Family Histories

How well do you know your ancestors?

By making use of personal data, we can get to know our descendants—from the closest to the most distant.
If you wanted to reconstruct your family history, would you know which documents to look at? This exhibition will address the following: what is genealogy, and what is it for? Also, what is a family tree and what are the main documents that provide genealogical data?

Genealogy

Genealogy is the study of a person's lineage and relationships, which allows them to reconstruct their family history and social relations.

Genealogy has been used since the Middle Ages to grant legitimacy to kings and to justify nobile titles for individuals and families.

Recently, it has taken on a new purpose. Genealogy is used to study social mobility, the formation of patronage networks, and their financial position.

Family trees

Family trees provide a visual understanding of a person's genealogy—their successors and predecessors—giving a graphical representation of how people within a family are related to each other.

Depending on their structure and morphology, family trees can take many forms: ancestry-based or descendant-based, of one or many lines, horizontal or vertical.

The tree in the image shows four generations in the ancestry of Manuel José Drago, as well as the family crests for the surnames Drago, Rossi, Mallona, and Borra.

Types of family tree

Generally, family trees take the shape of a tree (hence their name), although they can also take other forms: plants, castles, fountains, chains, and many others.

Similarly, the people who appear on them can be represented by just a name, a circle, their heraldic emblem, or through a figurative drawing of the individuals.

On the family tree shown here, each person is represented by their coat of arms. The tree shows the family line of Juan Bautista Canepa—born in Genoa, a resident of Cádiz, and a descendant of the Counts of Lavagua.

Descendant family trees

The House of Gavia family tree, which displays the descendants of don Juan de Guzmán y de los Ríos and doña Antonia de la Madriz, the first heiress to the estate established by her father.

In 1680, Charles II of Spain bestowed the noble title of Count of Gavia upon don Francisco López de los Ríos y Cerón, Lord of La Herradura, Torre Blanca, and other places.

Testamentary Provisions

These are wills registered for the purpose of transferring property and rights to inheritors.

They generally provide information on the ancestry of the testator, their marriages, legitimate and illegitimate children, and the estate being passed on.

At the beginning of the Modern Age, such testimonies were typically only left by the wealthy, but over time, the practice has become more and more widespread.

Dowry letters

These documents, made before a notary, list the possessions that a wife brings to her marriage.

The future husband would maintain and contribute to these possessions. The collective result formed a part of the dowry. This, in the event of death, divorce, or separation, would be
passed on to the wife.

Dowry letters provide insight into family bonds and finances.

The letter shown here, from 1645, belongs to Beatriz de Cabrera, the wife of Bartolomé Esteban Murillo.

In notarial protocols

It is also common to find inserts within protocols, such as documents accompanying registered legal business, blood purity records, "hidalguía" (nobility) records, and family trees.

The image shows an insert in a notarial protocol from 1730, which comprises information on the nobility of the Marquis of Tabares. This title of nobility was bestowed by Philip V of Spain in 1720 upon Alonso José de Tabares y Ahumada, Lord of the Manor of Setenil de las Bodegas (Cádiz).

Blood purity and nobility records

In this image is the coat of arms of Blas Álvarez de Ossorio, who lived in Cádiz. It is an insert in a document containing blood purity and nobility information, dated 1777.

Estate disputes

The legal concept known as "mayorazgo" (estate) in Castile, or "vínculo" (link, ties) in the Kingdom of Aragon, submitted relevant possessions to a predetermined inheritance regime, usually being passed on to the first born. This prevented the owners of the items from having unrestrained access to them.

The aim of these estate programs was to stop family heritage from breaking down and to guarantee members' financial security.

Through estate lawsuits, family possessions and relationships are analyzed, thereby providing abundant genealogical information.

Blood purity orders

These were carried out to confirm that a person was an "Old Christian"; in other words, that their ancestry did not include any religion other than Christianity.

Between the 15th and 19th centuries, blood purity was a prerequisite to gain access to some institutions, such as municipal governments, associations, universities, guilds, diocesan councils, religious orders, and military academies.

The Ortiz family coat of arms

The coat of arms presented here is included in the proof of "limpieza de sangre" (blood purity) document enacted in 1666 by the family of Francisco Luis and Isabel Ortiz Vara, who lived in Granada.

Nobility disputes

These were proceedings established in the Kingdom of Castile, used to gain recognition as nobility. In other words, certification to verify noble status and subsequent social, economic, and tax-related benefits that came with it.

Responsibility for these proceedings fell exclusively to the courts of the Chancelleries of Valladolid and Granada, established in 1371 and 1505 respectively.

Nobility disputes typically began at the request of a party who felt they had suffered diminished rights. Less frequently, they could also be started by municipal councils that needed to create registers of inhabitants that—for legal, social, and tax-related reasons—distinguished between noble and non-noble citizens. That is, those who had to pay and those who didn't.

Through the use of testimony, which was fundamental evidence when passing a sentence, the proceeding focused on discovering the nobility and seniority of a person's lineage, their patrilineal descent, legitimacy of birth, and blood purity.

The disputes ended with a royal judgment on the status of nobility, including a final ruling.

Civil register books

Throughout the 19th century, there were various attempts to create a Civil Register in Spain, but none was successful until 1841. It was at this time when the first stable working Civil Register was created, although it was only for medium- and large-sized populations.

The current Civil Register in Spain began on January 1, 1871, when the Provisional Law of June 17, 1870 came into effect. This law made it compulsory for all local governments to create a register of the data concerning the marital status of every citizen.

The Civil Registry is divided into four sections: births, marriages, deaths, and citizenship (now guardianship). Each of these must have its respective book with an alphabetical index, a record of its opening, closing, and sealing, and a signature for every entry.

"Cédulas de vecindad" (neighbourhood identification cards)

These originally came into being in 1854 when, after the eventual disuse of the previous passports, a tax was introduced that required citizens to provide an identity document.

Collecting the tax required a register of inhabitants to be created, as well as supporting documents, containing each person's name, place of residence, age, marital status, occupation, type of documentation, and the amount to pay.

In 1874, they became known as "cédulas personales" (personal cards), which then affected not only the heads of family, but all residents of Spain older than 14 years of age.

They made a permanent exit in 1943, their role in identification having been replaced some time before by ID cards, ID documents, and passports.