The Ancestry of Michael Ray Romero

of Rawlins, Wyoming

Preface

                Michael Romero is a descendant of Catholic and Mormon pioneers who founded large families and whose descendants are scattered mainly among the western states of  Nuevo México , Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah.  The  surname ROMERO is an ancient Spanish surname meaning "one who has visited Rome" and does not mean that all people of that surname are blood related however most who can trace their ancestry back to colonial  Nuevo México  as a province of  Nuevo España are most likely related.  Nuevo México, translated into English as New Mexico, was a part of Nuevo España or New Spain from 1598 until 1824 and a territory of Mexico from 1824 until 1846.

                Michael Romero's Spaniard ancestors were pioneers and colonizers of the American South West and were generally people of prosperous origins. They migrated from Spain in the Sixth Century to the Viceroy of  Nuevo España primarily and were part of the Spanish colonization of the northern province of  Nuevo México.   Nuevo México  was the northern outpost of the Vice-Royalty of  the Empire of  Nuevo España and the Romeros thrived in valleys of northern  Nuevo México  and southern Colorado which constituted the Spanish Frontier from the 1600's to the late 1800's.

                The Spanish frontiersmen and women who settled the Espanola Valley of  Nuevo México  were with Féw exceptions mostly soldier-colonists, in search of lands to till and lands on which to graze their stock.  They were artisans and craftsmen who made the articles that the settlers needed and fashioned the symbols of the faith of a deeply religious people.  Additionally they sought the security of people far from the Catholic Inquisition which were persecuting Catholics with Jewish ancestry. The heritage of Nuevo México is not from a Spanish aristocracy or gold seeking Conquistadors but rather from the 800 soldier-colonists who came with Don Juan de  Oñate to northern Nuevo México in the late 16th Century.  And also, of those families from El Paso and Zacatecas who made up the vanguard of the Reconquest of  Nuevo México  in 1693.

                Fray Angelico Chavez, a scholar priest and genealogist of  Nuevo México  who wrote the invaluable resource Origins of Families of  Nuevo México ,  stated that; "some of the Conquistadors appear to have noble antecedents in the dim past, but all were now ordinary military and pastoral people, good folks in the main, who were neither peons nor convicts."

The names and places of origin of the first settlers from 1598  were: Archuleta  from Eibar, Basque province of Guipazcoa, Barela, Varela/Varlea/Jamarillo from Compostela, Galicia, Spain, Bernal from Brito Canary Islands, Cadimo  from Salaícez de los Gallegos, Galicia, Spain, Carvajal from  Victoria, Ayotepe, Nueva España, Cruz from Barcelona, Catalonia, Durán de la Cruz  from Valle de Toluca, Nueva España, Griego  from the Greek Island of Crete, Hinojos  from Cartaya, Andalucía, Spain, Jiménez from Andalucía, Spain, López de Ocanto from México City, Nueva España, Luján  from Isle of La Palma, Canary Islands, Márquez  from  San Lucar de Barrameda, Andalucía, Spain, Martín Serrano/Martínez   from  Zacatecas, Nueva Galicia, Morán from Mora del Toro, Spain, Pedrasa from Cartaya, Andalucía, Spain, Pérez de Bustillo from México City, Nueva España, Robledo from Maqueda, Castilla, La Mancha, Spain, Romero from Corral de Almaguer, Castilla,  Spain, Ruiz Cáceres from Isle of La Palma, Canary Islands, Sánchez de Monroy from México City, Nueva España, Sosa from Albornoz Xuchíl, Nueva Galicia, and Valencia.

                Colonial  Nuevo México  never had a large population due to its isolation  from Spain and the population centers of  Mexico as well. Fifty years after the "reconquest" of1693 only 536 Spanish families were enumerated in all of  northern  Nuevo México  and a census taken by the Vice-Royalty of  Mexico revealed that in 1750, only 3,779 Spanish Settlers were numbered in the  Nuevo México  colony with the majority, 1,205 Spaniards, living in either the Santa Cruz dela Canada area or Alburquerque. By 1800 the total Spanish speaking population of  Nuevo México , Spaniards and Mixed bloods (Mestizos and Coyotes) numbered some 20,000. Native Americans not living within Spanish households were generally not counted.

As Spain’s power disintegrated in Europe, she lost her New World Empire  in the 19^th Century as Mexico declared independence in 1821.  Mexico claimed all the Spanish holdings in the entire southwest.  Mexican rule however only lasted 25 years, until the 1846 war with the United States.  

“Manifest Destiny” inspired the United States to expand across the North American Continent however even after winning the conflict with Mexico, disputes over  Nuevo México 's southern border continued until the Gadsden Purchase of 1853.  In 1861 the northern section of  Nuevo México  which included the San Luis Valley was given to Colorado Territory along with the Spanish-speaking settlers.

                During the Civil War, parts of the  Nuevo México  Territory was dominated by Texans, and joined the ConFéderacy.  Union troops from Fort Union in Mora County,  Nuevo México  and from Fort Garland in Costilla County, Colorado kept  Nuevo México  in the United States however. 

The native Indians capitalized on the power vacuum created by the Civil War and made raids against the English and Spanish speaking settlers. The United States Army retaliated, and by the 1880's, with treaties signed and Indians confined to reservations, hostilities on the Western frontier ended.

                The Frontier itself ended with the arrival of the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fé Railroad in 1879. The Territory doubled its size in a decade and by 1882 a second railroad, the Southern Pacific was finished which linked Santa Fé with both the eastern and western seaboards.  The rails carried homesteaders, miners, and their equipment westward. Back east went ore, lumber, and livestock.  The Railroad would be the impetus for some of the Romero family to leave  Nuevo México  to work in railroad towns in Colorado and Wyoming.

                Michael Romero’s patrilineal line and be traced with certainty to Salvador Romero born circa 1661 19 years before the Spanish were driven out of Nuevo México.  by the Pueblo tribes in 1680. During the 13 years before the Spanish returned many church records were destroyed where baptismal, marriage, and death records would have been records. Salvador Romero’s father according to the Hispanic Genealogical Research Center of New Mexico, was Capitán Diego Romero and mother was Sebastiana Martin The HGRC does not have any further information regarding Capitán Diego parentage.  However some researchers maintain that Captain Diego Romero was actually Diego Romero the grandson of  Captain Bartolome Romero a member of the Juan de Onate Expedition that colonized New Mexico