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Archiver > CUBA > 2001-02 > 0982725722


From:
Subject: Re: [CUBA] Searching Spanish Names
Date: Tue, 20 Feb 2001 22:22:02 EST


Gretta, Mike and the list:
The problem with the surname system we inherited is that in a generation the
maternal's maternal's surnames disappear.

Before the seventeenth century, the children of a family, siblings, need not
share the same surname. I did some research on 6th century Cuban women, and
the problemm was worse than the one we have. Because the name by itself was
seldom help to identify siblings, or lineage. As far as I discovered,
sometimes the eldest son used his father's surname, as it linked him to the
land belonging to the family; due to inheritance reglarions of the time,
especially when the family was "gentry' or nobility. sometimes second sons
used one of the grandfather's name, or even the mother's name the same
applyied to daughters.

Part of the "machismo" certainly involved in the use of paternal surnames
both from the father or the mother' line, was to secure holdings. When a
father bequueasted his own name in his sons and daughter he was publicly
acknowledging they were his children. Women always know this, but father's
did not.

As you seem so "simpaticos" and concerned about this issue, the best thing
for me to advice -- being already 60, I ten to advice a lot...-- is to accept
what was, and try to improve what will be. There have to be a consistent
system.

If a child at birth receive as official surnames both his father and his
mother's name, and if this name is always used for official or legal
purposess, then most documents will have both surnames.

Working with the several certificates I have received from Cuba, as back as
1820, I am able to trace most branches of the family and the complete names
of my females ancestors. Because, for instance, in my paternal grandfather
Baptism Record, appears his complete name
Timoteo de la Paz; his father and mother's names and surnames, paternal and
maternal:
Timoteo de la Paz Cepero Hernández, son of Serapio Cepero and of Francisca
Hernández del Castillo; grandson of Laureano Cepero and of Ma. Rosario
Sánchez ( this being the paternal lineage); and of Blas Hernández and María
Eusebia del Castillo (the maternal lineage)....
From this document it is easy to realize that Serapio was Serapio Cepero y
Sánchez; Francisca was recorded with both her srnames.
As i got Serapio's death certificate, I know that his complete name was:
Serapio Cepero Sánchez, son of Laureano Cepero Herenández and Rosario
Sánchez Rubí,
From Serapio's marriage certificate, ggot not only his name again but the
complete name of my great granmother; francisca aniceta hernández del
Castillo, daughter of Blas Hernández and María Eusebia del Castillo Morales;
thus I know my great great grandmother's name and sur names: her father was '
del Castillo", her mother was a "Morales.....
from another certificate, i found that María Eusebia's parents weree Don
Agustín del Castillo y Doña Concepcion Morales, and that they were probably
livingg in Gira de Melena, province of Havana in 1801.

when I was a child, about eight or ten I liked a lot to write what I
considered then my full name. Alternating paternal and maternal surnames it
looked something like this ( I am giving th list my personal identity; I
expect it should be used with the utmost discretion); well it was something
like this

Marta del Carmen I. ( I refuse to write this third name) Cepero, Núñez,
Bonilla, Berro, Hernández, Parra, Quevedo, Reyes, ------ etc. ( I didnt know
so many names them) Oliva, Pérez y Ramírez de Arellano (this three last one
are from my mother lineage).

as I am now married I would have to add my husband's first surname preceded
by the preposition "de"

Does it sound practical?.... No . In school college an so forth I used the
"abbreviated" form, Marta Cepero Núñez.
Althoug -- shame on me -- I signed only as Marta Cepero

as most certificates explains where the grand parents were born, the search
for backwards for former ancestors becomes easier..

bELATED HAPPY VALENTINE to you all.

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