Asturian-American Migration Forum

I'm looking on any information on the towns of Loro and Selgas which are in the Council of Pravia. My great Grandfather, Luciano Rodriguez Menendez (son of Fernando Rodriguez and Filomena Menendez) as born in Loro. My great grandmother Natividad Fernandez (daughter of Baldermo Fernandez and Barbara Lopez) was born in Selgas. I was hoping that someone may know of any Parish in the area were I can see if I can find where my great great grandparents may have been buried. Any help is appreciated.

Translated section done with Lycos translation website.

Estoy mirando en cualquier información sobre las ciudades de Loro y de Selgas que están en el consejo de Pravia. Mi gran abuelo, Luciano Rodriguez Menendez (hijo de Fernando Rodriguez y de Filomena Menendez) según lo llevado en Loro. Mi gran abuela Natividad Fernandez (hija de Baldermo Fernandez y Barbara Lopez) nació en Selgas. Esperaba que alguien puede saber de cualquier parroquia en el área era yo puede ver si puedo encontrar dónde mis grandes grandes abuelos pudieron haber sido enterrados. Se aprecia cualquier ayuda.

Hello Spdairy:
I have some information about these villages.

Loro (Llouru in Asturias) is a little village in the parish of Folgueras (Pravia). It is located in a hill (300 m) between two rivers, Sobario and Condia. Loro is 14 km far from Pravia. It has only 80 persons living there and there is a little church dedicated to San Lorenzo.

Selgas is a parish itself and the church is dedicated to San Pedro. It belongs also to Pravia. The river crossing the village is Aranguín. Also, only 85-90 persons are living in Selgas.
The Selgas church is beautiful, with several "barroco" altarpieces and a chapel dedicated to Virgen de Covadonga.
Selgas is the surname of an aristrocratic family that lived there. In fact, there is a palace known as the Selgas's palace, wonderful.
I hope this may help you,
Yours,
Marta Elena

It is important to figure up if your great-grandparents were born before or after 1870. If they were born after 1870 you can find them in the Civil Record (CR) of the concejo of Pravia where it is easier (and cheaper) to find people birth certificates. Please, be aware that in the period 1870- 1880 you should expect some under-recording in the CRs because the Civil Record law was "brand new" at the time and not everybody (especially in small places) was aware of it.

If they were born before 1870 your only option are the parish records where, in theory, you can find baptismal data since the end of the Trento Council (¡¡1563!!). The truth is that only a few parishes in Asturias have data earlier than 1600. In your particular case, the baptismal record of Folgueras starts in 1792 and the BR of Selgas in 1856.

There is a direction recommending the parishes to send the old books to a central location in Oviedo (the Archivo Diocesano). You can found the books from Folgueras in the Archivo Diocesano and the books from Selgas in the parish.

If you need some help on how to contact them, please let me know.

Kind Regards,
Miguel.

My great grandfather, Lucianco Rodriguez Menendez was born on Dec 25, 1885 and my great grandmother, Natividad Fernandez was born on December 27, 1887. My grandmother's birth certificate from Spain, which was a statement rather than a form like used in the US, listed both her parents and her grand parents (my great great grandparents) and where each of them were born and if they were living. If I can get the same information on them it will be helpful in going back.

I would appreciate the infomartion on how to contact them.
Thank you for your assistance.

I had been told that on my great grandmother's side of the family that we were descended from royalty. My Great-great grandparents were Baldermo Fernandez and Barbara Lopez. They were from the town of Selgas.

When I was going through my old posts I came across this old post regarding the town Selgas from Marta Elena Díaz García

"Selgas is a parish itself and the church is dedicated to San Pedro. It belongs also to Pravia. The river crossing the village is Aranguín. Also, only 85-90 persons are living in Selgas.
The Selgas church is beautiful, with several "barroco" altarpieces and a chapel dedicated to Virgen de Covadonga.
Selgas is the surname of an aristrocratic family that lived there. In fact, there is a palace known as the Selgas's palace, wonderful."

I started to think that maybe that this might be the connection to royalty. Does anyone have any info on the Selgas family? Any help will be appreciated.

Thank you.

Jeff

Hi, Jeff,

There are significant differences between the ideas of royalty, nobility, and aristocracy. Of course, they all wake up in the morning have to to take a leak just like the rest of us.

You'll want to read this thread about Asturias' hidalgos and the inheritance of titles:
http://www.asturianus.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2452

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Hola, Jeff,

Hay diferencias significativas entre las ideas de la realeza, la nobleza y la aristocracia. Por supuesto, todos se despiertan por la mañana y tienen que mearse al igual que los restos de nosotros.

Querrás leer este hilo/tema sobre los hidalgos de Asturias y la herencia de títulos:
http://www.asturianus.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2452

I would add to what Art has said that we are doubtless all descended from royalty, whatever that means. Our number of ancestors (excuding inbreeding) doubles in every generation, so only ten generations back we each have over 1000 ancestors, and twenty generations ago we each have well over a million ancestors. At four generations (25 years each) per century, 20 generations is only 500 years. The population of Asturias at that time was far less than a million people.

Every time I read that explanation, Bob, I find myself wondering what percentage of our lineage is "doubled up" by in-breeding, or at least in-lineage breeding. (I'm not sure how to define in-breeding. With a few generations separation would it still be called in-breeding?) It seems likely to be quite high, given the small areas from which our ancestors selected mates. Heh, and I took a bride who lived just two blocks away.

It also occurs to me that marriage, with occasional exceptions for outstanding beauty or wealth, probably tends to occur within the same social stratum.

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Cada vez que he leído esta explicación, Bob, me pregunto sobre cuál porcentaje de nuestro linaje sea "duplicado" por la endogamia, o por lo menos casarse dentro del linaje. (No estoy seguro cómo definir endogamia. ¿Con unas pocas generaciones separación todavía lo llamaría endogamia?) Parece probable que sea bastante elevado, dado las zonas limitadas de dentro que nuestros antepasados seleccionaron compañer@s. Heh, y tomé una novia que vivía sólo dos calles/manzanas de mi casa.

También me ocurre que el casamiento, con ocasionales excepciones por belleza o riqueza excepcional, probablemente tiende a ocurrir dentro de el mismo estrato social.

This information has been quite an education. I have been working on the assumption that these two lines of the family were always from Asturias. I'm not sure is generations back my ancestors moved to or fled to in the case of the Moor invasion to Asturias. It would seem from the one book I red "The Story of Spain" that these family probably were living in Asturias for several centuries.


Unfortunately, I was late getting interested in genealogy never discussed it with my grandmother before she died in 1989. My grand aunt (her sister) may be of some help with information.

Inbreeding is usually expressed as an inbreeding coefficient, which is fairly easy to calculate, but which measures only known sources of inbreeding (i.e., above the overall population risk). For example first cousins (assuming that the parentage records are correct) share 1/16 of their genes in common, by reason of descent from known common ancestors (the two common grandparents). However, the population is always inbred and no one knows about it in their individual cases because the common ancestors are lost in history.

There are ways of estimating the latter type of inbreeding. I'll look for a good link to post.

Thanks, that'd be interesting, Bob. That second type is exactly what I was wondering about.

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Gracias, Bob. Sería interesante. La segunda clase es exactamente la que estaba pensando.

Hi everyone!!! My name's Adrián Núnez-Martínez and my family is originary from Selgas. In fact, my mother was still born in Selgas and did some of her Primary School there, before the family decided to move to the then prosperous and dynamic Nalón basin mining area. Although I don't go there as often as I should, my mum tries to be there at least twice a year to pay a visit to her relatives and friends in there.

Spdiary 306, it is probable that your great great grandparents be buried in the cemetery of Selgas, since it is really old. The reason why people from Selgas had long ago a cemetery while the rest of people from nearby parishes had to be buried in the central cemetery in Pravia, nobody could ever tell me. I guess it had something to do with the population, since Selgas always was one of the most populated parishes. Anyway, if you want me to check out whether your great great parents are buried there, as well as if you still have some family living in Selgas, that would be no problem for me.

Sincerely Yours,
Adrian

I plan on contacting parrishes in the Pravia area for records on my family but I need help to deterime where I need to direct my inquires.

My Great-Grandfather Luciano Rodriguez-Menendez was born in Loro, parish of Folgueras, Pravia. From pervious posts I was told that the church was deicated to . I am assuming that is the name of the church.

I recently found out that the wife of his nephew (Arsenio Rodriguez-Castro), Purificación del Barrio Rodríguez was buried in the family vault in the parrish cemetery of Santa María de Folgueras.

I am not sure if they still have their old records or if they have been sent to the diocese archives. Does anyone know where I can get an addresses for these churches?

Also I know that it is suggested to include a donation along with record requests. Is their a sucggested amount for the donation.?