Nobility

Summary

Relationship with noble families has been established by conclusive evidence Calderón - Spanish noble family that includes some Counts and a famous playwright - Details

Relationship with noble families has been established with a reasonable degree of certainty None

Relationship with noble families appears to exist but has not been established with certainty Gonzaga - Noble family from Northern Italy - Dukes of  Mantua - Details Colonna - Italian family of great antiquity and the highest nobility - Details Lecca or Leca -  Family descended from the Greek emperors of Byzantium - Details Manrique de Lara - Noble Spanish family - Counts of Castile, King of Asturias - Details Medici - Famous Italian noble family related to the Gonzagas and Colonnas - Details Pizarro -  Noble family from Trujillo, Spain that includes Conquistador Francisco Pizarro - Details Pizarros of Antiquity - Kings of León, Castile, Galicia and Asturias  - Details Yupanqui - The Inca Emperors of Tawantinsuyu - Details

Relationship with noble familes has been investigated but does not appear to exist Farfán de los Godos - Ancient Spanish family of knights - Details Gonzales de Prado - Rewarded with hidalgo status during the conquest of Perú - Details Jofré or Jufré - Spanish noble family whose most famous member was General Juan Jufré - Details

Levels of Proof

The main objective of this site is to promote the effort to document and clarify the linkages between the ancient Seminarios and the noble families.  "Conclusive evidence" is achieved when the existence and relationships of each person in a genealogical tree are proven by contemporaneous documents, such as certificates of baptism, marriage and death.  A child's baptismal record serves to prove the identity of the parents and their relationship to the child.  Other contemporary documents that can serve to establish identity and relationships are wills, patents of nobility, ancient genealogies or histories, court records, etc. The tree must reach back to a person of proven or historically recognized nobility.

The consensus of online trees is not conclusive evidence.  This consensus has some probative value, as it may reflect information from family records or that has been passed orally from generation to generation.  However, much of the information that shows up in the trees has been shared through some type of online matching process.  If a fact is incorrect, repeating it 20 or 30 times does not increase its validity.

It would be wonderful to move all of these surnames to the "conclusive evidence" block, and we plan to keep on trying, but it may not be possible because the documents cannot be found or just do not exist.  Consequently, there is a second category of "reasonable certainty".  The "Details" links at the end of each line move to an article where I review the existing evidence, explain why it reaches or does not reach the level of reasonable certainty, and describe the questions and issues that still need to be resolved.  Each reader can decide whether the proofs and arguments presented are sufficient.  I greatly appreciate any comments or suggestions.  They can be sent to bob@noblezaseminario.com.

Sharing the Work

Another objective in setting up this site is to promote crowdsourcing.  The idea is that if a task is difficult, and it exceeds the resources of one person, it can be shared among people interested in the results.  Each one does a little, the work is coordinated online, and the goal is achieved more easily.

The Seminarios have a fascination with genealogy.  I believe that it has been fostered by their ancestors, by the sense that they were proud of their history and heritage.  But until now, each researcher has worked on his own.  Undoubtedly we have duplicated our efforts and perhaps advanced slowly.  By working together, there is at least the possibility that we can advance faster and publish our findings in a format available to all present and future Seminarios.

If the idea of working together interests you, the article How you can help explains the process.

My idea is not new.  Edwin Seminario Coloma tried to do the same thing.  He established a blog on lamula.pe which he described as a "meeting point" for people interested in Seminario genealogy.  The blog attracted some comments, but I did not see any sign that he returned to his blog to respond.  Perhaps he wasn't able to.

So this site is an effort to follow in Edwin Seminario Coloma's footsteps.  But it requires that there be someone willing to respond to questions and comments, and to integrate the findings and reports of each contributor into the database.  I promise to carry out this function.