I found connections to New Mexico while researching parts of my Dads family and I found that we have German, French and Spanish heritage that come to us through the same family lines. In my search I found record of Jacinta Maria de Torres (Spanish) wife of Raimonde Vessiere (French) in Arkansas Post which at that time was the first settlement in what would become the state of Arkansas but what was at that time part of the Louisiana Purchase area. According to Morris Arnold in his book Colonial Arkansas 1686-1804 A Social and Cultural History found on page 68 it reads "For instance, Indians had stolen Jacinta Maria de Torres at Santa Rosa de Lima de Abiquiu, a Spanish settlement fourty -five miles north of Santa Fe; she was lucky enough to find a reasonable husband in Raymond (Raimonde) Vessiere, who purchased her at the Post (Arkansas Post) in 1775." After finding this information I began to back track and see what if anything I could find about Jacinta. With the help of several other people connected to Jacinta and a researcher from New Mexico Pat Sanchez Rau, we believe that we have traced Jacinta as good as we can back to her roots in New Mexico. Pat sent the following information that she found. In the Spanish Archives of New Mexico I 1685-1912 several entries mentioning the name Torres in court preceedings or land transactions. One mentions Marcial Torres, inventory and settlement of estate, Santa Cruz jurisdiction. (Torres was killed by Comanche Indians in the Taos Valley.) 1763 Other findings by Pat were Marcial Torres and his second wife had an estancia outside of Abiquiu. On Aug 4 1760, there was a raid by Comanches and they killed Marcial, his son Pablo, his son in law Julian Jacques and took as captive Marcial's second wife Maria de la Luz Martin and there two children; Marcial's daughter from the first marriage Jacinta (wife of Julian Jacques) and their baby; the wife of Pablo Torres (Francisca Salazar) along with a sister of Maria de la Luz Martin (who had been married to another son of Marcial Torres) and another son Cristobal Torres. There was never a recorded report as to what might have happened to these captives, they were all assumed killed by indians and that is what we find in the family information listings now. As a result of the deaths and capture of so many of this family the father of Maria de la Luz Martin , Antonio Martin gave testimony when trying to get a settlement for the two children that were left orphans along with his grandson. There was a dispute when other living children of Marcial thought the goods and estate were form the first wife - mother of Jacinta, whose name was Maria Martin y Lujan. Pat also sent me parts of that testimony that are pertinent. In this testimony names of children from both marriages were listed. Jacinta is listed as daughter of first marriage who is in captivity and who was married to Julian Jaques (who was killed by Comanches) from which union there was one child named Francisca who was also taken captive with her mother. It is not known what happened to Francisca, as she is not mentioned as being with Jacinta in Arkansas.

Our conclusion is though there is no solid proof that the Jacinta taken captive in New Mexico and the Jacinta that turns up in Arkansas Post are the same, but it appears that all the history that has been found , the dates and the testimonies all corroborate that Jacinta Maria de Torres in Arkansas Post is the same Jacinta Torres taken captive in 1760.

The one person in all this that I have little info for is Jacintas mother reported to be Maria Martin y Lujan. I can not seem to put anything together for her. I would love to find out more about Jacintas mother now that we "think" we have solved who Maria Jacinta de Torres Vessiere is and where she came from. As a side note Jacinta and husband Raimond (Raymond) were married until his death. Russell Scroggins sent me information saying that Maria Jacinta de Torres, widow of Raymond Vaisiere, native of Santa Fe in the Kingdom of New Mexico married Martin Serrano, native of the city of Caudete in the Kingdom of Murcie and son of Michel Serrano and Marie Banon, soldier of the Louisiana Regiment. This was dated July 9, 1786 and found in the Abstract of the Catholic Register of Arkansas 1764-1858 The Myra McAlmont Vaughn Collection.

It has been an interesting journey, but I am not ready to give it up yet as I hope to one day continue the lines through Maria Martin y Lujan as well.

Well, I had what I think is a fun idea and I have started working on mine already. I have put 2 galleries in my photo section one titled Photo Tree where I am trying to put as many photos as I have of my DIRECT family lines. This will take some time as I am still working on trying to find photos and if I get them from other folks getting permission to use them. I also started one called Historical Places. Many are places near me that I have visited in the past or just take for granted since I live in the area . Along with each photo in the comments area I added some of the history of the site or the local area  giving everyone a history lesson of the area and help us all remember the importance of these places in our history , and maybe help some folks find future vacation spots. It will be fun I think ...a virtual vacation...lol