Happy Father's Day!

This Father's Day I am honoring my father
by blogging about his given middle name.

 Felipe Montoya Fajardo

It may seem odd to blog about my father's middle name but I grew up believing that Montoya was my paternal grandmother's maiden name. Early on in my ancestry research the first important ancestry discoveries was that my grandmother's name was not Josefita Montoya but in fact, Josefita Labadie. Her father, Captain Juan Labadie y Sanchez died when she was a child and her mother, Dorotea (Dolores) Chavez remarried Antonio Montoya. Antonio adopted her children and gave them his surname. I discovered this on a 1900 Puerto de Luna census taken by my grandmother's Uncle Lorenzo Labadie. The Labadie family was a prominent French family in New Mexico at that time. My grandma Josefita passed away when my dad was only 3 years old, during the 1918 Spanish Influenza. Sadly, the keeper of the family heirlooms and records was gone. I had never even thought about what a gift it was to have this photo of my father that was taken before his mother died. 

Baby Felipe Montoya Fajardo in 1915

From what I have gathered, my dad was raised largely by aunts and uncles, mainly those in the adopted Montoya family. My mother would mention the Labadie family in passing but I didn't know how we were relate to the them. Meanwhile, my father remained very close to his cousin Prudencio Joe (Lynchie) Montoya. He and his family lived in Texhoma and visited us in Amarillo often, now I know why they were much more like brothers. All these decades later, I am realizing the reasons for some of our family dynamics while uncovering layers of family history. My quest for family knowledge has turned me into an amateur historian. My original goal of repairing generational dysfunction by discovering the traumas that had occurred through the ages was hitting very close to home, but that is another blog.

Felipe Montoya Fajardo during WWII

The Montoya surname is of Spanish origin.
Derived from the Spanish word "monte"
which translates to "hill."
Montoya families lived in the mountainous
Basque region in northern Spain.

I've spent months combing through genealogy websites trying to connect the dots from one Montoya to another, meanwhile getting sidetracked by so much other data and coming to the realization that there are closer links to the Montoya surname on my mother's side of the family. I just discovered a very important player in of the Montoya surname. 

Bartolomé de Montoya

He is the progenitor of the Montoya surname which is firmly established in New Mexico and was my 8th great grandfather in my maternal grandfather's lineage.

Bartolomé de Montoya was born in Cantillana in the province of Andalucía, Spain in 1572, the son of Francisco de Montoya and Maria Lopez. At the age of 28, he was the Alferez Mayor (Trusted Assistant to the King) As a Spanish Conquistador, he escorted a band of friars from Zacatecas to Santa Fe, New Mexico on December 24, 1600. He brought with him with his wife Maria de Zamora, an Aztec Indian the daughter of Pedro de Zamora, the Mayor of Oaxaca. She was born in about 1575. They had been married in in Tezcoco, Mexico. They were a part of the second Onate expedition, whose colony consisted of 65 settlers. Bartolome and Maria brought with them their 5 children, Francisco, Diego, Jose, Lucia and Petonia. They also brought with them 25 servants, cattle and equipment needed to begin a new life in New Mexico. 

At this time, New Mexico was under the Spanish flag. ALL Montoya families from New Mexico descend from Bartolomé de Montoya. I can't even tell you how excited I was to discover this information. 

Bartolomé de Montoya died in 1609 in Santa Fe South, New Mexico, at the age of 37, and was buried at the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Bartolomé de Montoya
Buried at the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi
Santa Fe, New Mexico

This is the most direct lineage to Bartolomé de Montoya. It's on my mother's side of the family but I have 35 pages of Montoyas in my family tree so there are an abundance on both sides.

On my father's side of the family, even though my paternal grandmother did not carry the Montoya surname, Bartolomé de Montoya was my 9th great-grandfather in that lineage and again, you will find four notable progenitor's surnames.

And last but not least, I have THREE 4th great-grandmothers

on my mom's side who were Montoyas.

So my ancestry journey continues from my home base in Kyle, Texas. Living here has been such a blessing. It is remote enough that it is sometimes like living anywhere but Texas. It's just the right amount of seclusion and quiet. Alone time is peaceful. It’s not Texas in my little world … until I drive 20 miles north and then I am back in Austin. And that is a wonderful thing.