Juan Montoya and his three wives

Among the names in the 1818 list of Socorro residents who contributed goods to a military campaign against the Navajos is a man by the name of Juan Montoya. Juan Montoya is as generic of a name that a person can find in New Mexico. It is very easy to confuse various men by that name - especially in Socorro where the Montoya surname is common. What is worse is when a person with a common name has more than one wife. A certain Juan Montoya is a case in point.

I figured that Juan Montoya, who was married to Maria Manuela Garcia (Jurado) was one of the men enumerated in the early 1818 Socorro list. Although I have yet to find a marriage record for this couple, their first daughter Maria Josefa Montoya was born on 6 December 1819 in Socorro, New Mexico. The baptism was record in Belen, as the San Miguel Church in Socorro had yet to be built. Josefa's brother Juan Nepomuceno was born on 11 March 1822. Through his San Miguel baptism, I figured out that Juan Montoya's parents were Antonio Montoya and Guadalupe Salazar, while Maria Manuela Garcia Jurado's parents were Francisco Xavier Garcia (Jurado) and Maria Josefa Sanchez. Francisco Xavier Garcia Jurado was another founder of Socorro; he was also enumerated in the 1818 list.

In the 1845 Spanish Census of Socorro, don Juan Montoya and Maria Monica Ortega are listed with three children: Pedro, Juan de Jesus and Francisco. Previously I found the baptisms for Jose Pedro and Juan de Jesus Montoya in the Socorro church records as children of Juan Montoya and Maria Manuela Garcia Jurado. As such, I deduced that those two children mentioned in the 1845 census were the same children, with Francisco being the son of Juan Montoya and one of his wives. Maria Monica Ortega is listed as 25 years old, while Francisco was 8. It is very possible that Francisco was Monica Ortega's son, so I have him listed as such. I have yet to find a baptismal record for him.

By 1847, Monica Ortega had passed away. On 15 August 1847, the Socorro marriage record of Juan Montoya and Maria Tomasa Luna indicated that Juan was a widower of his second marriage to Monica Ortega. This means that Juan was married three times. Although the marriage record does not indicate who Juan Montoya's parents were, by piecing together all of the clues, it appears that this is this same Juan Montoya. As such, it is very probable that Juan Montoya, the son of Antonio Montoya and Guadalupe Salazar, was married to three women: Maria Manuela Garcia Jurado, Maria Monica Ortega and Maria Tomasa Luna.

For source citations of the above article, and for a list of Juan Montoya's descendants, click on the link below:

Juan Montoya's Descendants