On Saturday, September 24, 2022 at 12:32:44 PM UTC-7,
kingofr...@gmail.com wrote:
Maybe Douglas Richardson can help me?
Given that he focuses entirely on England, I wouldn't think so.
A baptismal entry for an ancestor of mine on the Island of Lipari, near Messina, Sicily, has writing, squeezed at bottom of the register page, in a different hand, reading "''Maria Armala Hurtado's father as Alonzo filius qm Giorgio Urtado de Mendoza
Avemaria de Duca del Infantado, et Carita Carrozza capo a conte de la Sorppa, et Porsia Voi qm Bartoli''."
In 1610, Alonzo Hurtado, Gente del presidio di Lipari (soldato), aged 55, was enumerated in the Island Census with wife (Porcia), and their three children (Felipe, 19; Juan, 10; Maria); one male servant (Cola, 13); and three maids (Antona and
Francisquela—with her child, Domingo, 3).[3]
Let's start by saying that this is the kind of question that is notoriously frustrating for genealogists - a soldier showing up in a foreign country claming to be related to famous people, but not providing the precise connection. Even notable historical
figures such as Miles Standish and Hernando de Soto can't be connected with their respecitve prominent families with certainty.
First, what can we milk out of the records you have provided? Alonso was born about 1555, likely placing his father's birth in the 1520s-1530s. The father's name, Giorgio, alias Jorge, was relatively uncommon in Spain. Alfonso used Hurtado as a
surname, but whether it formed part of his father's surname is unclear (more on this to follow). His wife's name is odd. Carita, perhaps is a diminutive of 'cara', so basically 'little dear one'. Carrozza currently refers to a fried cheese sandwich,
which makes for an odd surname. Still, I am leaning more toward Italian tha Iberian. And finally, the claim is being made, not once but twice, to a descent from the dukes of Infantado (the second one is hidden - this branch was sometimes specified
either as that of Guadalajara, or as the Ave Maria branch [words that appear on their arms], and this presumably is what Avemaria refers to in Jorge's name.
Turning to the dukes, as you mentioned, the first duke was Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, both son and father of men named Iñigo López de Mendoza. This is immediately telling us that at the time of the first duke, the name 'Hurtado' was not part of the
surname, but rather was a part of the given name. We can see that this man was named, in full, for his grandfather Diego Hurtado de Mendoza (in turn named for another Diego Hurtado three generations earlier). Though there seems to have been some
promiscuous use immediately after the introduction of the byname into the family in the early 13th century, by the time of the first duke it was largely restricted to use as a second name for men named Diego (just as López was used as the second name
for those named Iñigo). It was only a few genertions later that its use as a second name expanded to children named Juan and Luis. This expansion, in some lines but not others, would eventually become universal, being used for every child, and in turn,
since everyone in the family had names ending in the same identical elements, would have come to be viewed as part of a compound surname. Clearly with the record calling your man Jorge Hurtado de Mendoza (not Hurtado y Mendoza or Hurtado Mendoza - those
would mean different things), he belonged to one of the branches that at a minimum had begun expanding its usage, and perhaps a branch in which it had already become a compound surname.
He appears to have been of the generation of the children of the 4th duke, so a great-great-grandson of the first duke, or perhaps even a generation closer if he came from a string of younger sons. There is one final caveat - Iberian surnames were not
exclusively paternal, so there is the possibility that he was connected to the family maternally, but it seems unlikely in this case.
I would suggest, then, that you focus on branches of the family that were using the byname Hurtado for more names than just Diego, and perhaps for everyone (care must be taken with this, as a lot of internet genealogies don't understand the naming
evolutions and arbitrarily assign name elements from father to child or sibling to sibling that were not transmitted in a systematic manner.) Since Carita's name looks more Italian than Iberian, look for branches that had connections to Italy (e.g. this
family gave rise to several churchmen who were at Rome), and finally, look for other occurrances of the name Jorge.
The sad truth, though, is that you are unlikely to solve this, particularly since there were a slew of illegitimates of one of the dukes who could have spread far and wide seeking their fortune, any one of whom could have been father of your Jorge, but
who would not appear in standard accounts of the ducal family.
taf
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