Asturian-American Migration Forum

Hi Everyone!

I have to say. Thank you very much in advance for your time, and the time you spend giving information in this forum. I think is very "sweet" from you.

I hope some or any of you will be able to help me.

Okay.

I have gone over the several subjects of this forum, specially genealogy and I could not find anything related to "Fernández-Ahúja" last name.

My grandpa "mi tata" was born in Gijón, 1909. His name was José Fernández-Ahúja Martínez. His father "José María Fernández-Ahúja Bravo (born in Cudillero) and his mother "Angela Martínez".

My gandpa and his brother fled to America by themselves, ages 10 and 13, and never returned to Spain.

So I´m trying to locate relatives from him (and me), and of course his birth certificate, (we are not sure he was ever registered). If he was not, we have little hopes of finding relatives, but if he was I guess, it should be easier.

About the birth certificate I checked and the Consulate told me it would take 6 months aprox to locate and give us a copy! which I´m not even sure exists!

Another question (if I may) haha: I´m seriously thinking of going to Asturias and ask (look) for a copy of the birth certificate myself. Where should I go to? and any idea if the "registration office" can have it ready from one day to the other, or does it take time?

Okay so, thank you so much. !!!!

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Trans. Ana


¡Hola a todos!

En primer lugar gracias por vuestro tiempo y el que empleáis facilitando información en este foro. Considero que es muy amable de vuestra parte.

Muy bien. He consultado distintos temas en este foro, especialmente el de genealogía, y no he encontrado nada relacionado con el apellido “Fernández-Ahúja”.

Mi abuelo, “mi tata”, nació en Gijón en 1909. Su nombre era José Fernández-Ahúja Martínez. Su padre, nacido en Cudillero, era José María Fernández-Ahúja Bravo y su madre Ángela Martínez.

Mi abuelo y su hermano emigraron solos a América con 10 y 13 años y nunca volvieron a España.

Por eso estoy intentando localizar a alguno de sus familiares, así como su partida de nacimiento (no estamos seguros de que fuera inscrito). Si no fue inscrito, tenemos pocas esperanzas de encontrar algún familiar, pero si sí lo fue supongo que será más fácil.

Consulté lo de su partida de nacimiento y en el Consulado me dijeron que tardarían unos 6 meses en localizarla y darnos una copia, que ni siquiera estoy segura de que exista.

Otra pregunta (si me permitís) jaja: Estoy planteándome seriamente ir a Asturias y solicitar (buscar) una copia de la partida de nacimiento. ¿A dónde debería acudir? ¿Sabéis si en el “registro” pueden tenerla lista de un día para otro o lleva tiempo?

¡Muchísimas gracias!

Parece que tienes un par de parientes en Asturias, uno en Cudillero, y otro en Aviles, aqui los puedes ver:

http://blancas.paginasamarillas.es/jsp/ ... v=Asturias

Puesto que dices que tu bisabuelo nació en Cudillero, si preparas viaje a Asturias, te gustará el pueblo, mira que bonito es:

http://www.cudillero.org/

http://www.ayuntamientodecudillero.com/Portada.htm

En la página del Ayuntamiento, hay una ventanilla virtual, posiblemente en ella te puedan ayudar en tu busqueda
Aunque si sabes exactamente en que Juzgado esta inscrito tu padre, la certificación te la darán en el momento.

Mil Gracias!
Eres un amor!

Ya es un comienzo!

Caro

Dear Isabel,

Mi name es Jose M. Fernandez-Ahuja and I'm from Aviles, a town near Cudillero, who is the birth place of all fernandez-ahuja arround the world.
Maybe it' s origin came from Fernandez Aguja (needle) used by the fishermans, but I think in the old days some guy change the leter.
Maybe in some grade, we are family (far far far relatives), but not necessarly. If you are looking for the dates of birth there are 2 ways depending on the year or even the century your ancestors were born. En ESPAÑA, when a child born, he is registered as you maybe know on the REGISTRO CIVIL a book who write the judge of the town. But the if they are CATHOLICS, they are registered also on a book who wrte the father. Actualy only the CIVIL REGISTER is prescripted by the law, but in the old days, the CIVIL REGISTER didn`t exist (I think it was created at the last of XIX century). This is the reason for that if yor gran grand grand .... father was bor for instance in 1870 maybe it is only registered on the curch book.
It is possible write to the judge of Cudillero requesting for the information if you know exactly the names, dates, etc but it will take a lot of time. You can also write to the father of San Pedro de Cudillero (the name of the church) asking (in spanish, please) for the information. It will be easy if you tell him if you relate some information (name, surname, dates...)
Another question, In Spain all borns are registered, and is a fact your grands so, the problem will be find them in old han written books.
Regarding going to spain it's a great idea if you have some days, because the judge need some time to look for the certificate.
If you write to the father of San Pedro, I think he will be very kind to help you finding José María Fernández-Ahúja Bravo's birth certificate
I have read on the other post that the register office man will give yoy the copy, but it's not exactly. If you are a citizen of CUdillero, giving him the exactly information as: my father was... and my mother was.... The were born on 2-2-1901, he will give you on the moment, but if you tell him " I think... I don`t remember the year, ...." it takes a few or months look for that. Even whn I look for a birth certiificate I didnt found!!!. A certificate of 1900 is an historic information who takes its time (you can imaginate if I look for an old information for instance about a man killed on Gettysburg civil war battle or if I wold like some information about Eli's island inmigration, it will take a time look for some Luigi Caruso who arrived between 1907 and 1909, for instance: )
PS Are you living on the Netherlands or in U.S.A, wich state ?
Sorry for my english and for the boring answer :)

Hola que tal,

Dear Marisa,
I have posted some information about it in the upper post. You can read it in english.
Fernandez-Ahuja is not a common surname, and his origin is in fact Cudillero. I have an old letter from Cincinnati OH talking about D.Ahuja, a man who emigrated to Mexico and latter to USA.
Why dont you preserve the original Fernandez-AHuja as surname?
You can look for images in the web about Cudillero, a very beautiful town (all are beautifuls tows) on the norther shore of Spain

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Lo traduzco al español, Art:))

Querida Marisa
He posteado alguna información en el post de arriba, puedes leerlo en inglés.
Fernandez-Ahuja no es un apellido muy común, y su origen está en Cudillero.
Tengo información desde Cincinnati OH acerca de D.Ahuja, el cual viajó primero a Méjico y luego a USA.
Porqué no conservas el apellido original completo?
Puedes buscar en la web información acerca de Cudillero, un precioso pueblo (todos nuestros pueblos son bonitos), en la costa norte de España

Ah ha! Thanks for the translation, Mallo! That's great and it helps us.

Was the original name two-part: "Fernández-Ahuja"? Or was there a simple last name of "Ahuja" earlier?

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¡Je je! ¡Gracias por la traducción, Mallo! Es fantástica, y ayudanos.

¿Tenía el apellido dos partes ("Fernández-Ahuja") originalmente? ¿O había anteriormente un apellido simple de "Ahuja"?

I don't think so, I think it was always F-Ahuja, but I remember (do not where) it was and old Aguja, and maybe evolution onto Ahuja and it was added Fernandez, do not when, why or who.
Nevertheless there is a lot of F-A in Cudillero, for instance the famous Elvira Bravo L ´Amuravela composer (not a relative of me), we are a few.
PS. The people of CUdillero are named "pixuetos"

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No creo, pienso que siempre fue Fernadnez-Ahuja, pero creo recordar (no se donde lo leí) que hubo un antiguo Aguja que posiblemente evolucionó hacia Ahuja, y que fue añadido a un Fernandez, no se cuando, porqué o por quien.
De todas maneras en Cudillero hay muchos F-A, por ejemplo la conocida recitadora de L' Amuravela(no familiar) Elvira Bravo F-A, somos unos cuantos.
PS a los originales de Cudillero se les llama "pixuetos"

Bueno, bueno, los pescadores nada más, ¿eh? Que los otros son "caízos"

Is there more than one family crest or coat of arms for the surname Fernández? What are some examples?

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¿Hay más que un sello o "coat of arms" para el apellido Fernández?

¿Qué son algunos ejemplos?

nota: Ya no sé como decir "coat of arms" ¿Es "algo de armadura?

I think coat of arms is escudo de armas.

Hi, Eric,

As I understand it, the crest or shield might be passed on to the eldest son, but it's not passed on to the entire family.

Terechu has explained it here:
http://www.asturianus.org/forum/viewtop ... =4198#4198

There are probably a lot of different coats of arms of people named Fernández. Fernández means "son of Fernando" and there were many Fernandos. That means that we're not all related. Unless you have a grandfather or father who was noble, I'd think it would be unlikely you could claim one of the escudos as yours.

Of course, there are companies that would be happy to sell you a copy of the "Fernández coat of arms!"

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Hola, Eric:
Como lo entiendo, quizá el escudo esté pasado al hijo mayor, pero no está pasado a la familia entera.

Terechu lo ha explicado aquí:
http://www.asturianus.org/forum/viewtop ... =4198#4198

Debe ser muchos escudos de personas llamadas Fernández. Fernández significa "hijo de Fernando" y hubieron muchos Fernandos. Eso significa que no somos todos parientes. A menos que tu padre o tu abuelo fuera noble, me parece que sería poco probable que puedas reclamar un escudo.

¡Por supuesto, hay negocios que estarán encantados venderte un dibujo de "el escudo Fernández"!

Thank you both Bob and Art. This was a question from my grandmother. I told her we probably didn't have a coat of arms. Our family were just farmers and miners.

An amazingly high percentage of Asturians (supposedly 75.4%) were rewarded with the lowest level of nobility, hidalgo, for their service in the reconquest. These were not stereotypical nobles because most were very poor farmers who had to continue working to survive.

I'm not sure, but I think a coat of arms came with the higher seigneurial levels of nobiity, not the rank of hidalgo.

I'll post a few snips from pages I enjoyed reading.

David E. Vassberg wrote:Because the Reconquest started in the north, and [92] only gradually moved south, there was an unequal geographical distribution of the Castilian nobility. In the far north nearly the entire population claimed hidalgo status, and was accepted as such. In Asturias, for example, 75.4 percent of the vecinos were hidalgos in the sixteenth century, and in the Trasmiera district of the old province of Burgos it was 84.8 percent. Few of these were titled nobility, and most of the population -- though noble -- was made up of ordinary working people. Naturally, these included peasants, most of whom had little or no property. At the other end of Spain, in Andalucía the proportion of nobles was very small.

LINK

Renate Lellep Fernandez wrote:A large proportion of Asturians bore the title for different reasons: (1) for being descendants of those who fought in the Reconquest, (2) for genealogically having proved in the courts of the fifteenth through eighteenth century their "limpieza de sangre" (purity of blood), i.e., that neither Jews nor Moors figured among their ancestors. The latter condition was relatively easy to establish in Asturias where, through the mid-nineteenth century, well over 90 percent of the population was rural. As the lowest rank of nobility (after caballeros who obtained their titles through military service), hidalgos were exempt from taxes and from torture in jail and could not be jailed for debt. Much of the privileges of title disappeared in the nineteenth century, 1830 being the last year in Asturias when hidalgos were still listed officially. Recommended reading: Noel Salomon, La vida Rural Castellana en Tiempos de Felipe II. Madrid: Ariel (1982); also Ramón Prieto Bances, Los hidalgos asturianos en el siglo diez y siete (Oviedo: Universidad de Oviedo), pp. 761-870. (The above paragraph resulted from a pers. conv. with Eloy Goméz Pellón.)

But the notion of hidalgo lingered on in Asturias, perhaps because—even after the waning of privileges—many Asturians continued to be exempt from taxation, owning too little land to be taxed.

LINK

Renate Lellep Fernandez wrote:Likewise, the honorific Spanish title hidalgo (hijo de algo : son of something) obtained over centuries in Asturias a significantly different connotation from the rest of Spain. On the southern side of the Cantabrian range, the title was reserved for those who, as a reward for heroism in battle, were granted wealth and status. Near the western Pyrenees, the title was, for political reasons, accorded to everyone born in the Basque country (Greenwood 1977). In Asturias, the term was accorded to every man—and his descendant—who had played a part in the initial expulsion of the Moors. In other words, ordinary Asturians for legendary-historical reasons had a claim to the title, and through this generalization, the term in Asturias lost its distinction and even become associated with an impoverished condition. In Asturias, hidalgo could thus come to mean "landless" and was, among other things, used ironically to designate transhumant herders such as the Vaqueiros of western Asturias who passed over other peoples' properties and common land. Among otherwise sedentary Asturians, they formed an often marginated underclass treated in some valleys as socially inferior. Often enough, and ironically, the creation of stock types by the literati of Madrid helped to visit such prejudicial attitudes upon provincials in general. In this process, Asturians came to be portrayed as boastful, impoverished, and closeminded.

LINK

Ah, it's a glorious heritage we share!

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Había un porcentaje muy alto de asturianos (supuestamente 75,4%) que fueren recompensados por sus servicios en la reconquista con el rango de nobleza, pero del nivel más bajo: hidalgo. Estos no fueron los nobles estereotipadas ya que la mayoría fueron agricultores muy pobres quienes tuvieron que seguir trabajando para sobrevivir.

No estoy seguro, pero creo que los escudos eran asociados con niveles de nobleza más alta, los rangos señoriales y no el de hidalgo.

Voy a pegar algunos recortes de páginas que disfruté leer.

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¡Ah, es una herencia gloriosa que compartimos, ¿no?!

En Pillarno exisitó un cura en 1912 que se llamó Sergio Fernadez Ahuja y Argudín