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347 Background The first genealogical account of the Domínguez de Mendoza family was researched, compiled, and written by fray Angélico Chávez, representing the second-longest family section of the first part of Origins of New Mexico Families in the Spanish Colonial Period. Chávez extracted bits and pieces of information about the Domínguez de Mendoza family from scattered references among copies of original Inquisition documents housed at the University of New Mexico, as well as from published translations of documents relating to the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. With the publication of Origins of New Mexico Families in 1954, Chávez presented the first comprehensive historical and genealogical account of the Domínguez de Mendoza family for interested historians and genealogists. He solidly documented three generations, beginning with Tomé Domínguez and Elena Ramírez de Mendoza. Fray Angélico Chávez determined that the Domínguez de Mendoza family came to New Mexico from Mexico City by the mid-seventeenth century , and he documented that the children of Tomé Domínguez and Elena Ramírez de Mendoza used the extended surname of Domínguez de Mendoza. As adults these children occupied important military and civil posts and were economically and socially prominent citizens of New Mexico. The Domínguez de Mendoza children and grandchildren married into numerous other New Mexico families of the same social status, including Anaya Almazán, Carvajal, Durán y Chaves, García de Noriega, López Mederos, Lucero de Godoy, Márquez, Paredes, Romero, and Varela de Losada. Clearly, as related by Chávez, the multiple intermarriages between members of the Domínguez de Mendoza and the Durán y Chaves clan, along with the events of the Pueblo Indian Revolt of 1680, were most influential regarding the history the Domínguez de Mendoza family. The military service records of Juan Domínguez de Mendoza contain valuable historical and genealogical information about the Domínguez de Mendoza family and their maternal ancestors. The single most illuminating document concerning this family’s genealogy is the surviving record of the proof of lineage for Elena de la Cruz, also known as Elena Ramírez de Mendoza, the wife of Tomé Domínguez and the mother of Juan Domínguez de Mendoza. Apparently, the collection of military services records for don Juan Domínguez de Mendoza also included records of the proof of lineage for his father, Tomé Domínguez. France V. Scholes noted that the collection was missing a set of documents that he said were related to the proof of lineage of Tomé Domínguez. This set of records, torn from the collection, 348 Part Three would have provided details about Tomé Domínguez’s parents and grandparents and served as a genealogical treasure for descendants of the Domínguez de Mendoza family. The information concerning the ancestry of Elena de la Cruz and the military service papers of Juan Domínguez de Mendoza were intended for publication in the 1940s, but the book Scholes proposed to the University of New Mexico Press as part of the Coronado Cuarto Centennial Celebration was not completed. Although Scholes and fray Angélico Chávez knew each other, the Domínguez de Mendoza genealogical information and the military service records in Scholes’s possession apparently did not come to Chávez’s attention. As such, none of the additional information from these important documents was incorporated into Chávez’s account of the Domínguez de Mendoza family. Scholes enlisted Eleanor B. Adams to translate the documents from the military service records of Juan Domínguez de Mendoza and apparently did not have Adams work on a translation of the proof of lineage of Elena de la Cruz. Instead, Scholes wrote a very brief summary (see document 1 in part 1) providing only the basic genealogical information found in the record. A copy of this summary remained part of the Scholes collection housed at the Center for Southwest Research at the University of New Mexico. The photostat copy of the original proof of lineage remained in the possession of Scholes until it was passed on to Marc Simmons, along with the other documents relating to the military service of Juan Domínguez de Mendoza. The following section provides a detailed account of the information found in the proof-of-lineage document, which will prove to be invaluable to the interested genealogical researcher for extending the lineage of Elena de la Cruz into Spain. Subsequent sections...

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