Tamez or Tames from Llanes, Asturias and Mexico
Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2005 3:29 am
In another message about the 2005 Potomac Celtic Festival, I wrote:
MEETING OTHER ASTURIANS
In talking to one visitor, Steve McClelland (who I think was wearing a 1883 Victorian Scottish Highlander soldiers uniform outfit), I learned that he was 1/16 Asturian. His ancestor, an Asturian named Tamez, had emigrated to Mexico. He also told me that this man was thought to be the ancestor of all people named Tamez in Mexico. Later I introduced Steve to Alfonso, telling him about the Tamez ancestor. Alfonso was amazed, because he was also related to a Tamez in Mexico! Cousins! One wore a Highlander uniform, the other a traditional Asturian costume, but both are Asturians.
Well, not quite. Steve tells me that his family name was "Tamez," but that his mother thought it was "Tomas." Alfonso has an ancestor named Tomas, so they're not cousins after all.
Steve wrote the following to me by email:
The name was always Tamez or Tames. Spelling seems less standardized
in previous times and many of the records are handwritten so I wonder if
one penman's "z" was another penman's "s". The name was always given as one of the two spellings and was never anglicized. The great change came when my great, great-grandmother, Maria Francesca Tamez Rodriguez, moved to the United States with her husband and their oldest child. She simply became Frances Jones (at least to the Census taker); we have different naming conventions here.
The trace back to Llanes came in one of the books by Guillermo Garmendia Leal that I bought from Borderland Books in San Antonio, Texas. (www.borderlandsbooks.com --I notice that the website says they will close the retail bookstore and become strictly Internet).
Garmendia Leal seems pretty reliable so far; everything he has written where I have looked at the microfilm of the original records checks out. I'll have to get my stuff out and write it out for you.
I read somewhere (which I'll have to find) that essentially everyone
in Mexico and the USA named Tamez or Tames is descended from the Tamez who was born in Llanes about 1670 and moved to Mexico as a young man. The names are uncommon in the United States in 1990. The Census Bureau ranks Tamez as the 7363rd most common name and Tames as the 25050th most common name. If you go the www.census.gov/genealogy/www and click on the Spanish surname link there is a list of the 639 most common hispanic surnames on page 20 [of the original paper not in the pdf numbering system]. Tamez ranks 595 out of 639. The Tames spelling is too uncommon to list.
....
Actually, come to think of it, my mother swore up and down that the name was Tomas but she never saw it written down and was reconstructing it from her high school Spanish. She did talk to the granddaughter of the oldest child (who was born in Mexico) when she was a teenager. The grandaughter supposedly saw the actual marriage record in person but only told my mother about it verbally one night. When I looked at the microfilm I looked for the groom predicting that Jones would stand out like a sore thumb in Mexico (and it did).
MEETING OTHER ASTURIANS
In talking to one visitor, Steve McClelland (who I think was wearing a 1883 Victorian Scottish Highlander soldiers uniform outfit), I learned that he was 1/16 Asturian. His ancestor, an Asturian named Tamez, had emigrated to Mexico. He also told me that this man was thought to be the ancestor of all people named Tamez in Mexico. Later I introduced Steve to Alfonso, telling him about the Tamez ancestor. Alfonso was amazed, because he was also related to a Tamez in Mexico! Cousins! One wore a Highlander uniform, the other a traditional Asturian costume, but both are Asturians.
Well, not quite. Steve tells me that his family name was "Tamez," but that his mother thought it was "Tomas." Alfonso has an ancestor named Tomas, so they're not cousins after all.
Steve wrote the following to me by email:
The name was always Tamez or Tames. Spelling seems less standardized
in previous times and many of the records are handwritten so I wonder if
one penman's "z" was another penman's "s". The name was always given as one of the two spellings and was never anglicized. The great change came when my great, great-grandmother, Maria Francesca Tamez Rodriguez, moved to the United States with her husband and their oldest child. She simply became Frances Jones (at least to the Census taker); we have different naming conventions here.
The trace back to Llanes came in one of the books by Guillermo Garmendia Leal that I bought from Borderland Books in San Antonio, Texas. (www.borderlandsbooks.com --I notice that the website says they will close the retail bookstore and become strictly Internet).
Garmendia Leal seems pretty reliable so far; everything he has written where I have looked at the microfilm of the original records checks out. I'll have to get my stuff out and write it out for you.
I read somewhere (which I'll have to find) that essentially everyone
in Mexico and the USA named Tamez or Tames is descended from the Tamez who was born in Llanes about 1670 and moved to Mexico as a young man. The names are uncommon in the United States in 1990. The Census Bureau ranks Tamez as the 7363rd most common name and Tames as the 25050th most common name. If you go the www.census.gov/genealogy/www and click on the Spanish surname link there is a list of the 639 most common hispanic surnames on page 20 [of the original paper not in the pdf numbering system]. Tamez ranks 595 out of 639. The Tames spelling is too uncommon to list.
....
Actually, come to think of it, my mother swore up and down that the name was Tomas but she never saw it written down and was reconstructing it from her high school Spanish. She did talk to the granddaughter of the oldest child (who was born in Mexico) when she was a teenager. The grandaughter supposedly saw the actual marriage record in person but only told my mother about it verbally one night. When I looked at the microfilm I looked for the groom predicting that Jones would stand out like a sore thumb in Mexico (and it did).
