Greetings, 

I began my genealogy journey several years back researching my maternal grandfather's line.  My grandfather's mother (my great-grandmother) is originally from Ciudad Guzman (dob 1874) and had the maiden name of "Aguallo." A dear uncle of mine (now departed) would tell me stories about her maiden name and how it was linked to a small town (Nochistlan).  

During the COVID shutdown I followed the "aguallo" line back to the mid 1750's in Ciudad Guzman (Zapotlan Grande).  I found records (baptisms, marriage and death) on Family Search belonging to the "aguallo" line.  The oldest direct relative I found in Ciudad Guzman was Jose Vizente Ferrer de Aguayo (married in 1779), originally from Nochistlan, per his IM (a kind soul/wikitree moderator found the unindexed IM).  Unfortunately, I hit a wall at the time and could not find any additional documents for Jose Vizente Ferrer (ie a baptism record).  His marriage registry and IM identify one Antonio Mergil/Margil de Aguayo as his father (and Maria Tereza Yanez as his mother) but that's where the confusion remains (wikitree lists my Antonio Margil with another as an "unmerged match").  From Jose Vizente Ferrer's IM, specifically a testigo (Clemente de Aguayo, likely a uncle/cousin), I was able to indirectly zero-in on the Nochistlan family cluster but, again, no direct connection.  Frustrated at the time, I set this line aside until very recently.  

I used AI to review several Family Search derived docs to confirm my findings and possibly shed some light on my "wall."  The AI helped in nominal ways but often it seemed to hallucinate.  It did, however, make one interesting suggestion: it noted that given an age/time gap (the existing Antonio Margil de Aguayo on wikitree appears to have been born in 1710 and married in 1733), it was possible that the this represented a "generational collapse," meaning that the existing Antonio Margil de Aguayo may possibly have been an older relative with the same name married to a woman with a similar name (both Maria, possibly from the same "Yanez" family).  The AI further suggested that Antonio Margil, and father of Vizente, was likely an unidentified (on wikitree) brother of Clemente (both sons of Joseph de Aguayo and Manuela de Aguilar), all from Nochistlan, vice the listed brother of Joseph de Aguayo.  In other words, a son of Joseph sharing the same name as his uncle.  I then began searching the unindexed IMs on Family Search from Nochistlan circa 1750-55 (assuming that Jose Vizente Ferrer was born circa 1755).  While searching, I came across a 1751 Nochistlan IM for one Antonio de Aguayo (son of Joseph de Aguayo and Manuela de Aguilar) married to Maria "Camacho Hermocillo" (not Yanez).  Although unlikely to be my Antonio Margil, the IM does seem to identify a previously unidentified son of Joseph (brother of Clemente).  Needless to say, I'm back at my "wall," which is why I'm here, in the off chance someone has done some work on this line that can help me move past my wall.  Any help would be appreciated.

JL

p.s. I believe the "kind soul" from wikitree is a member of this distinguished group.

Comment

Hello JL,

Welcome to this group! 

I'm a novice to Spanish Colonial genealogy, but I made a couple of reminder notes for myself from the info in your post. If I run into anything in the future that may assist you in your search, I'll reach out. 

Best of luck.

Travis

 

Comment

Travis, 

thanks for the welcoming reply. 

Despite my current lack of advancement on the Aguayo line, it was been a personally rewarding endeavor searching through old records and learning how to read/interpret them.  

 

thanks again,

Jerry Lopez