Where did the Escajeda family of El Paso, Texas, originate from?

Question

Hi all,

I'm hoping someone who specializes in Mexican / New Spanish genealogy can help me out.

I'm trying to break through a brick wall ancestor of mine: my fourth great-grandmother Antonia Escageda, of San Elizario, Texas.

Note: If you want a TL;DR, there's one at the bottom of this post.

A couple notes before we get into the nitty gritty: 

• Escajeda seems to be an extremely rare name. If Ancestry is to be believed, there were only 6 families with the name in 1880 in all of the United States (this included Texas, at the time). According to Name Census, Escajeda only appears 909 times in the 2010 census.
• Escajeda is not one of the "old El Paso families." Meaning that the Escajeda family is not descended from the families that accompanied Juan de Oñate on the New Mexico expedition that led to the founding of El Paso del Norte in 1598 (an area combining both El Paso, Texas and Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico today). Note that most El Paso families during the early 1800s are descended from those families (or at least share those names).
• The El Paso Escajeda family likely originated from one nuclear family. When the name first starts showing up on El Paso documents in the early 1800s, it's only split amongst four or so people, all showing up at the same time.

With that out of the way, let's get into the brick wall stuff. Antonia first shows up as a godmother in an 1821 baptismal record for Maria Josefa Tranquila Escajeda, the daughter of Marcelo Escajeda and Rita Garcia. 

This makes me believe that Antonia is somehow related to Maria Josefa's father, Marcelo Escajeda, who himself first shows up in an 1820 land grant for San Elizario land. (I'd link to it, but the scans I have are hard copies acquired from the UTEP library). The land grant began processing under the Spanish legal system in 1818, according to its contents, bridging the independence of Mexico that occurred in 1820.

In that same baptismal record, Marcelo's parents are listed as Alejandro Escajeda and Ignacia Polanco. I have a hard time deciphering the script, but I don't think it cites either of their birth places.

However, none of these are the very first time that the name Escajeda is documented in San Elizario. The earliest instance of it I found was in an 1818 military roster, which lists a Jose Escageda as an officer in the San Eli calvary. It also lists Juan Olguin as an alfarez (captain), likely the same Juan Olguin that fathered Antonia Escageda's children.

Furthermore, I have DNA matches with a few distant cousins that feature a Francisco Escajeda in their trees as a great-grandfather. Unfortunately their trees and sources are sparse, but a baptismal record for Francisco's daughter cites his parents as Jose Escageda and Brigida Monquillo(sp?). If this Jose Escageda is the same that's listed in the military roster alongside Juan Olguin, then that creates a genetic link between him and Antonia, my fourth-great-grandmother.

I have found absolutely no records of any Escajedas in the El Paso area before these dates.

So, TL;DR:

• Before 1818 - No mentions of Escajeda in the El Paso area.
• 1818 - San Elizario military rosters list Jose Escageda as an officer in their calvary, alongside Alfarez Juan Olguin.
• 1820 - Marcelo Escajeda receives a land grant for San Elizario land.
• 1821 - Juan Olguin and Antonia Escageda are sworn in as godparents to Maria Josefa Tranquila Escajeda, the daughter of Marcelo Escajeda and Rita Garcia.
• 1841 - Antonia Escageda is listed as widowed and living with her three sons, all bearing the Olguin name.

What I'm wondering is this: Is there any way to trace these early Escajedas out of San Elizario / El Paso?

I have all these early documents, but I'm just not sure where to go from here. I think it's very possible the Escajedas arrived directly from Spain, considering the land grant and how much Spanish DNA that side of the family has.

Knowing this, what collections or archives would be the best ones to check? Are there immigration records for Mexico for Spanish emigrants around this time, 1810-1820? Knowing where they came from might help me find baptismal records, and therefore documents confirming their relationships to each other.

Any help is deeply appreciated. Even just vague anecdotes about the area's history I find incredibly valuable and interesting, so please share anything you have. Thank you!

Answer 1

I took a look at Mexican church records at FamilySearch, and Escajeda, while not a common name, it is also not real uncommon. I saw it in the states of Chihuahua and Durango.

I noticed a few of the Escajeda men were listed as “soldado” which suggests that they could have come from elsewhere.

If you find marriage records of interest, Looking at some of the matrimonial investigations may give more insight as to where specifically they were from. The matrimonial investigations were usually held at the parish. These are typically not indexed, and may or may not be in chronological order. The files are often incomplete, especially for the older ones. These investigations were done before the marriage, around a month before is not unusual but could be closer to the marriage date. If an impediment was discovered, it could be months before it was resolved. An impediment means a dispensation is required.

The marriage records will note a dispensation if one was required. These will be held at the diocesan level. The responsible diocese of the record may not be the diocese of today. For example:

• The diocese of Chihuahua was erected from the diocese of Durango in 1891
• The diocese of Durango was erected from the diocese of Guadalajara in 1620
  • Territory was lost from Durango to make other dioceses, like Sonora in 1779
• Some of the dioceses in Texas will derive  from the diocese of Michoacán.

This website https://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/qview.html will help in determining which diocese is of interest.

So, this could be a long search!

It is not too hard to pick up the basic Spanish need to figure out the documents. The matrimonial investigations can be a little intimidating at first, but these get easy with study. Some of these are a form that gets filled out, they are a bit easier, but have less info, the handwritten ones can be a goldmine. The basic layout is:

• Header with date, location, etc
• Introduction … who is getting married to who.
• Statement of the groom
• Statement of the bride
• Witness’s statements for the groom and bride
• Conclusion. Will sometimes have a marriage date.

The dispensations are variable in length and complexity, and will have statements on how the couple is related if the impediment is for consanguinity or affinity. Sometimes the dispensation will have an elaborate or artistically drawn family tree, in addition to the description. The actual dispensation will usually be in Latin, although all the preliminary parts are in Spanish.

If you end up looking at the records for the diocese of Guadalajara there is a book, Sagrada Mitra de Guadalajara that extract/indexes many of the early dispensations. Later ones have been indexed by a number of volunteers at Nuestros Ranchos, a Mexican genealogy group. To find these do a google search for “Guadalajara Dispensa”.

Best of luck in your search!

Comments

Thank you so much for all of this valuable info! I suppose I'll have to start by looking for the dispensas of the marriages I'm more confident about, since I'll have the dates and locations to help me search.

Unfortunately I have yet to dig up a marriage record for Antonia Escageda. It's possible she never formally married Juan Olguin, but considering they were sworn in as godparents together, I don't think it's super likely. Nonetheless, until I confirm that she and Juan Olguin were in fact married, I'll hold off on searching for their marriage investigation.

I suppose I could start with the marriage of Antonia's son, Benigno, to his wife Petra Salazar. According to their marriage record, they married on July 4, 1864, in Socorro, Texas, USA. 

Now, the diocese business. So today, the Socorro parish is part of the El Paso diocese. The El Paso diocese was erected in 1914, from the dioceses of Dallas, San Antonio and Tuscon. The diocese of Tuscon (closer to El Paso than Dallas or San Antonio) was erected in 1897 from the Vicariate Apostolic of Arizona (looks like the territory stayed the same, it just was raised to a Diocese). Now the Vicariate Apostolic of Arizona was erected in 1868 from the diocese of Santa Fe, and which itself was elevated to being a diocese in 1853. So Benigno's and Petra's marriage investigation, which occurred in Socorro in 1864, probably belongs to the diocese of Santa Fe, correct?

Assuming that's correct, where should I start searching for these marriage investigation records? FamilySearch? Libraries? Would I need to contact the church itself? Or does it just vary depending on the parish? It's technically part of the United States at this point. Would that change how this record collections are labeled?

Sorry for all the questions, I just want to be extra sure I'm headed in the right direction before diving head-first into a bunch of un-indexed records. Thank you, again, in advance if you have any tips that can help me out. Fingers crossed!

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The book may be useful. It is not available electronically, but is at a few libraries in Texas, for example Houston and San Antonio. See WorldCat for specific libraries

El Paso prenuptial investigations from the Catholic Archives of Texas, 1707-1853

Title Also Known As:

El Paso del Norte prenuptial investigations from the Catholic Archives of Texas, 1707-1853

Statement of Responsibility:

Rick Hendricks and Robert D. Martinez, editors

Authors:

• Hendricks, Rick, 1956- (Main Author)
• Martinez, Robert D (Added Author)
• Catholic Church. El Paso, Texas. Catholic Archives of Texas (Added Author)

Format:

Books/Monographs

Language:

English

Publication:

[Albuquerque, New Mexico] : Hispanic Genealogy Research Center of New Mexico, [2014]

Physical:

iv, 247 p. ; 28 cm

Subject Class:

976.496/E1 K2

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There is a San Elizario Genealogical & Historical Society

https://www.epcounty.com/sanelizariomuseum/

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San Elizario is relatively close to Juarez (today Ciudad Juarez). There are some Escajeda families in the Juarez records. Maybe the church in San Elizario was affiliated with Juarez, perhaps a chapel or annex. Thus looking in Juarez records may be fruitful.

As for the dispensations. They are always mentioned in the Catholic marriage records (at least the Mexican ones). So if it not mentioned, there is no reason to look for it. The matrimonial investigations were always done. There are only a couple of films of San Elizario church records, I looked through the volume of marriages records, and did not see any. In the indexes there are a number of Escajeda families, but I had no luck in actually finding them.

There are matrimonial investigations in the Juarez records. Those might be worth looking at.

I looked for Benigno Escajeda at Ancestry, and found him in a number of family trees. Sourcing, as is often the case, is haphazard, but there may be enough info to actually track down the records. The library version of Ancestry has access to Mexican records, so that should be worth looking at. My subscription is US only, so not as useful as it might be.

Answer 2

I'm related to a descendant of the Escajeda Family of San Elizario through my mother's side of the family. On Ancestry, the individual's brick wall appears to be Rita's husband.

I am currently working on connecting old Paso Del Norte branches (to include San Elizario) to my branch. I'd be more than happy to collaborate with you and provide you with assistance.

Comments

Hello Jesús! I'm so thrilled you've found this post and are interesting in researching the old El Paso del Norte branches. If you need any help connecting your branches, please don't be afraid to reach out.

You also might find the El Paso County Genealogy group on Facebook to be quite helpful. There are seasoned experts there that are well-versed in El Paso genealogy that are very kind and willing to help out anyone with ancestry there. (There's a few other Escajeda descendents there as well!)

As for the Escajeda brick wall - yes, Rita's husband Marcelo Escajeda seems to be the brick wall ancestor on most Ancestry trees. I think this can mostly be credited to this paper family tree of the Escajeda family, dated to December 1976 (the physical copy is currently hosted at the UTEP library). However, two things:

1. This baptismal record for Marcelo's daughter actually lists Marcelo's parents, pushing the brick wall one generation back.
2. I don't think Marcelo is actually the patriarch of the San Eli branch of Escajedas, or at least not my branch. I've been unable to find any more children of his besides Josefa, and I can't find any further records of Josefa after her baptism. 

I think the real brick wall is actually Antonia Escageda, who is listed on several records as being the definite mother of the San Eli branch of Escajedas. The paternity of her children is unknown, as I've been unable to find any of her sons' baptismal records. Her grandchildren's records, which list her as grandmother, omit any mention of a grandfather. Antonia's parents, also, are unknown.

This is ultimately where I'm stuck. I believe Marcelo and Antonia were related somehow (not married), but I have no proof for that other than them sharing a last name and showing up in San Elizario at the same time. If you have any ideas as to how to connect these two and investigate their origins, I'd love to collaborate with you on those efforts. :) In the mean time, I'd be happy to help you investigate your El Paso side however I can. I'm still mostly a beginner (I've only been actively researching for about a year and a half), but I've become very familiar with the El Paso families and have some fantastic resources at my disposal. 

Apologies for the lengthy answer! Hopefully you've found it helpful in some capacity. Thanks for reaching out, and happy searching!