Ines de Rodríguez de Valdez

In November 1593, during his testimony in a criminal lawsuit, Alonso de la Pontiga stated that he was married to a sister of Francisca Menendez [other witnesses gave her name as Francisca Menendez de Valdes]. This implies that Alonso de la Pontiga's wife was a Menendez but that is inconsistent with the reference in the Index at the Archivo de las Indias, which named Alonso de la Pontiga's wife as Ines Rodriguez de Valdes.

A possible explanation is that Ines, or Inez, used her mother's surname but testimony during the 1593 lawsuit revealed that Francisca Menendez' mother was named Catalina de Valdes.

Lorenzo Suarez de Longoria made his own last will and testament on July 25, 1665, but it does not settle the issue. Lorenzo named his mother simply as Ines de Valdes, which offers no clue as to whether Ines was a Rodriguez or a Menendez. However, the "de Valdes" in Inez's name does offer a possible connection of Inez with Francisca Menendez de Valdes.

Surnames are frequently abbreviated in documents of that era. For example, the scribe might write "Rdz" for Rodriguez and "Mdz" for Menendez, Melendez, or Mendez. Our own transcription (thanks to Jose Jaime Longoria) of the 1603 Expediente granting passage to Nueva España to Lorenzo Suarez de Longoria found that Inez's surname was abbreviated as either "Mez" or "Ndz". After again reviewing the original document we could not identify any mention of the surname Rodriguez anywhere in the document. Though the document is very difficult to read, I believe that the "Mez" or "Ndz" is more likely an abbreviation for Menendez than it is for Rodriguez. I therefore concluded that the correct surname for Inez should be Menendez; it was the name of a family well established in the area at the time.

However, the discovery of another document has again re-opened the question of whether Inez was a Menendez or a Rodriguez. This document in the Archivo de la Real Audiencia y Chancilleria de Valladolid, Registro de Ejecutorias,Caja 2690.0017, is identified as “Ejecutoria del pleito litigado por Pedro de Longoria, vecino del concejo de Salas (Asturias), 1639-07. Dated 1639, testimony in this lawsuit identifed Alonso de la Pontiga's wife as Inez Rodriguez de Valdes.

Assuming witness testimonies in all the lawsuits were accurate the task becomes one of arriving at a family relationship that does not contradict any of the testimonies. There are three possibilities: (1)Alonso de la Pontiga was married twice, first to Inez Rodriguez de Valdes and secondly to Inez Menendez de Valdes, or (2) Inez Rodriguez de Valdes was a half-sister of Francisca Menendez de Valdes, or (3) Inez was a full sister of Francisca but chose to use Rodriguez as her surname (perhaps because her mother was a Rodriguez?). Until additional evidence becomes available, I have chosen to show Inez Rodriguez de Valdes, wife of Alonso de la Pontiga, as a full sister of Francisca Menendez de Valdes.