Crespo-Santovena Ancestors from Asturias

[Eleonore]

Hi Everyone, I am new to the list and this is my first post/query. I am Eleonore Crespo and I am researching my husband's family/ancestors who came from Asturias. I know this is primarily a Asturias-America migration site, but I hope you won't mind if I post my lines anyway, as they migrated from Asturias to El Salvador,Central America and eventually some of the family ended up in the US.
The earliest Ancestor we know of is JOSE CRESPO and his wife ANTONIA SANTOVEÑA, both from Asturias, born ca 1820s. They had at least two(probably many more children) known sons RAMON and JUAN JOSE CRESPO who left Spain before 1878 and came to San Salvador,El Salvador, C.A. There these two brothers married and some of their Grandchildren migrated to California,USA in the 1930s and '40s.
The only thing that is known for certain(from a death certificate of Ramon) is that his parents Jose and Antonia were from Asturias. Unfortunately no city or town is known. I am looking for any suggestion as to how I can proceed from here and narrow it down to a town. I also do not have a birth date for Ramon, only his death date and an approximation of when he might have been born, ca 1850. With this little information, is it possible to obtain a birth certificate from Oviedo Archives for Ramon Crespo?I thank you for all input,Eleonore

[Art: I added the ñ to SANTOVEÑA]
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Traducción Terechu


Hola a todos,
Soy nueva en este foro y este es mi primer mensaje/pregunta. Soy Eleonore Crespo y estoy indigando sobre la familia y los antepasados de mi marido que vinieron de Asturias. Sé que esta página es primordialmente de emigración Asturias-América, pero espero que no os importe si escribo un par de líneas de todos modos, ya que ellos emigraron desde Asturias a El Salvador y con el tiempo algunos miembros de la familia acabaron en los EE.UU.
El antepasado más antiguo del que tenemos conocimiento es JOSE CRESPO y de su esposa ANTONIA SANTOVEÑA, ambos de Asturias y nacidos alrededor a 1820. Tuvieron al menos dos (probablemente muchos más) niños, Ramón y Juan José Crespo, que se fueron de España antes de 1878 para irse a El Salvador. Estos dos hermanos se casaron y algunos de sus nietos emigraron a California en los años 1930-1940.

Lo único que sabemos con seguridad (por el certificado de defunción de Ramón) es que sus padres José y Antonia eran de Asturias. Lamentablemente no sabemos la ciudad ni el pueblo. Me gustaría recibir sugerencias sobre cómo proceder a partir de aquí para intentar centrarnos en un pueblo por eliminación. No tengo la fecha de nacimiento de Ramón tampoco, sólo su certificado de defunción y un año de nacimiento aproximado, 1850. ¿Sería posible conseguir un certificado de nacimiento de los registros civiles de Oviedo para Ramón Crespo. Gracias a todos por vuestra información.
Eleonore

[Bob]

Welcome to our forum. Please be assured that we interpret Asturian-American in the broadest possble sense. Anyone with an interest in Asturians who migrated to the Americas (not just the EEUU), Asturian culture, or related issues is very welcome to participate in our forum.

A quick search of the Spanish white pages shows the Crespo surname to be fairly common (with amost 400 entries as a first surname and a little over 400 as a second surname) , but the Santovena surname to be very rare with only 2 entries in all of Asturias as a first surname, both for the same person in Llanes. It might be worth writing to him.

The URL for the Spanish white pages is http://blancas.paginasamarillas.es/

Bob Martinez

[Eleonore]

Hi Bob, I was looking at the white pages of 'infobel' in Spain last night, specifically two cities in Asturias, Gijon and Oviedo, and the Crespos are well reprisented there ,
over 400 in those two towns alone, for Santovena there was 28 of them. I will look at the website you suggested and check it out.Thanks,Eleonore

[Eleonore]

I had another question: in the american research I found the naming pattern for people's children in the 1800s are like this:
the first born son is named after the father's father(grandfather of child), the second son is named for the Mother's father, the 3rd son after the father. Does this naming pattern hold true also for Spaniards?thanks,Eleonore

[Carlos]

Eleonore, are you sure that the family name is SANTOVENA, with N, and not SANTOVEÑA, with Ñ? I think that Santovena with N perhaps is a bad spelling in the phone book. I have found not 2 results, but 63 in first place (65 if you add the 2 that Bob says):

http://blancas.paginasamarillas.es/resu ... all=&nume=

In any case, the most of the people with the Santoveña/Santovena surname are from Llanes' Council (in Asturias, a council is a sort of "county"). All the data about births, marriages and deaths are recorded at the Civil Registry, but only since 1870. For the people born before, you must ask to the Catholic Church, since before 1870 they were the different parishes who were taking a record. With this link you can see a list of all the parishes of Llanes' Council:


http://www.vivirasturias.com/asturias/i ... index.html

I would write to each of them (the name of the priest and the postal address they appear to the left of the screen, omit the phone numbers), beginning for Posada, that is the last one of the list, and if it does not give proved, to other. If you do not speak Spanish, write this:

"Señor Cura Párroco de...(the name of the parish):

Mi nombre es...(your name), y estoy intentando localizar el lugar exacto de nacimiento de mis antepasados José Crespo y su esposa Antonia Santovena o Santoveña, ésta última quizás nacida en el concejo de Llanes, Asturias, probablemente sobre 1820, así como sus hijos Ramón Crespo Santovena/Santoveña y Juan José Crespo Santovena/Santoveña, que emigraron hacia América antes de 1878.

Le quedaría sumamente reconocido ante cualquier ayuda que me pudiera proporcionar. Desde ya reciba mi más profundo agradecimiento.

Atentamente,

(your name and address)"

If you need more help, please feel free to say it to me.

Regards from Asturies.

[Eleonore]

Hola Carlos
Thank you for the website of the Churches in Llanes and the spanish letter to the Priest. I can speak a little spanish, but this is much better.
Yes the name is spelled with an "~" over the 'n', but I don't know how to put it over the 'n' with my computer
My husband and I are going to visit Asturias in the Fall of 2005 and I am hoping to have a lot of information by then, to take with me, so perhaps we can visit some of the Santovena graves and also the Crespos, if I can find what town they are from.
Are you familiar with www.mapquest.com I typed in the name 'Santovena' for Spain and it showed up as a Village off Highway AS-115, about 1hour2 minutes from Gijon. Are you familiar with this village?Thanks again for the information,Eleonore

[Art]

Welcome, Eleonore!

While you're in Asturias, be sure to try to look up the living Santoveña and Crespos. (I say that with a chuckle, but I'm serious, too.) Asturians tend to have a deep interest in those who emigrated and many will be happy to meet and help you.

Also, you can easily add the accents to your typing by following one of several methods described in this thread:
http://www.asturianus.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=280
Using the proper accents will be very important in your search.

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¡Bienvenida, Eleonore!

Mientras estás en Asturias, trata de visitar los vivos de las familias Santoveña y Crespos. (Digo este con una sonrisita, pero también en serio.) Los asturianos tienden a tener un interés profundo a los que emigraron y muchos serán felices encontrar y ayudarte.

También, puedes añadir fácilmente los acentos con tu teclado siguiendo un de los varios métodos descritos en este hilo:
http://www.asturianus.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=280
Usar los acentos correctos será muy importante en tu búsqueda.

[Terechu]

Hi Eleonore,
Santoveña is a tiny hamlet in the county of Amieva up in Asturias's "Picos de Europa" mountains. It has 17 inhabitants and belongs to the parrish of Sames. If you come to Asturias, do go see it. It is without a doubt the origin of your surname and hence of part of your family.

Cheers
Terechu

[Eleonore]

Hi, thanks for the information on the village of Santovena (~) in Asturias. I will definitely pay a visit, how exciting! I also found a town called 'Crespos' near Avila(not Asturias, but on the way); not sure this is 'our' ancestrial beginnings, because of the extra 's' at the end.
Anyway, I wrote to the first Parish in the area of Llanes "Santa Maria de Posada de Llanes" to see if I can find the exact town or village where my people lived,married and/or died. I think maybe now I'll write another letter to the Parish of Sames, just in case
I also took a look at the website of the Civil Registro, to see if I could perhaps order a death certificate for Antonia Santovena(~) Crespo, but with no idea of a date, only maybe "after 1877" which is very broad, I wonder if they would search? Has anyone else made online requests with very little information like this? I am so glad I found your forum! Take care from 'HOT' California,Eleonore

[Bob]

It is possible that the surname Crespo does not have a geographic origin. The word itself can mean frizzy or curly hair in castellano.

Bob Martinez

[Carlos]

Eleonore, besides the small village called Santoveña in Amieva's council, exists another place called Santoveña in Llanes's council, belonging to the parish of Posada de Llanes ("Santa María de Posada de Llanes" is only the official ecclesiastical name, but no one names the place on this way). Apart from these two villages in Asturias, other two or three exist more in the north of León's province, which is just the territory that does border with Asturias at the south.

This is not strange at all, because for centuries the language of Asturias and of León was the same, and Santoveña is the contraction of two words: Santa + Oveña, which is the same name that in Spanish Santa Eufemia.

In any case, if I recommend to you to search in Llanes it is because it is in this council where it appears major numbers of subscribers in the list of the telephone directory with this surname.

On the other hand, the Crespo surname I do not believe that it has any relation with the place called Crespos in Avila. It is easier than the name of this place derive from that of a family, possibly in the epoch of the Reconquest, in the Middle Ages.

I believe that Bob is right when he associates the surname Crespo with a physical description (curly haired). Like in English, in Spanish there are a few surnames that have relation with the physical aspect of a person. At first it would be a kind of alias for a person, but that later all his descendants inherited and it remained fixed as a family name. For example: Blanco (White), Prieto (Black-haired), Moreno (Brown), Rubio (Blonde), Rojo (Red-haired), Cano (Grey-haired), Calvo (Bald), Gordo (Fat), Obeso (Obese), Delgado (Thin), etc. Similar were the surnames related with a job: Carpintero (Carpenter), Zapatero (Shoemaker), Sastre (Taylor-Tyler) and others...

In general, this type of surnames are not too ancient, let's say that of the epoch of the Catholic Kings (King Fernando of Aragón, Queen Isabel of Castilla)-Cristopher Columbus (15th century). On the other hand, the Santoveña type is previous in approximately 3-4 centuries.

Possibly you will have also a heraldic shield. If I verify which is I will show it to you.

Regards from Asturies.

[Terechu]

Eleonore, I don't know if you'll get anywhere with the Registro Civil unless you have an exact birth date. We are dealing with overworked civil servants here and they will not go to a dusty archive and look up battered old registers for hours. I recently requested a death certificate for my father, and although I had the exact date, since I forgot to state the place of death (name of the hospital), they said they couldn't find it. !!!
You may be lucky, but don't get your hopes up too high, just in case.

Terechu