Governor Gervasio Cruzat y Góngora assumed office in Santa Fe on 30 May 1731. His successor Enrique de Olivade y Michelena took over as governor sometime in late 1736. On 26 September 1736, the audiencia real in Mexico City delegated the duty of overseeing Cruzat y Góngora’s residencia (official government review of his tenure in office) to Juan Joseph Briceño y Zúñiga, as the other ministers nominated for the task were indisposed. Nearly a year later, on 26 August 1737, Don

My 14x-great-grandfather Juan Núñez de Valdés made his last will and testament in Navalcarnero, Spain (about 15 miles southwest of Madrid) on 4 June 1548. He named as his executors his wife Juana Martín(ez) and two of his sons, Alonso Martín de Valdés and Juan de Valdés. He named his parents and all of his children, which links his son Melchor, who emigrated to Mexico City, to the Valdés family of San Cucado, Asturias. Juan authorized his executors to sell any part of his est

Governor Francisco Cuervo y Valdés ordered a general muster of the presidial company of Santa Fe and of male citizens in early 1705, one month apart. The two lists provide a snapshot of the 174 men capable of bearing arms residing in the town that year. There were 100 soldiers registered at the presidio (including ten marked absent) and 74 other citizens passed muster (Juan Páez Hurtado appears on both lists and town council member Juan de Ulibarri is missing from the count).

When a colonial governor’s term ended, he and his officers would undergo a residencia—a formal review of their term of office. The viceroy would name a trusted official to conduct the residencia for a 60-day period, which included an inventory of official documents and the recording of witness testimony. Residencias provide insights into each governor’s administration, including who he named as his officers in each town and its jurisdictions and key civil and criminal matters

Thanks to Damien Aragon’s research on the lineage of Francisco Valdés Altamirano, we know he was the descendant of several of the founding families of Mexico City. In the April 2026 edition of the New Mexico Genealogist, Damien and I confirmed the Valdés lineage and traced it back further to the noble house of Valdés from San Cucao, Llanera, Asturias. I was fortunate to have the chance to visit the ancestral home of this prominent Asturian family on a trip to Spain in 2024.

The witnesses summoned in Antonio’s defense verified his family background. He was the son of Juan Ruiz de Alanís who had faithfully served His Majesty in the conquest of New Spain, and Antonio and Leonor Bello were cousins, as Antonio’s mother Leonor de Castañeda was the sister of Leonor’s mother Gracia Iñiguez de Valdosera (aka Valdeosera). Many of the witnesses had known both sisters since they had arrived from Spain with their other siblings. Regarding the conspiracy, sev

Sargento mayor Francisco Gómez Robledo was one of six prisoners sent from New Mexico to stand trial before the Inquisition in Mexico City in 1663. He was charged with making heretical statements and for practicing Judaism. Several scholars and researchers have described Gómez’s background and ordeal to varying degrees of detail, but now the full details of his story are available. UC Berkeley’s Cibola Project has published my transcription (in Spanish, with a Preface in Eng