Getty Villa, 2008

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Getty Villa. Malibu. 27 Dec 2008.

Cantabria

 

Cantabria. Google Maps.

The ancestral home of the Campuzano family is Cantabria, an autonomous community in northern Spain. The namesake village of Campuzano is next to or part of Torrelavega, the second largest population center in Cantabria. The family mentioned in the García Carraffa volume was from Cuchia, located north of Torrelavega.

Campuzano, Spain.

Cuchia, and its surrounding beaches, looks like a place I need to add to my travel bucket list. There are archives for the church in Cuchia (posting here for later research), although these may be under the administration of the Diocese of Santander. I might have to pair a visit to Cantabria with a trip to neighboring Basque Country as I learn more about my Vasquez and Suastegui ancestors too.

Cuchia, Spain.

From the Enciclopedia Heráldica

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Los Angeles, 9 Jan 2025.

My last post described the thin paper used for the transcription on the Campuzano family. The pages were copied from a huge volume published beginning in 1919 by two brothers, Alberto and Arturo García Carraffa. The 88 volume work is titled Enciclopedia Heráldica Hispano-Americana (English language Wikipedia entry here; Spanish language here), featuring over 15,000 surnames in alphabetical order, A through U. A posthumous publication expanded the surnames through Z to 17,000. The transcription helpfully included the citation, along with the volume (Tomo Veintidos) featuring the entry for Campuzano.

After a bit of digging online, I found a digital scan of the volume on FamilySearch (Campuzano begins on page 131 of the volume, image 82). Whoever wrote the note only transcribed the first two pages of the section on the Campuzanos.

García Carraffa. P. 131 on FamilySearch.

The Campuzano family took their name from the town of Campuzano, next to Torrelavega in the northern Spanish province of Cantabria. This family came from Cuchia, on the coast north of Torrelavega, and west of Santander. We do not yet know if we are descended from this Campuzano family line, but if we are, there's a rich history to learn more about. The entry above mentions Antonio de Campuzano de la Riva, the first Count of Mansilla. The title is still in the Campuzano family today.

A Y-DNA test on a direct male Campuzano descendant of Vicente Antonio Campuzano should be able to tell us whether our line descends from this prominent Campuzano family. Another option, but not as precise, would be to transfer an existing autosomal test to FamilyTreeDNA. Over the holiday break, they had a special $10 rate on the autosomal test transfer unlock for FamilyFinder. This means it cost $10 to transfer a test taken at Ancestry to FamilyTreeDNA and receive a Y-DNA haplogroup result (without the holiday discount, it seems to be $20, still totally reasonable). This will still provide a Y-DNA haplogroup and matches. I did this for my Dad's test with Ancestry, before taking my own combined Big Y, mtDNA and FamilyFinder test. Either way, we still need more Y-DNA testers on our Campuzano line.

I have a feeling that we are connected to this line, and I'm looking forward to reading further into the Spanish records. 

El Pino

 

El Pino airmail paper.

While visiting Campuzano cousins in LA, they shared a Spanish language transcription of research into the origins of the Campuzano family in Spain. There were three pages, written in pencil in Spanish cursive script on a thin onion skin paper. The pages did not appear to have been folded, and were rolled into a tube, labeled "important". The tube was recently found by the cousins in the past two weeks. I'm trying to figure out the age of the paper used. I've enlarged the image of the logo above to show the brand - El Pino Airmail paper. 

I am assuming the pages date from the late 1940s to 1970s, but I don't know for certain. Airmail paper can still be found today, although it is not widely used. We don't know who wrote the pages, but one paragraph was addressed to someone named, or nicknamed, Oliva. The author of the pages was providing information on what they had found while searching for the origins of the Campuzano family in Spanish records.

I'll have more on that transcription in the next post, which potentially points us to a much older and deeper connection to northern Spain than we previously knew. 

Rootstech 2025 schedule

The full schedule for Rootstech 2025 is now live. I'll be attending in person this year, for the first few days before continuing on to my own event in the Pacific Northwest. I've viewed Rootstech sessions online since attending last in 2013, so it will be great to be there live even for a few days. The schedule is packed with fascinating sessions, but with limited time on the ground I'll need to prioritize the ones that might not be immediately available online.