Irish in Spain (XIII): Two C18th O'Brien Baptisms in La Coruña

At La Coruña's parish of San Jorge on 4 May 1745, the baptism of Elena Mónica María Luisa O'Brien took place. Her parents were Don Luís O'Brien and his wife Doña María Geraldino. The infant's godparents were Don Pedro Estafort and Doña Elena Estafort, (Stafford, I presume) both unmarried and residents of La Coruña's parish of San Nicolás.

This couple also had at least one more child baptised at the same church: a daughter, María Tomasa Catalina, christened on 7 March 1748. Her godparent was one Don Tomás Geynan, resident of El Puerto de Santa María (Cádiz).

SOURCES: Diocesan Archive of Santiago de Compostela, Baptisms of San Jorge in the city of La Coruña: register 1733-1747, P. 421V and 1747-1760, P. 32V

Genealogical Oddities (LXIII): A London Family's Child Baptised in C19th Asturias, Spain

At Mieres on 18th Feb 1847 was baptised Diego Ricardo, born 27th January preceding, legitimate son of Don Diego Williams and Doña Carlota Dove, residents of Oñón. Paternal grandparents Don Gabriel Williams and Doña Isabel Richards, stated to be natives of Lambeth, like the infant's father: maternal grandparents Juan Dove and Carlota Martin, parishioners - like the mother - of St Bride's Church, London.

Everyone in this record was accorded the polite form of address, Don/Doña. Their names are given in Spanish; in English they would be, I believe, James Richard Williams, James Williams, Charlotte Dove, Gabriel Williams, Elizabeth Richards, John Dove and Charlotte Martin.

Familysearch shows what seems to be the marriage of this couple: on 10 May 1843 at St Andrew's, Holborn, James Richard Williams, then aged 25, married Charlotte Dove, also aged 25.

James' presence in Mieres probably had something to do with the Asturian Mining Company, established in 1844. I wonder if the younger James has descendants and if they are aware of his 'Spanish origin'?

SOURCE: Archivo Histórico Diocesano de Oviedo, Mieres-San Juan Bautista, Baptisms 1839-1851

Curiosidades Genealógicas (LXII) - Un soldado aragonés en Galicia en 1820

En la parroquia de Santa María de Betanzos el 6 de mayo de 1820 Rafael Ferruz, Sargento Graduado del Regimiento de Voluntarios de Aragón, hijo de Antonio y de su mujer Rafaela Badules, vecinos de Cariñena; casó con Andrea da Pena y Cortes, hija de Vicente y Juana, vecinos ésta.

Habiendo trabajado ya durante muchos años con registros sacramentales de Aragón (y de Galicia), el apellido Ferruz en el márgen enseguida me llamó la atención al estar pasando páginas de un libro de Betanzos; incluso antes de leerme el asiento, pensaba que el novio sería aragonés.

FUENTE: Parroquia de Santa María de Betanzos, Matrimonios 1782-1835, Arquivo Histórico Diocesano de Santiago de Compostela

Irish in Spain (XII): Some Irish Marriages in C18th Sanlúcar de Barrameda

Until recently I was unaware that Sanlúcar de Barrameda was among the Spanish localities that hosted large Irish expatriate colonies in the early 1700s. I spotted the following entries in the course of some recent work in its parish registers:

Marriages 1715-1724:
P. 9V, 10 Dec 1715: Pedro Eston, native of the city of 'Dublino' in Ireland, son of Juan Eston and María Thaf, to Doña Catalina Narcisa de Ávila, widow of Bartolomé Álvarez, resident of this city.

P. 231, 31 May 1722: Don Ricardo Nugent native of Dublin, son of Don Thomas Nugent and Doña Isabel Nugent; to Dª Francisca Ortiz Marujan, legitimate daughter of Don Luis Jose Ortiz & Dª Andrea Marujan Contreras, natives and residents of this place.

Marriages 1724-1732
P. 143, 9 Aug 1728 Patricio Walsh legitimate son of Thomas Walsh & Margarita Walsh, to Catalina Fare d. of Gerardo Fare + Catalina Guarde natives of Ireland and residents of this city. Witnesses P. Fr. Carlos French of the Orden de Predicadores and Don Pedro Pichardo.

P. 211, 19 Jul 1730 Don Patricio French native of the city of 'Galbia' in Ireland, legitimate son of Don Gerónimo French & Doña Susana Ormsby; to Doña Mariana Croquer Daughter of Don Juan Ignacio Croquer y Luisa Alvarez, native and both residents of this place.

P. 116, 28 Aug 1727 Diego Esmith, son of Thomas Esmith and of Cathalina Brum, to Margarita Lorenza, daughter of Guillermo Lorenzo and of Ana Guinsi, native of the city of Dublin and all residents of this place. Witnesses Don Carlos French and Don Juan Grove, both Irish, clergymen.

Possible names and surnames intended by some of the above entries include: Easton, Farrell or Farrill, Ward, Smith, Lawrence (Guillermo Lorenzo = William Lawrence), Quincy or Quincey (Ana Guinsi = Anne Quincey). Galbia is, I presume, Galway.

SOURCE: Diocesan Archive of Asidonia-Jerez, Parish Records of Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Marriage Registers 20 and 21.

Malaga Registry Office Automates Its Delivery of... Rejection Letters to Genealogists

With so many civil servants having gone out of their way to keep providing citizens with government services during the pandemic, those who are letting down the side are even more conspicuous in their dereliction.

In the unsettling days of the second half of March 2020, no less, I still received a birth record posted on the 16th of the month, from a registry office in Asturias to which I had sent the request a few days before the entire country was put on lockdown. I fondly remember the small ray of hope its delivery represented amidst so much uncertainty.

And then there are... the others. I'm well aware that in many places, especially large cities, Civil Registry office staff were overwhelmed by the avalanche of recording duties the swelling death toll imposed upon them; in other cases, government agencies simply shut down altogether (I know of a certain office under the Ministry of Justice that only issued documents on one single day between mid-March 2020 and well into June). Almost simultaneously with the request mentioned above, on 10 March I requested a death certificate from the Civil Registry in Malaga city, providing the name and surname of the deceased and the exact date of his death; all from a source of the utmost credibility, his military pension file, the deceased having been an officer. I naïvely assumed that the "New Normal" trumpeted by the government as beginning 21 June would extended to all branches of the civil service and that I would in due course receive the certificate.

What I received at the end of July 2020 was a photocopied form letter summarily dismissing my request. The letter itself is a poorly written hotchpotch of negatives, in the spirit of piling one refusal on top of another, and implies that Judge María Dolores Moreno-Torres Sánchez ordered the Registry not to process any requests 'for genealogical purposes' at all, until further notice. OK, I thought, "new normal" will take a little longer to reach some areas than others. I shuffled this request on to the back burner, more waves of the pandemic came and went, and this April with the end of Spain's State of Emergency in sight - at least, in name - I came to the ridiculous conclusion that a further 9 months' gestation may finally have seen the Civil Registry of Malaga fit to send forth the requested certificate.

Wrong. Another request, another lightning-speed rejection, with an almost identical letter, but one which now makes it clear that they don't even bother to evaluate these requests, since I did NOT ask for a birth certificate (as their letter states) but rather a death certificate, I did NOT tell them why I was requesting it, and I did NOT lack sufficient details for the record to be located. Yet on the mere suspicion that the request may be for genealogical purposes, up pops their rejection form letter, as if incoming requests and outgoing rejections cross in some grotesque revolving door of bureaucratic disdain. Until when?

Given that the Order cited in their letter suggests that requests of this agency are not being evaluated on their individual merits but rather dismissed outright upon receipt, I might wonder if this could constitute prevarication; I'd hate to think it's something even worse, using the pandemic's dead as an excuse not to work.

Genealogical Oddities (LXI): Englishman John Berman's 1770 Málaga Marriage

At Málaga's church of San Juan on 20 August 1770, Juan Berman, native of the town of Castar or Castur 'in the Kingdom of England, having joined our Holy Mother Church', the son of Francisco Berman and María Berman, was married to María Ana de Arenas, daughter of Francisco de Arenas and Teresa García, natives of Málaga.

I assume the English family's original names would have been John Berman, Francis Berman and Mary _____ ; Castor near Peterborough seems one possible place of origin for them, though there may be others.

SOURCE: Archivo Histórico Diocesano de Málaga, parish of San Juan, Marriages 1769-1780 (Legajo 462), P. 35 v.

Why I'm not arranging any research travel in 2021

Short answer: I don't like boxing with one hand tied behind my back. I am still happy to discuss possible commissions not requiring travel, but my overnight bag will remain on the shelf this year.

Long answer: let's look at an actual case I worked on in January 2020, just before everything went wrong. I flew across Spain for 2 days - up to 8 hours - of family history research at a Diocesan Archive. 2 hours into the records, something was wrong: my client's family just did not come from the parish they had indicated. Not their line, not a sibling, not even a possible match with garbled surname order - nothing. A quick search in the online catalogue of another archive nearby yielded some possible clues: a State archive, it held wills and land records. It was only half an hour away and opened afternoons, so that afternoon I went over and requested a few of the records in their database, found the problem, then returned to the Diocesan Archive the next morning, requested the books of the correct parish, and successfully completed the research.

Under current restrictions this would be impossible.

* Even if the first archive were open - a big if, at this point in time - social distancing regulations require it to operate at 50% capacity, meaning that if before 10 researchers gained access in a day, now it is only 5.
* I would have had to request the appointment weeks or months ahead of time, and would probably not have been given one for a second consecutive day, as the backlog and waiting list are so long.
* Even if I had, I probably would not have been able to 'pivot' to the second Archive that afternoon, because I wouldn't have had an appointment for it.
* In any event, most Spanish archives now require researchers to request in advance the specific records that will be used, because after use, registers and bundles are quarantined for anywhere from 7 to 14 days before the next researcher is allowed to touch them. So I probably would not have been able to work with any records at the second archive, but even if I had, I still probably would not have been able to do anything on the second day of research, my focus having shifted to a different parish for which I had not requested the records in advance.

Covid-19 restrictions save lives, but they also strangle researchers' ability to improvise, a reactive ability essential in a country with so little item-level cataloguing of archival records and relatively few surname-indexed databases. Make no mistake, more will be learned from research trips conducted under normal circumstances than from 99% of projects undertaken under current restrictions.

I was able to complete a few travel-based assignments successfully from June 2020 right into this year, but once the cautious hope of 'New Normal' in Summer 2020 gave way to a second and then a third wave of the pandemic, most of the requests I received could be quickly dismissed via a filter consisting of 'Is this open? No.' Credible reports now suggest Spain will not reach 'herd immunity' before about November 2021, and as archives are not an essential service, my impression is that for the most part they will be among the very last venues in Spain to return to a pre-pandemic footing. There is simply no sense of urgency to providing access.

Rather than research with one hand tied behind my back, as it were, I feel it is more sensible to wait until the researcher's task is no worse than it used to be, when I can again use my nearly two decades of professional experience to their full effect on behalf of clients. In the interim I will continue handling ongoing commissions that can be completed remotely, such as previously commissioned probate research, concurrently with other professional undertaking. Feel free to contact me for a frank assessment as to whether a specific project can be set in motion remotely or is best shelved until 2022.