Keywords

Family History, Spain, Elopement, Adoption, Orphan, Genealogy, Social Class

Abstract

The traditional family love story of Pablo Montaña and Exuperancia Fernandez San Juan relates how Pablo, a lower-class orphan in nineteenth-century Spain, was studying to be a priest when he met and fell in love with Exuperancia. He decided to leave the seminary so they could be married, however, Exuperancia’s affluent parents, did not want them to marry and threatened to take away Exuperancia’s inheritance. Determined to marry despite her parent’s opposition, Exuperancia decided to elope with Pablo. This research project sets out to answer three questions to validate the family story: Was Pablo Montaña an orphan? Did Pablo and Exuperancia elope? Was there an economic gap between the Montaña and Fernandez families?

Using all available documents in the family possession and other documents found in the archives in Spain, detailed in this report, the following evidence was found: (1) The birth and baptism records found confirmed that Pablo Montaña was not an orphan and neither was he adopted. He was born at 6 a.m. at the home of his parents, Victorio Montaña and Antonina Carnero. (2) The marriage record of Pablo and Exuperancia did not reveal any impediments to the marriage, showing that they did receive the consent of the parents and most probably did not elope. (3) Various documents specifying the occupation of members of the Montaña, Carnero, Fernandez, and San Juan families indicate that there may have been a socio-economic difference between the two families. More research is needed to verify other aspects of the family story.

Document Type

Report

Publication Date

2019-07-30

Language

English

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

History

University Standing at Time of Publication

Senior

Download

Share

COinS