Post #20! These posts are going by very quickly! Today I want to focus on Valentin Múxica (also written as Móxica and currently as Mojica). He was my 4th great grandfather on my dad’s side of the family via my grandfather Felipe Rivera.
Valentin Múxica would have been born, according to his death certificate, around 1785 in Toa Alta. He is part of my family that has lived in the town of Toa Alta for many, many years. The town of Toa Alta was founded in 1751 which means that potentially his parents could have been part of the town’s founding families.
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| Toa Alta, Puerto Rico – Flag [Google] |
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| Toa Alta, Puerto Rico [Google] |
We also know that Valentin would have been classified racially as “pardo” (according to his death record). I have talked about this term before and what it truly might mean, whether the mix of Taíno and Spanish or Taíno and African. Valentin Múxica passed away on the 4th of April in 1855 in Toa Alta, Puerto Rico; already widowed. Valentin probably married his wife Julianna González González around the early 1800s seeing as their first child was born in 1808. In total, Valentin and Juliana had 8 children: Manuel, Andrea, Feliciana (my 3rd great grandmother), José María, Marcelo, Bernarda, Luisa, and Cayetano.
On Valentin’s death record he is recorded as “Valentin Móxica”, and the legitimate son to “N” and “N” which means the parents were not known to whoever was recording the death. At the end of his record it states: “no recibió los sacramentos por la gravedad de su enfermedad.” Meaning that he didn’t receive the sacraments because of how severely ill he was, I’m not sure if this refers to the Last Rites in the Roman Catholic faith which the last prayers before someone passes away are done.
When I first came across the surname Mojica, I always thought it was a pretty strange surname since I don’t and haven’t commonly come across it while searching in the records for Puerto Rico. And when I saw that the original spelling was Móxica or Múxica I definitely found the name to be even stranger. I wonder if the surname is Basque in origin?
The church records on FamilySearch for Toa Alta begin in the early 1800s, therefore I can’t search for Valentin’s birth or baptism record. I’m not sure if the church of Toa Alta has records from the mid-late 1700s, I really hope they do! I would love to learn more about Valentin and potentially find the name of his parents.