TGSA Famous Ancestors of Northeastern Mexico Series

Descendants of Isabel CASTRO and Capitán Fernando ÁLVAREZ CERDA

ALTERNATE NAMES: Fernando Álvarez Canales de la Cerda, Hernando Álvarez Canales de la Cerda, Fernando Álvarez Canales de la Cerda y Herrera, Isabel de Castro de la Cerda y Figueroa

DNA: Isabel Castro’s mt-DNA haplogroup is K1a4a which is Jewish.

ABOUT ISABEL CASTRO and Capitán FERNANDO ÁLVAREZ CERDA: In “With All Arms”, Duaine says “In the records of the nobility, the origin of “de la Cerda” is very clear. The phrase means “of the bristle”..... The eldest son of Fernando X, (the Wise), King of Castile and León and claimant to German lands, was born with an abnormality. The babe's head was bald as an egg except for one lone black bristle, so “de la Cerda” became his nickname.”

Fernando Álvarez Cerda, sometimes known as Hernando Álvarez Canales de la Cerda, was born about 1560 in Sevilla, Andalucia, Spain to parents Alonso Núñez de Badajoz y Canales de la Cerda and Cecilia Jarada de Herrera. Fernando married his cousin Isabel de Castro de la Cerda y Figueroa who was born about 1567 in Figueroa, Arzúa, La Coruña, Galicia, Spain whose parents were Alonso Castro and Josepha de Castro. Both came from families of a long line of noblemen who were merchants and well educated, the Arias de Avila family and the Casa de la Cerda family.

Not much is known about either Fernando or Isabel. What is known is that they were born, married, and had five children. When they moved to Mexico is not clear. Also not clear is exactly when and where they died. Fernando died about 1602 and Isabel died about 1651.

Per Crispín Rendón, Isabel and Fernando had three children: Inés, Pedro, and Alonso. Other sources have this couple with five children as listed below. Some think that these five may all be children of Fernando but that only the three listed by Crispin are children of Isabel.

1.) Fernando Canales de la Cerda, born in San Martin, Sevilla, Spain in 1582, made a name for himself as a soldier in Chile, Bolivia and Peru. In 1607 he married a cousin, Lorenza Belluga de Moncada y Figueroa in Chile. They were the parents of three sons and three daughters. He died in 1638 in Tarija, Peru (now Bolivia).

2.) Inés de la Cerda, born about 1590 in Spain, was Bernardo de los Santos Coy's first wife. They married in Mexico and by 1627 had settled in Saltillo where they lived in her brother Pedro's house.

3.) Pedro de la Cerda, born about 1601 in Reinos de Pini, Spain, is documented as being a priest in Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico in 1624. In his will, recorded in Saltillo on 21 March 1651, he left as heir his sister María and his nephews Alonso de Castro and Joseph de los Santos Coy Cerda. He died in Coahuila, Mexico in 1651.

4.) Isabel de la Cerda Castro married Felipe de San Miguel in Mexico.

5.) Juana María de la Cerda, born about 1603, married about 1621, Tomás Flores Ábrego, son of Pedro Flores Valdez and Melchora Ábrego. Juana María died in Mexico.

This Descendant Report extracted by Crispín Rendón from his personal database in September 2022 consists of 9 generations and 26,715 descendants and spouses.

BOOKS:
Aquellos Primeros Saltillenses (an eBook) by María Elena SantosCoy Flores.

Geobiográfico de Cuarenta Mil Pobladores Españoles de América en el Siglo XVI by Peter Boyd-Bowman.

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

Intro by TGSA
DNA association & Descendant Report by Crispín Rendón

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