TGSA Famous Ancestors of Northeastern Mexico Series

Descendants of Beatriz QUINTANILLA and Capitán Diego TREVIÑO

ALTERNATE NAMES: Beatriz de Quintanilla; Diego de Treviño; José Diego Treviño; Diego de Tremiño

DNA: Beatriz Quintanilla’s mt-DNA haplogroup is J1b2. Diego Trevino’s yDNA haplogroup is E-M35.

ABOUT BEATRIZ QUINTANILLA and CAPITÁN DIEGO TREVIÑO:
According to current DNA research, if your roots run deep in South Texas and Northeastern Mexico, there is a high probability that Capitán José Diego Treviño and Beatriz Quintanilla are your biological ancestors. Unfortunately, this couple's own family origins remain a mystery.

To complicate things, on some genealogy websites, there is evidence to suggest that Capitán José Diego Treviño is being confused with Fray José DiegoTemiño, brother of Capitán Baltasar de Temiño de Banuelos (abt 1530) one of the founders of Zacatecas, Mexico. That family used the surname Temiño de Velsasco y Banuelos.

In contrast, early Mexico City baptismal church records for the children of Capitán José Diego Treviño and Beatriz Quintanilla show his surname spelled as Tremiño.

Regardless, Diego, Beatriz, and their family apparently prospered. In a 1603 Declaration of Intent as he entered Nuevo León, their son, Don José Treviño appears to be quite wealthy.

The surname Treviño is seen in many variations including the above mentioned Temiño and Tremiño. The actual origin is uncertain, but the most compelling theory is that it is from a Northern Spanish town located just south of the Basque country whose name means “dweller near a boundary stone touching three districts”.

There is also a curious legend that the Treviño name is attributed to Rodrigo Fernández de Unda, a capitán in King Don Pelayo's army during the early part of the Spanish Reconquista against the Moors. It is said that he presented his monarch with three Moorish trophies and was rewarded with a Knighthood and ordered to take a much-needed rest and to drink “Tres Vinos” (Three Wines), one for each trophy.

The parents of Beatriz Quintanilla are generally acknowledged to be Bartolomé Martín Quintanilla y Quintanilla (abt. 1512) and Juliana Farías Valencia (abt. 1520) but as in the case of her husband Diego Treviño, source documentation is scarce or non-existent.

The children of Beatriz Quintanilla and Capitán José Diego Treviño married into other influential Spanish colonial families. Through them, many of us have inherited the very familiar surnames associated with the early history of Nueva España, Nuevo León, Northeastern Mexico and South Texas including de la Garza, Rodríguez, García, Flores, Ábrego, Ayala, Cantú, and Salazar to name just a few.

Perhaps soon DNA research will help identify the ancestors of this important historical couple to whom we owe much.

This Descendant Report extracted by Crispín Rendón from his personal database in September 2022 consists of 9 generations and 75,467 descendants and spouses.

BOOKS:
With All Arms by Carl Laurence Duaine, revised and edited by his son Laurence A. Duaine.

Index to the Marriage Investigations of the Diocese of Guadalajara, Volume 1, by Raúl J. Guerra, Jr., Nadine M. Vásquez, Baldomero Vela, Jr.

Origin of Surnames Garza and Treviño in Nuevo León by Tomas Menderichaga Cueva, translated by Edna Garza Brown.

Intro by TGSA
DNA association & Descendant Report by Crispín Rendón

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