Hispanic Surnames and Family History

This is an exhaustive review of the development of Spanish surnames in Latin America and the Hispanic United States where there are obvious links between Latin American and Spanish families. (The word Hispanic refers to persons born in Latin America or the U.S. whose parents spoke Spanish and whose principal cultural background was Spanish; Latin America refers to those countries south of the U.S. border, including Puerto Rico and Cuba; and the phrase Hispanic United States refers historically to California, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida.) One of the principal aims of the book is to show the dispersion and commonality of Hispanic surnames throughout the Americas, with studies showing: (1) the top 1,000 Hispanic surnames in the U.S. and Latin America; (2) l,500 surnames studied by the Institute of Genealogy and History for Latin America (sponsors of this work); (3) the 12,567 Hispanic surnames in the 1980 U.S. census; and (4) surnames unique to particular Latin American countries. At the very heart of the book is a bibliography of Hispanic family histories in the U.S. and Latin America, certainly the most extensive list of its kind ever compiled. Read more