Saez

Ambrosio Sáes (ONMF: 100) was the father of Agustín Sáes and Juan Gañán (RCR: 526-27). Apparently, Gañán was a mestizo raised as an Indian. Gañán was living with the Pueblo Indians at Santa Fe when Vargas, with his troops and colonizers, arrived at the city in December 1693.

Agustín Sáes (ONMF: 100, 278 & 390) was married three times. His first wife was Leonor de Herrera and his second wife was Antonia Márquez as identified by Chávez. His third wife was Pascuala Vásquez (ONMF: 390), widow of Juan Romero, by whom he had at least one son, Lázaro Sáez (also known as Sáenz). Lázaro was married at the church of San Juan de los Caballeros on 1 December 1731 with Juana de Castro, named as a daughter of Cristóbal de Castro [see Rodarte] and Bernarda Gamboa from Río Arriba. In this record, the names of Lazaro's parents are given.

Lázaro Sáez and Juana de Castro appear to have settled at Santa Fe. The 1750 census of Santa Fe lists Juana de Castro without her husband who was perhaps deceased by this time. In her household were these children, presumably hers by Lázaro Sáes: Antonia Paula [Sáes; perhaps the person of this named married with Luis Pineda and a resident of Santa Fe], Santiago [Sáes], Manuel [Sáes], and three other children not named. This family may be one of two progenitors of the Sáes family of Santa Fe.

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The other Sáes family of Santa Fe in the eighteenth century was that of Francisco Sáes and María Catarina Apodaca Sena, married August 14, 1737, Santa Fe. The 1750 census of Santa Fe lists this couple with five children, all unnamed. In 1790, María Catarina Apodaca was listed as a widow of Santa Fe. Her age was given as sixty-seven (born circa 1723) and her racial status was given as "color quebrado" (broken color, indicating a mixed ancestry, most likely including African or mulatto). Listed in households immediately beside here were: Simón Sáes, español, age 29, farmer, and married with Margarita Lobato, española, age 21; Matías Sáes, español, age 36, a carpenter married with Rosalía de Ocaña, color quebrado, age 31; and María de la Luz Sáes, española, age 45, a widow with grown children.

The baptismal records for the Parroquia of San Francisco in Santa Fe verify the names of three children of Francisco Sáes and María Catarina Apodaca Sena: Matías Sáes, baptized 24 February 1750; José Domingo Sáes, baptized May 22, 1756; and Miguel Sáes, baptized May 10, 1759.

Researcher: José Antonio Esquibel

Sources: John L. Kessell, Rick Hendricks & Meredith D. Dodge, To the Royal Crown Restored, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 1995: 526-27; AASF: Roll # 29 (San Juan Marriages, 1726-1776) & Roll #15 (Santa Fe Baptisms, 1747-1814); Virginia L. Olmsted, Spanish and Mexican Censuses of New Mexico, 1750-1830: 3, 4; Virginia L. Olmsted: New Mexico Spanish and Mexican Colonial Censuses, 1790, 1823, 1845: 56

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Promising Lead

Ambrosio Sáez (ONMF: 100) was a native of the Valle de San Bartolomé, Nueva Vizcaya, and was born circa 1640-42. This man had a son named Agustín Sáez who returned to New Mexico in 1693 after the thirteen-year exile at Guadalupe del Paso.

Among the collection of the Parral Archives, there is a letter dated July 7, 1646 written by a Capitán Ambrosio Sáez, "vecino y labrador en el Valle de San Bartolomé," in which he declared he was the caretaker of the belongings of General Cristóbal de Ontiveros, apparently deceased at the time. Sáez mentioned the widow of Ontiveros was doña María Sáez, perhaps a relative of his (1645B, fr. 553).

On 4 July 1646, at San José de Parral, Ambrosio Sáez registered a mine "que esta de quarenta leguas deste Real camino carril de carros del Nuevo Mexico azia el oriente y pasando el ultimo bando del Rio de Sacramento.” He titled his mine "la mina de Sacramento." In this claim he mentioned the name of a son, Juan Sáez, and he mentioned a brother, "Capitán Antonio Saes, mi hermano" (1645B, fr. 556-557).

Researcher: José Antonio Esquibel

Sources: El Archivo de Hidalgo del Parral, 1645B, frames 553-557 (Carta del Capitán Ambrosio Sáez vecino y labrador en el Valle de San Bartolomé, July 7, 1646), microfilm copy from the collection of the New Mexico State University Library, Las Cruces, NM.