Matanzas

Founding Families

The following information was extracted from a transcription of the originals in the Libro Capitular of the first cabildos and elections for the government of the city of Matanzas. The original documents are in the archives of the historian of the city of Matanzas. These transcriptions were supplied by a relative of Nery Alfonso and are extracts which mention some of their common ancestors. We are very grateful to Nery for supplying a copy of these transcriptions and allowing us to publish them in CubaGenWeb. For those who would like to try their hand at desciphering the original transcriptions, here is a scan of the documents:

Transcription of the Introduction and Folios 18, 19, 88 and 90

After pubication of the partial list, extracted from the above document, another CUBA-L reader, Aleida Santana, was kind enough to provide us with the remainder of the names which she was able to extract from the following references:

1. Memorias de un Matancero, by Pedro Antonio Alfonso (Matanzas, 1854)
2. Magazine "La Lucha" (Second Edition, 1931)

According to Aleida, the two books include a large number of lists of names, such as the governors, captains, mayors, etc. And "La Lucha" has, among other items, reports on shopkeepers and tradesmen of the main towns of the province in 1931.

Here are the most pertinent facts about the founding families extracted from the above sources:

Introduction

The city of San Carlos y San Severino de Matanzas was founded by Royal Decree (Real Cedula) of 25 September 1690 which decreed that the Bay and Port of Matanzas be settled by 30 families which, by Royal Order, were sent from the Canary Islands.

Folio 18

In 30 October 1693, a drawing was held to distribute the 33 caballerias of land "in accordance with the applicable Law of the Indies", as attested by the public scrivener (clerk), alferez Juan de Uribe Ozeta, with the following results:

Note: The transcription of Folio 18 ends with #20. The remainder of the names have been provided by Aleida Santana, who extracted them from the book by Pedro Antonio Alfonso previously mentioned.

FOLIO 19

We suspect that this second list refers to the distribution of lots (solares) which followed the distribution of lands. Pedro Antonio Alfonso, in his book, relates that "These same settlers and others who did not take lands but only lots, named Julian Diaz Gonzalez, Pedro Perez, Urbano Perez y Diego Felipe de Bosa, took possessin of their respective (lots) on 22 of October, afixing same with the ceremony of promenading and performing other acts of posession quietly and peacefully, and since the same formalities with respect to the lands received by the settlers had been previously given up, the public scrivener (clerk), alferez Juan de Uribe Ozeta, was able to absent himself, returning to Habana on the 10th of November."

Please note - the terminology describing the lots is somewhat imprecise, we tried our best to translate the meaning. We marked with a "(?)" those places where our interpretation may be questionable - please let us know if you have a better interpretation. 1 vara (in modern day Cuba) = 32 inches (81 cm) - the Diccionario de la Lengua Española states a vara had different length in various Spanish regions and varied from 30 to 36 inches (76.8-91.2 cm). 1 caballeria (in Cuba) = 13.43 hectares.

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