Fuerteventura: in search of past generations
Families, Parish Churches and Chapels
(2 - 11 June 2007)
Prior to arrival in Fuerteventura, our friend
Pablo had located the birth and marriage records for Gladys's
great-grandmother.
When Bárbara Quezada Soler was baptized in the parish of San Bernardo, city of Las Palmas, in 1865, the parish register provided the birthplaces of both parents and all four grandparents. Thus, we knew in advance that Bárbara's family were all from the island of Fuerteventura: on her father's side, from the parish of La Oliva; on her mother's side from Casillas del Ángel. We duly obtained permission from the vicariate to examine both sets of parish records.
As the work progressed, additional parishes were identified. All the places featured here were associated with the family, in one way or another.
To "visit" each church or chapel, please <click> on its placename shown in the map.
; "La Oliva, church")
:: La Oliva ::
From an early date, Spanish rule in Fuerteventura was exercised by the local military commander and his descendants, on a feudal model. Their residence, La Casa de los Coroneles, was located in the north of the island, making La Oliva the de facto capital until the last century. This military presence may help to explain the rather curious profession of tambor given to one of the ancestors. We found out that a tambor was the person in charge of sending the command signals and interpreting those of the enemy. Don't know exactly what the duties were during peacetime!
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Families: (RUIZ DE) QUESADA-ALVAREZ, ALVAREZ-FAJARDO, FAJARDO-FRANCES, FRANCES-BALDIVIA, FAJARDO-DEL CRISTO, MARTIN?, BETANCOUR?, PLAYON?
; "Tefía, church")
::Tefía
::
A small village within the parish of Casillas del Ángel, not far from La Oliva. The SOLER family have lived here for at least three centuries. The people we met were extremely friendly, and we were fortunate to be taken to meet a local resident with this surname. She was an older lady, petite, wearing a traditional head-scarf to protect herself from the sun: when pulled back, her face showed a most beautiful pair of baby-blue eyes. This being the place of our female line, I wondered whether some of the xxx-grandmothers looked like her.
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Families: QUESADA-SOLER, SOLER-ACOSTA, SOLER-MORIN, ACOSTA-AGUSTIN/MONROI, PEREZ-MACHIN, PEREZ-NUÑEZ, MACHIN-CERDEÑA, MACHIN-BERNAL, ACOSTA-DE BARRIOS, CERDEÑA-SAAVEDRA, NUÑEZ-CABRERA, CERDEÑA-DE BARRIOS, RAMOS-ORTIZ, GARCIA-BERNAL, FRANCISCO-DE BARRIOS
; "Casillas del Ángel, church")
::
Casillas del Ángel ::
A small town, south of La Oliva. Many of my ancestors belonged to this Parish, and many of the important events of their lives took place here, even if they lived somewhere else. We could imagine people traveling from Tefía to come and baptise the children, celebrate weddings or bring their dead to rest. The parish registers go back "only" to around 1790: even then, we didn't have time to see them all.
; "La Antigua, church")
:: La Antigua
::
We visited the parish archives here to examine the Betancuria registers, which were used prior to the creation of parishes of La Oliva (ca.1711) and Casillas del Ángel (ca.1790). One finding that needs to be researched further is that of Joan SOLIER, 1713: he could be our oldest ancestor so far for the SOLER line. We also transcribed a couple of death entries for early Tefía, and were happy to find the SOLER-ACOSTA marriage (Bárbara's greatgrandparents, married in 1784).
; "Pájara, church")
:: Pájara ::
A small town, with a quaint name (female bird in Spanish). Thanks to the Sisters of María Auxiliadora, custodians of the Parish archives, we were able to see the registers. We needed to! for this is the parish of the Quesadas: our Bárbara's paternal line. We don't yet know why, but in the early 1700's our ancestors Quesada came from Gáldar (Gran Canaria), and settled in nearby Tuineje and Toto. Later we found out that Bárbara and Miguel were distantly connected through the Quesada line (6th cousins, once removed).
; "Toto, church")
:: Toto ::
A small village within the parish of Pájara, located in a narrow valley lying to the east. Our research revealed that by 1764 our ancestor Ruiz de Quesada married to local woman and started his family there. We descend from his second wife, who had been born in Tuineje. An interesting detail was the name of a street, Berriel Suárez: a last name which got connected to our family later, in Uruguay.
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Families: (RUIZ DE) QUESADA-AVILA, (RUIZ DE) QUESADA-SILVERA, AVILA-PEREZ/DE FUENTES, SILVERA-HERNANDEZ