Juan de Abila - Who was the father of Maria Alexandra de Abila?

Research note by Wesley Johnston, begun 10 July 2015, last updated 30 Apr 2018 (add URL; typo correction)

https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/tree/27355561/person/26055912827/media/9f164ed5-b9b6-4573-955b-427da6ab1f8d?_phtarg=fFG1248&msg=usy

Background

In the marriage record of Maria Alexandra DE ABILA, her parents are given as Juan DE ABILA and Josepha XIMENEZ. Ih her baptismal record, her parents are given as Juan de Alexandro DE ABILA and Josepha XIMENEZ.

At this time, I have not yet found the marriage record of Juan DE ABILA and Josepha XIMENEZ. So I still do not know who Juan's parents were.

This research note contains the evidence that I have found and my reasoning for the conclusions that I have reached. I state the conclusions first, so thar they are clear, even though they were reached only after finding and evaluating the evidence below.

Images of the Original Records

These are original records from the parish registers of Tlaltenango de Sanchez Roman.

1. 1743 Aug 20 - Marriage of Maria Alexandra de Abila and Antonio de Llams - https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-15257-12091-83
2. 1727 Mar 28 - Baptism of Maria Alexandra de Abile - == https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-15243-35988-99 AND https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-15243-35864-84 (the record starts at the bottom of one page and ends on the top of the next page)

Conclusions

1. The Juan DE ABILA baptized at Jerez, Zacatecas, 13 Jun 1694 was NOT the father of Maria Alexandra DE ABILA.
2. The Juan DE ABILA MALDONADO married to a Josepha XIMENEZ and having children at Tlaltenango, Zacatecas, a few years before Maria Alexandra's birth is probably Maria Alexandra's father.
   

Candidate Records

In searching for the right Juan DE ABILA, I first encountered two candidates in the FamilySearch indexes.

The first was in the index of Mexico baptisms, limiting the search to Zacatecas as the birthplace and the birth date from 1680 to 1700:

• 1694 Jun 13 - Inmaculda, Jerez - Juan, son of Onofre DE ABILA and Fransisca DE LERMA (Image: == https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-15671-65844-43) - NOTE: The index actually gives the mother's surname as DE PERMA, which is not what the record shows.

The second was in the same index of Mexico baptisms, where he appears as the father in two marriages:

• 1734 Jun 6 - Tlaltenango - marriage of Luis DE ABILA MALDONADO with Angela Gertrudis DE ABILA - as groom's father Juan DE ABILA MALDONADO (Image: https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-15257-13192-93)
• 1741 Jun 13 - Tlatltenango - marriage of Nicolas MARTINES with Petra Nolasco DE ABILA - as bride's father Juan DE ABILA MALDONADO (Image: https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-15257-11540-79)

Other Records of Children of Juan and Josepha

I was very concerned with the Jerez baptism. While it was at about the right time and was the right name, it was just too far away from Tlaltenango. And the road from Jerez to Tlaltenango goes right through Colotlan (in the state of Jalisco), which as a a major city was a likely desination of someone coming from Jerez and not a place to bypass. But I did record the baptism in my database, since it either was the right one or was one that I wanted to keep track of, so as to disambiguate it from the right one.

Since I could not find the marriage of Juan and Josepha nor a baptism that was definitely his, I sought more records for their children, in hopes that one of those records might give the names of Juan's parents or at least say where Juan came from. The records of three other children showed the same parents and birthplace as Maria Alexandra. Here are their baptisms, all at Tlaltenango:

• 1716 Apr 11 - Alexandro Joseph - https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-15256-2214-18
• 1729 Mar 25 - Juan Antonio Albino - https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-15243-40295-58
• 1734 Dec 8 - Juana Gertrudis - https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-15240-11952-36

I was also able to find Antonio's marriage record, also at Tlaltenango:

• 1747 Jan 14 - with Isabel Rosa DE ABILA, daughter of Joseph DE ABILA and BERNARDA DE ORTEGA - https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-15257-11193-86

The baptisms had no breakthrough information. But the marriage record did. Here is the transcription of the text of the marriage record:

En catorze de He[ner]o de Zeit'os Cuarenta y siete Case ...a Antt[oni]o de Abila hijo de Ju[an] de Abila y Josepha Ximenez con Isabel Rosa de Abila hija de Joseph de Abila y de Bern[ar]da de Ortega defunta Vez[in]os orig[ina[rios todos desta Felig[gresi]a precedieron

I have highlighted the breakthrough information: Juan DE ABILA was an original of (born at) Tlaltenango. So this definitely eliminated the Jerez Juan from further consideration.

The marriage also shed new light on Juan DE ABILA MALDONADO, since Antonio's wife Isabel Rosa was the sister of Angela Gertrudis who was the wife of Luis DE ABILA MALDONADO in the 1734 marriage. So it appeared that two pairs of siblings married each other, lending weight to Juan DE ABILA MALDONADO being the father of Maria Alexandra. And I am carrying him that way in my database.