelve-year exile to eventually return to New Mexico in 1693, but she was apparently still living in 1692, the approximate year of birth of her son, Antonio Montoya who gave his age as twenty-six in 1718, indicating he was born circa 1692 (Fray Angélico Chávez, “New Mexico Roots, Ltd.,” 1276; Archives of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, Roll 61, DM 1718, November 14, no.20 for Antonio Montoya and Juana de Medina). The prenuptial investigation dated November 1718 for Antonio Montoya and Juana de Medina identified his parents as natives of New Mexico and both deceased.
The critical questions about the origins and the names of parents of María de Paredes remain unanswered. Fray Angélico Chávez wrote that she was a daughter of Álvaro de Paredes and doña Damiana Domínguez de Mendoza (Chávez, ONMF: 85). This affiliation appeared to be supported by a record indicating that Felipe Montoya and his wife, María Domínguez, who were the godparents of an orphaned child named Pasqual baptized at Guadalupe del Paso Church on January 8, 1685. (John B. Colligan Colligan, “Spanish Surnames Found in the First Book of Baptisms of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe del Paso del Río del Norte, 1662–1688.”).
The use of the two surnames of Paredes and Domínguez is the only evidence that suggested support for the supposition that María was a daughter of Álvaro de Paredes and doña Damiana Domínguez de Mendoza. However, DNA evidence has drawn this conclusion into question.
An article by Denise Lovato-Duran presented findings of mtDNA data for direct female descendants of María de Paredes that trace with documentation to several people who tested their maternal DNA. Three lineages trace to María Montoya, wife of Cristóbal Martín and a daughter of Felipe Montoya and María de Paredes. One lineage published in the article traces to a woman María Montoya, born 1685, whose daughter was named Guadalupe Madrid, but it is not clear what source documentation exists to support this lineage, since it is known that Felipe Montoya and María de Paredes had only one daughter named María Montoya who was married with Cristóbal Martín.
The article is titled “The MtDNA of María de Paredes” and was published in the September 2016 issues of The New Mexico Genealogist (Vol. 55, No. 3). The mtDNA Haplogroup for direct female descendants of María de Paredes is B4’5, which is a Native American mtDNA originating in eastern and southeastern Asia and expanded into the North American continent from as long as 12,500 years ago.
Although there is a need for additional mtDNA evidence to further support the current findings, the current evidence draws into question the previous conclusion that María de Paredes was a daughter of doña Damiana Domínguez de Mendoza. This is because the maternal genealogy of doña Damiana traces back to Spain with documentation, as shown in this lineage:
Doña Leonor de Grimaldo, native of Puerta de Santa María, Andalucía, Spain, mother of
Leonor Francisca de Mendoza, native of the Ciudad de la Antigua Vera Cruz, New Spain, mother of
Elena de la Cruz (aka Elena Ramírez de Mendoza), native of the Ciudad de la Antigua Vera Cruz, New Spain, mother of
Doña Damiana Domínguez de Mendoza, wife of Álvaro de Paredes
Álvaro was an unfortunate victim of a lightning strike that ended his life in 1662 (Chávez, ONMF, 85). It has been assumed that before his untimely death he and doña Damiana were the parents of at least one child, María de Paredes, also known as María Domínguez, who married Felipe de Montoya.
The brief residency of Álvaro de Paredes in New Mexico spanned perhaps as many as five years or fewer, before his untimely death at the age of twenty-three in 1662. Born in February 1638 in Mexico City, Álvaro very likely came to New Mexico as a soldier in the company of his brother, fray José de Paredes (b.ca. 1631), in the late 1650s.
Another brother who came to New Mexico was Gonzalo de Paredes, born in June 1641, Mexico City. Very little is known about Gonzalo. He and his wife and five children were residents of New Mexico in 1680 and managed to escape the Pueblo Indian uprising in August 1680 and settled briefly at El Paso del Río del Norte. Unfortunately, the name of his wife and children are not yet known. He and his family left the El Paso region by 1682.
Could María de Paredes, also known as María Domínguez, have been a natural daughter of fray José de Paredes by an Indian woman? Or could she have been a daughter of Gonzalo de Paredes? It is also possible that she was a natural daughter of Álvaro de Paredes by an Indian woman.
The fact that María carried the Paredes surname, and that there were three Paredes men who could have been her father, and that she married well in her union with Felipe Montoya, informs us that she could very well have been a member of the Paredes family with roots in Mexico City and Spain.
Álvaro de Paredes
Alférez Álvaro de Paredes (ONMF: 85) was identified by Chávez as a son of don Esteban de Paredes and doña Beatriz Cortés. Don Estevan and doña Beatriz were married at the Catedral de México in Mexico City on 18 April 1633. Don Estevan was a native of Mexico City and a son of Álvaro de Paredes and doña Beatriz de Sotomayor. She was a native of Mexico City and a daughter of Juan Andrés de Zaldívar and Andrea Rangel.
Juan Andrés de Zaldívar and Andrea Rangel were residing at "Salaia" (Celaya) where their other daughter, doña Gerónima Rangel, was born. Doña Gerónima was married 13 February 1638, Catedral de México, with Cristóbal Rincón.
Don Estevan de Paredes and doña Beatriz Cortés had this other son: Estevan de Paredes, native of Mexico City, married 11 September 1668, Mexico City, Catedral de México, with Teresa de Figueroa.
Researcher: José Antonio Esquibel
Source: José Antonio Esquibel, "Genealogical Essays on Three Seventeenth-Century New Mexico Families: Paredes, López de Gracia, and Manzanares," in Nuestra Raíces (Journal of the Genealogical Society of Hispanic America), Vol. 6, No. 1, Spring 1994: 6-13
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Álvaro de Paredes (ONMF: 85) was baptized at the Sagrario de la Catedral de México, Mexico City on 23 February 1638. His parents were named as don Esteban de Paredes and doña Beatrís Cortés.
Researcher: Moonyean Hill
Source: Sagrario/Asunción Church, Mexico City, Bautismos de Españoles, 1627-1639, LDS microfilm #0035170.