Juan Rodriguez de Fontanes Garcia & Isabel Lopez de Zamora Malave

Juan Rodriguez de Fontanes Garcia is my 9th great grandfather. To many of you he may be your 8th great grandfather or even 10th great grandfather.  It all depends which generation you connect with him.  While I was able to find my Bayala 5th great grandfather arriving in Puerto Rico in 1803, he happened to marry a direct descendant to Juan Rodriguez de Fontanes Garcia.

In tracing back the line, I found it easier to connect the dots via marriage records and some birth records.  The good thing is that locating records for this line has been much easier due to the marriage records being available.

So Juan Rodriguez was actually born sometime around 1640 in Guevara, Alava, Pais Vasco, España.  I will have to search records in Spain to see if I can locate his birth record.  However his marriage record to my great grandmother, Isabel Lopez de Zamora Malave can be found online.  They were married on February 2nd, 1669 in the cathedral, Nuestra Señora in San Juan, Puerto Rico.  It was through this record that he states where he was born and that his parents were Alvaro de Fontanes and Maria Garcia.  You can locate the record in Libro 1 of marriages on Folio 103v.  This means Book 1 and on the back of page 103.

Juan Rodriguez de Fontanes Garcia & Isabel Lopez de Zamora Malave Marriage Record

His wife, Isabel, was identified as being born on the island and that her parents were Miguel Lopez de Zamora and Augustina Malave.  Their son, Diego does drop Lopez and keeps Zamora, he is my 8th great grandfather Diego Fontanes Zamora.  I’m sure this couple had other children but I haven’t captured or research for them. I believe that eventually I will have to add any siblings that I come across.  I do see some Malave DNA cousins and they may be related via Isabel, however it will require deeper research to find the connection to my genetic Malave cousins.

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