Asturian-American Migration Forum

Hi everyone, I am from deep south Texas where my father's family lived for 200+ years. My surname is Solis and I have been told that it is an Asturian surname.

Can anyone tell me much about the surname and if there were any large migrations of people from Asturias to south Texas which was then part of The Viceroyalty of New Spain?

Any help is more than appreciated. Thank you!

Yes, Solis is a very old Asturian name. Here's a link to get you started.

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sol%C3%ADs_%28apellido%29

Hi, Solis:

Here, in Corvera, there is a place named “Solís” and it is related with the surname. The information below was taken from the book: History of Corvera of Asturias and its area" by Jesús Antonio González Calle (1996). I translated it for you (apologize for English grammar mistakes).

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The surname Solís had its beginnings in Tineo, in Aller and in the parish of Solis (Corvera). There are three different versions about the origin of the Solis lineage.

1) The first one is that of the Solis of Corvera. It is absolutely legendary and was wrote by Tirso de Aviles in his work entitled “Weapons and lineages of Asturias” (c.XVI). According to this work, at the beginning of The Reconquest and soon after the Covadonga Battle, the King Pelayo while persecuting muslims in Corvera sent ahead a group of his knights.

King Pelayo told them: “let go, that with the sun is”, what meant that they had time enough to achieve the mission before the sunset. The knights went then ahead and beated the muslims. The King Pelayo named the valley where the battle took place as Sol-is (= SOLIS) and awarded the knights with blazon and coat of arms.

2) The second version of the surname Solis is also doubtful and seems to be related with the Solis of Tineo. The history was wrote by Luis Alfonso del Carvallo in his work entitled “Antiques and memorable things from the Principality of Asturias” (c. XVII). He said in his book that the Solis lineage was descended from the asturian King Silo (second half of c.VIII) and from his natural son Adelgastro Siliz (which is supposed to be the founder, in 780, of the Monastery of Santa Maria de Obona, near Tineo).

The surname should be a derivative of Soliz or Siliz and this from Silo. According to this hypothesis, the surname should be descended from Adelgastro, the nobleman Sarracino Siliz (second half of c. X), father of Gudimena, Alexania, Brunilda and Mafarra Siliz. These women, donated in 1026, the place of Piññero (in Tineo) to the Monastery of Obono, that founded by their ancestor.

Mafarra Siliz got married with Gutierre Rodríguez. They had a son, Sol Martinez, who died in 1098 as it could be seen in the epitaph of his tomb: “Here lie Sol Martinez, son of Gutierre Rodriguez and Mafarra Siliz and died 2 August, 1136”.
The writer Alfonso del Carvallo claimed that the tomb of Sol Martinez was in the old cloister of the Monastery of St. Vicente de Oviedo, and that the tomb was in a very bad condition but that the coat of arms of the Solis was engraved on it.

3) Finally, the third version is related with the first House of Solis of Corvera. Luis Alfonso de Carvallo in his work “Genealogic news: House of Valdés”, said that the origin of the House of Solis dated back to the X-XI centuries and that was related with some descendants of Kings of León.

If you need more information, please let me know as in the book by González Calle there is a lot.
Yours,
Marta.

Many named Solis in France... http://www.namewizard.net/s/solis