Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!

Juan N. Mestas and Feliciana Arellano
Family History and Genealogy

The following web page is dedicated to documenting the life and descendents of Juan N. Mestas (also spelled Maestas) and Feliciana Arellano, including those families who married into the family (Lopez, Valdez, Montoya, Naranjo, Trujillo, Duran, Branch, Romero, etc.). The following pictures and links are here to share our family history as it started in Mora county, New Mexico.

If, however, you're not a descendant of Juan N. Mestas, you can still check out the Taos and Mora County census records where I've listed all the Mestas/Maestas surnames that I could find.

I have also put hyperlinks to other Maestas Families at the bottom of this web page.

With my genealogy research on Juan N. Mestas, as with your research, you may find that children from families living in the same or nearby town, married the children of your ancesters. So, if we go back far enough, we may find out that we are all distant cousins by blood or by marriage. For my family lineage, I am researching the following surnames from El Coyote, El Llano, Ocate, and Ojo Felix, New Mexico.

Also I believe that many of these families originated from the Penasco/Rodarte area in Taos County. I've listed some microfilm numbers that I'm going to rent in hopes of discovering marriage and birth information from that area. See the amadeo.html web page for more information.
 

Family members are requested to send information/pictures via e-mail to Gerry. I/we will do our best to have a complete record from Juan's oldest son Fidel and all the way down to the youngest of his great great grandchildren.
Note: The above picture shows Juan and his second wife Margarita Vigil sitting in front. It also shows Juan's half brother (Fresques) on the upper left, and Juan's son Jose Amado (upper right) and his wife Celia Sandoval (daughter of Margarita from a first marriage). One aunt tells me that the man in the upper right is Fidel rather than Amado.

Here is a picture of Juan's first wife Feliciana with her two younger children (Sofia and Amadeo).

Juan N. Mestas information:

Juan's father, it is told, was killed by Indians while buffalo hunting with five others sometime in the late 1840's. Stories handed down tell us that Juan's mother then married or took the name of an elderly Maestas man, and then later married a Fresquez man and lived in El Llano (Rainsville). Juan was said to have carried the N. in his name to represent his real last name.

A 1860 census shows Juan, age ll living in El Llano with Juan Neprom Fresquis and Maria Luz Casillas and an older sister/half sister (Maestas) and several younger Fresquez children. He is later found in the 1880 census living in Rayado (Colfax county) with wife Feliciana Arellano and son Fidel.

Juan and his wife then had a daughter (Sofia), who has baptism records found in Springer, NM. This leads me to believe that the family lived in Rayado (Colfax county) for at least 4 more years ... eventually moving South to the El Llano or El Coyote area where they had two additional sons (Amado and Amadeo) who all lived to raise their own families.

During this time the family lived in Mora County in the area known as El Coyote (probably North of the town which is now known as Lucero).
Click the hypertext above to see a map of the area as it was in the late 1800's.

Juan and Feliciana had the following children.

My aunts tell me that Juan was tall and had blue eyes (and children had blue, hazel, or green eyes).

The children of Fidel are: Alfonso, Cora, Laziro, Leo, Samuel, Albert, Delia, Elosia, Herman, Joe, Sophie, and Lucinda. Visit their web page by clicking the name (hyperlink).

Sofia married Antonio Romero; and Amado married Celia Sandoval.

Amadeo married Antonia Valdez (daughter of Doroteo Valdez and Josefa Montoya), and they had 10 children:
Eloy Rubel, Martha, Teresa, Arthur, Rebecca, Eloy, Viola, Angie, Mabel, and James. Again, click on a particular name to go to their web page.

Eloy Rubel, Teresa, and Rebecca died young. Eloy Rebel is buried to the left of Juan N. Mestas and Teresa died of diphtheria.

These children grew up in El Coyote, and some are depicted in this Lucero school picture.
Viola is shown at the window, and her brother Eloy is to the right. Also their cousin Hector Montoya is the small child at the bottom, just left of center. Flamina Casias is at the upper left of the picture.

Juan is buried about a mile North of Lucero and about a mile West in an old church cemetery. His wife Feliciana is buried just one-half mile South of Lucero (East-side of road).

I will keep adding family history info, and attach old photos as they become available. My e-mail addresses are:

.... Gerry

This page is dedicated to documenting the descendents of Juan N. Mestas and Feliciana Arellano for those still living in Mora County, New Mexico or now living in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, California, or elsewhere.

Feliciana Arellano information:

I found a Feliciana Arellano from Arroyo Hondo, but this Feliciana married someone else. I have not yet found where our Feliciana is from. Juan may have left New Mexico in his late teens, met Felicana, and then moved back to New Mexico to work in Rayado (Note: Kit Carson had a ranch there). Note: I found an 1880 Colfax County census record showing the family living in Rayado with son Fidel. My aunt Martha tells me that Feliciana's mother may have been a Garcia who lived in the Buena Vista area and worked for a doctor named Hoffman. Note: I have not been able to verified or discredit this information. Microfilm # 1036795 Item 8 is available that has Rayado, Vital Records (marriages from 1869); so I believe this could help us figure out our ancestors. See the Amadeo web page for more microfilm information.

Email: gerry_benner@yahoo.com

Thanks! I appreciate the correspondence, and knowing someone else is interested. :-)

Pedigree Chart

In the 1800's the Santa Fe Trail ran down from the North between Ocate and Wagon Mound. The trail then continued South (just West of the Turkey Mountains) and later led into Fort Union that was built in the 1860's. At that time many trails still went East from here toward Mora and El Coyote further to the North. This picture shows the remains of Fort Union looking due West toward El Coyote.

Census Information

1900 Census shows Juan Maestas born Dec 1850 (age 49) and wife Feliciana born Nov 1852 (age 47) with 28 years of marriage. 8 births are stated with 4 still living. Three sons are shown living at home: Fidel b. Apr 1879 age 21, Amado b. Jun 1887 age 12, and Amadeo b. Jun 1892 age 7.

From Alberto Vidaurre I received this email:
The information on CRISTOBAL CLEMENTE MESTAS and MARIA EULALIA GONZALES can be found on page 178 (5.3),of the book "The Spanish Recolonization Of New Mexico-An Account of The Families Recruited Ar Mexico City in 1693,"By:Jose Antonio Esquibel and John B.Colligan...Please note that Cristobal Clemente Mestas is one of 4 named original grantees of the Santa Barbara Land Grant of 1796. I created a web page on their grandson Jose Luciano Mestas that shows the family lineage (if certain questions can be resolved). Thanks to a great lady named Lorraine for some great help with family history research.

My Favorite Links

Angelfire - Free Web Space for own genealogy
A historical look at El Coyote (aka Lucero) as it is now.
Benner Genealogy
Maestas surname information
Genealogy forum on Maestas
Genealogy forum on Mestas
Genealogy forum on Arellano
The SurnameWeb
Family Search

Other Maestas Family Web Pages of Interest

The Fresques Branch by Stanley Lucero

Note: Stanley recently changed his genealogy information to http://www.lucerito.net/ancestors/index.htm. Stanley descends from my great grandfather Juan's step brother. Stanley has found vital information from the San Antonio Catholic Church in Penasco, Taos County, New Mexico.

Information concerning a Casias (wife Maestas) family who moved from New Mexico to Mancos, Colorado; and then moved to San Francisco, California.

Information about Jose de Jesus son of Jose Benito Mestas and Maria Gertrudis Pacheco.

BERONIS HURTADO writes (4 Nov 2006):

hi! 

I'm beronis zamora hurtado, and my mom was born in ojo feliz, new mexico.  I remember going to rainsville when I was a little girl.  There weren't many houses, and I don't know who we visited.  We probably went past the houses mentioned in the lucero webpage.
My cousin was Jose Maestas (on my dad's side), who resided in holman, new mexico.  They had a post office next to their house, and his wife was the postmistress way back in the 60's.


Getting back to ojo feliz, my
grandfather was buried on the side of the mountains cause he was a christian and went to church right next to his property. When he was lots younger he had a store.  My grandmother was buried in a catholic cemetary, but I don't know the name of the cemetery. If anyone knows, please email.  My mom's dad was otaviano sena, and my grandmother's maiden name was Alcon. My uncles were onesimo and  leoneres(leonard). I also had an aunt lasarita sena, junita mondragon, amadiquita vasques, and raquel.  My mother's name was amadita.


My cousin Rojedia and claudio lived not far from the catholic cemetary.  My cousin claudio vasquez, his sons Adolfo, and Leroy were buried in the catholic cemetary. The cemetary is in ojo feliz.  My cousin senida Dunlap was the postmistress in ojo feliz.  I would like to know more about the catholic cemetary and also the church.


If anyone has more information, please email me at klondike2009@live.com (this is an Aug 2015 UPDATE).


Thank you for taking the time to read my letter.


Beronis 


Maestas Families of San Miguel Co., New Mexico





Letters and Requests for Help

Eva Olivas wrote: 

My ancestors came from some place in New Mexico, and moved to La  Isla (now Ysleta), Texas).  My great grandfather's name was Francisco Mestas Bustillos.  They had land in what is now Cd. Cuauhtemoc, Chihuahua, Mexico. My great grandmother's name was Maria Maese.  I don't have exact dates, except that my grandmother, Rosario Mestas was born in 1917 in La Isla, Texas.  She recently passed away.  It would be interesting to find more information and to contact long-lost cousins. If we're related, please email me at: olivaseva@hotmail.com