Translation is as given.
In law 6, title 6, book IV, of the summary of the Laws of the Indies, His Majesty states the following:
In order to honor any persons and their children, or legitimate descendants, who may undertake to found settlements, when they have concluded and established such settlements, we hereby make them land-holding nobles, (Hijos Dalgo de Solar Conocido), so that in that settlement and in any other part of the Indies they may be known as land-holding nobles (hijos dalgo) and persons of noble lineage and estate, (solar conocido); and, in order that they be known as such, we hereby grant them all the honors and prerogatives that all landed noblemen and knights of these kingdoms of Castile should have and enjoy, according to the laws and privileges of Spain.
Therefore, by virtue of this law, His Majesty shall declare, as I by these presents do declare, each and every one of the persons included in these fifteen families, their children, and legitimate descendants, to be noblemen (hijos dalgo de solar conocido), and as such they shall be considered, and accorded all the honors and prerogatives, enjoyed by all landed noblemen and knights of the kingdoms of Castile according to the customs (fueros) and laws of Spain, with which His Majesty has been pleased to honor them. The proper dispatches bearing this declaration shall be issued to them by my superior office for their use whenever they shall request them. This dispatch shall be kept in the archives of the superior government council. The governor shall let them know the contents thereof, and he shall give them any official copies (testimonies) of it they may request.
Mexico City, November 28, l730.
El Marquis de Casa Fuerte
By order of His Excellency,
Antonio de Aviles (witness)
Our Family: From Rodriguez to Nava
Salvador Rodriguez was born in 1688 on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Island chain, a Spanish archipelago of seven islands off the coast of northern Saharan Africa. Salvador’s parents were Francisco Rodriguez, also of Tenerife, and Isabela Delos Reyes, of the island of Lanzarote, also in the Canary Islands chain. Salvador was described as having an athletic build, green eyes, and a broad face, with a dark complexion, graying black hair, and a thick beard. In the Canary Islands, he made his living as a cheese maker.
Salvador married the former Maria Perez Cabrera, also born in 1688, on Lanzarote, to parents, Domingo Cabrera and Maria Perez. Maria Perez Cabrera was described as attractive, with a long face and thin nose. She had a dark complexion with light-gray eyes and black hair. The couple married young and lived on the island of Lanzarote.
By 1715, the couple had a son, Patricio Rodriguez. Patricio was fifteen when the family left on their journey to New Spain. He was described as being of medium height, slender build, with a thin face, a dark complexion, and light-brown eyes with chestnut-colored hair.
In 1741, Patricio married Josefa Granado. Josefa was a member of the fourteenth registered Canary Island family who also journeyed from Lanzarote to their new home in New Spain. Patricio was killed on August 9, 1748, by Apache warriors during the campaigns of Pedro de Rabago y Teran against frontier Indian incursions. Josefa never remarried.
Josefa Granado was born Josefa Rodriguez Granadillo, in 1720, the daughter of Juan Rodriguez Granadillo and Maria Rodriguez-Provayna, on the island of Lanzarote. She was about ten years old when her family began the journey to New Spain. She was described as having a full face with a reddish flat nose and chestnut hair. Her father, Juan, died shortly after arriving at Vera Cruz on May 5, 1730. Tropical fever had been rampant throughout the area, and several people had been afflicted and perished, including another fellow Isleño Lucas Delgado, who died shortly after Juan. Both men were buried in Vera Cruz. Josefa’s mother, also known as María Robaina de Bethéncourt, her maiden name, or simply María Granado, passed away on January 26, 1779, in La Villa de San Fernando de Béxar.
Josefa herself died on August 5, 1796, also in La Villa de San Fernando de Béxar. Patricio and Josefa had four children before his death. They were María Expectacia, Brigida Tomasa, Patricio Antonio, and Salvador II. His oldest was a daughter, Josefa Rosalia, born sometime between 1731 and 1736. It is possible that her mother was not Josefa Granado; nevertheless, she was raised by her.
Josefa Rosalia, called by her middle name Rosalia, was married three times during her life. The first was in 1752 to Jose de Castro, the great-grandson of Juan de Castro, one of the original soldiers of the 1716 Ramon expedition to the area.34
Rosalia’s second marriage was in 1773 to Blas Maldonado from the Punta de Lampasos, an outpost of Nuevo León built for defense against the natives of the North. Her third marriage was in 1775 to Juan Jose Sánches, a soldier.
María Expectacia was born sometime between 1741 and 1745. She married Domingo Castelo on June 2, 1760. Domingo was from the presidio of San Luis de las Amarillas and was the son of Domingo and the former Antonia Nuñez. He was born around 1725–1745, in Lugo, a city in the northwestern region of Spain called Galicia. The couple had one daughter, María Trinidad, born 1763. He died on September 22, 1766. Maria then married Manuel Jose Salinas, born in 1722, in Rio Grande, in Coahuila, New Spain.35
Brigida Tomasa was born in 1746, but it is unknown if she ever married. Young Patricio Antonio Rodriguez was born on November 22, 1748. He married Ana María de la Fuente on April 3, 1780. The couple bought a lot of land on Calle Real from Juan Manuel Ruiz in the summer of 1782. In 1796, he then acquired the property of his sister, Rosalia, part of his parents’ land holdings east of those belonging to Salvador Rodriguez.
The youngest son of Patricio and Josefa was Salvador Rodriguez II. He was born in La Villa de San Fernando de Béxar in 1749. Salvador II married Maria Gertrudis de la Pena. The couple had six children: José Ignacio, José Manuel, Jose Francisco, Maria Zaragoza, Mariana, Maria Antonia, and Mauricia. His first wife having died on October 6, 1782, Salvador II married Maria Luisa Guerrero in 1786; she was the daughter of Mathias Guerrero and Luisa Angulo. Maria Luisa was born January 12, 1748. With his second wife, Salvador II had two children: José Maria and Maria Josefa.
A daughter from his first marriage, Maria Antonia Rodriguez, was born in 1774. She married José Antonio Flores de Abrego, son of the famed José Joaquin Flores de Abrego, Texas rancher and patriot of the American Revolution as declared by the Sons of the American Revolution in 1996. José Joaquin had gathered Texas longhorn cattle and furnished them to General Bernardo de Galvez in Louisiana to help feed his five thousand troops locked in battle with British forces near Baton Rouge and Manchac.
Maria Antonia and José Antonio Flores had a total of ten children. Their daughter, Maria Gertrudis Eusevia Flores, married the famed Colonel Juan N. Seguin, a hero of the Texas Revolution and namesake of the city of Seguin. Their son, Jose Maria Victoriano, married Seguin’s sister, Maria Lionides Seguin. Four of Maria Antonia’s sons also fought for Texas independence alongside Colonel Seguin: Manuel Flores, Salvador Flores, Nepomuceno Flores, and Jose Flores.
Salvador II and Maria Gertrudis’s son, Jose Francisco de Jesus Rodriguez, was born in 1782. He married a woman named Maria Antonia Ruiz, born 1771. Salvador II, having died in 1804, never had the chance to meet his one grandson from the couple, Crecencio Rodriguez, born in 1814. Up until at least 1860, Crecencio lived in San Antonio and Bexar County. However, sometime after that point, he moved, leaving the city his family helped to found. Crecencio moved to Pleasanton and married Rosario Robles. Their daughter, Maria de Jesus Rodriguez, known as Jesusa, was born on September 15, 1870.
Jesusa met Celso Eugenio Nava, a Mexican immigrant ten years her senior, and the couple fell in love. It is unknown if the couple met in Rockport or just decided to live there, but it was Rockport where they settled. Celso, known as Eugenio, worked his entire life at a meat market in Rockport that was owned by the Roe family. The pair had eight children over the years, six of whom were born while the couple had yet to be wed.
On October 31, 1904, Eugenio and Jesusa were married