Several years ago, the current directors of our organization decided to create Urquides Family Tree to give everyone who is interested, the opportunity to help those in need. Helping the community grew to become a permanent part of the lives of our members.

URQUIDEZ FAMILY TREASURE HUNT - THE POT OF GOLD HAS BEEN FOUND!!!   

The Urquidez Family tree has been traced to nine or ten  generations of Urquidez's.   The combined efforts of Liliana Corona (Urquidez)from Carlsbad and Ruth have come to the oldest researchable and recorded Urquidez located in Spanish documents.   That Urquidez was named Dionisio Urquidez from Meoqui, Chihuahua.  A legal marriage document was located that clearly lists him as an  American native (indio).   There printed in black and white was the name of our ancestor and in one swift stroke our Spanish blue eyes were gone.   It is believed that  Dionisio Urquidez was given the last name of the Spanish person who baptized him.   An Urquidez from Spain gave us our last name of Urquidez.   Similar to the black slaves in the southern United States who were given the last names of their masters,  our American Indian male ancestor could have also been a slave (peon) and was given the last name of his Spanish master.  DNA-Y chromosone  research from several family members have consistently proven that we are either 42 to 48 percent Native American which confirms the historical records that our first documented relative was an American Indian.  Urquidez familia, only our last name is Spanish.   From what Indian tribe was Dionisio a member of?  How to find out?  From the suggestion of a dear family member to send DNA to a new DNA testing site that specializes in Hispanic heritage and Native Indian DNA nothing clear was identified.  The DNA test results from the SOMOS DNA test only gave generalized Mexican Native American tribe results.   No tribe was identified. Turns out the DNA company is now asking for crowd funding to help DNA test more Mexican Indian tribes to establish a pattern of Indian ancestry.  By the time they collect all the required DNA testing from all the tribes in Mexico we could be in for a long haul.  Vaya, nos quitaron los ojos azules.       

At this point we do not even have the complete name of the Spanish person who named us.   This would be another piece of the puzzle.  

Our Native American ancestor married a woman whose name was Gertrudez Estrada.  She was listed as Mestiza and not India.   Perhaps her father (or mother) were true Spaniards. In that case for those who want to pursue the Gertrudez Estrada family line to Spain I would suggest you follow the following Spanish record search:

LISTS OF PASSENGERS TO AMERICA

HOW TO ACCESS THE LISTS OF PASSENGERS TO AMERICA IN THE AER DATABASE   (COUNTRY OF SPAIN  HISTORICAL RECORDS)

REQUIREMENTS FOR ACCESSING THE AER DATABASE

A) Internet Explorer 10 with the Visual Basic automation and the vector graphics component  (if thse components are not installed, the system will ask whether you want to install them the first time the database is accessed; 

B) Flash player  

C) In addition, you need to register into the system

TO REGISTER INTO AER

1. Go to the page http:/aer.mcu.es/sgae/index_aer.jsp

2. Click the button Alta de usario  (New User)

3.  Fill the different fields, including Usario (user) and Contraseña (Password)

4.  Click the Guardar (Save) button

5.  Click the Salir (Exit) button.

FIRST TIME ACCESS TO THE AER DATABASE

(You must be registered in the system)

1.  To access AER  go to the page http:/aer.mcu.es/sgae/index_aer.jsp

2. Type your username and password in the fields  Usuario and Contraseña, respectively

3.  Click the button Aceptar ( Accept)

4.  Select the menu option Busqueda/temas de busqueda (Search/Search Topics)

5.  Click the Nuevo Tema  (New Topic)  located on the top right part of the screen

6.  Type a text describing your interest (e.g. History" or "Spanish Genealogy" in the field Titulo (Title ).

7.  Click the button Guardar  (Save))

8.   Click the button Volver  (Go back)

9.  In the screen Temas de consulta (Search topics) press over the magnigfying glass icon located to the left of the search  topic you typed.

10. When the form titled Criterios de busqueda (Search criteria ) appears, press the link "Buscqueda por signatura  (Reference search).

11.  Type the text "Contratacion S.42" in the field Signatura incompleta (Incomplete reference)

12.  Click the button Buscar (Search) located to the right , in the very same line.

13.  The screen "Resultado de la busqueda" (Search results) will appear, showing three references.  The first reference is just the catalougue grouping of the other two.  The third reference contains the actual passenger lists, with the original image of the document.   Unfortunately,  these lists are not indexed, so you can not perform direct searches in them.  However, the second reference whose title is " Informaciones y licencias de pasajeros a Indias. (Info and licenses of the passendgers to America) conains a subset of the passengers (about 5% of the total) for whom there exists a full dossier.   These passengers are indexed, so if you are lucky maybe you can find an ancestor there.  Click over this reference.

14.  The descriptive screen will appear.  Click the tab titled "Contiene" (Contents).  The list of volumes will appear, showing the first 10 volumes.

15.  Clicking over one of the volumes will bring up another descriptive screen, showing the years correponding to that volume.  Click the tab titled
"Contiene"  (Contents).   Tis way you will access the list of passengers contained in that volume .  The screen shows initially the first ten passengers.

16,.  Click over one of the passengers.  Another descriptive screen will be shown, with the basic information about the passenger.  To the right of the title of the tab named "Detalle" (Details) there will be an icon representing a camera.  Clicking over it.  the graphics program used to view the digitized document will be started (it can take a while).  The first time yoiu click the camera icon,  Internet Explorer may ask yu whether you want to install two graphics complements (which are necessary to view the documents).  After installing one fo the complements it may be necessary to retart the system. 

TO ACCESS THE AER DATABASE THE NEXT TIME

Follow the same procedure, just skipping steps 6 to 8

TO LOCATE A CONCRETE PASSENGER (IF THERE IS A DOSSIER FOR HIM)

1. To access AER, go to the page http://aer.mcu.es/sgae/index_aer.jsp

2.  Type your username and password in the fileds Usuario and Contraseña, respectively.

3.  click the button Aceptar (Accept)

4.  Select the menu option "Busqueda/Temas de busqueda"(Search/Search Topics).

5.  In the screen "Temas de consulta" (Sear topics), press over the magnifying glass icon located to the left of your search topic

6.  When the form titled "Crierios de busqueda" (Search critera) appears, press the link "Otros criterios de busqueda"  (Other search critieria) located at the top right corner of the screen.

7.  Type the text "licencia" (License) in the field Contenido (Content) at the bottom of the screen.

8.  Type the desired surname (without accents) in the field Texto General (General Text) located at the top of the screen,

9.  Type again the surname in the field "Termino" (search term) of the section "Indices" (indexes).

10.  Press the button labeld Buscar

11. The existing dossiers for that surname will appear.