Only eight years elapsed between the first area census in Mexican-era Los Angeles and the next, yet the references to geography did involve some significant changes. First, the reference to "Rancho Santa Gertrudes," which seems to have embraced the Misión Vieja area was not followed up in 1844. Moreover, some of the persons listed there in the first census had evidently moved on by the second.For example, Antonio Alvitre and his wife Concepción Amesquita (listed here as "Amesti") were, with their nine children, listed as living in "Angeles," meaning the pueblo of Los Angeles. Shortly after this census, however, Antonio and Concepción relocated to Monterey and stayed there the remainder of their lives.
Juan José Lobo, son of Cecilio Lobo and Maria Casilda Soto, appears in the census in "Angeles" with his wife, Saturnina Feliz and their five daughters, but there is no mention at all of his parents and siblings, of which there had been four in the previous census.
Maria Siriaca Valenzuela, whose parents were Antonio Valenzuela and Maria Dominga Alvitre, was married to Francisco Duarte and also listed as living in "Angeles." As for her parents, see at the end of the post below.
"Angeles" was also the listed place of residence for Jorge Morrillo and Magdalena Vejar, enumerated in Santa Gertrudes in 1836. The two had seven children in the household--three the two bore together and four from Magdalena's first marriage to José Joaquin Verdugo. The Morrillos were living near Magdelena's Vejar relatives and next to them were Magdalena's daughter with Joaquin Verdugo, Juana Maria, and her husband Teodoro Romero, with their two children. The next year, however, Morillo and Romero were granted the Rancho Potrero de Felipe Lugo (whose namesake, a son of famed rancher Antonio Maria Lugo of Rancho San Antonio, evidently grazed his cattle in the area after Mission San Gabriel lost it in the secularization process of the 1830s.) This rancho was also known as Rancho Dolores.
Meanwhile, at "Santa Ana," in present Orange County were Nasario Duarte and Maria Silvas with their four children. The couple had resided in Rancho Santa Gertrudes in 1836.
As for Nasario's brother, Manuel and his wife Polinaria Ontiveros, they were not shown in the 1844 enumeration. Neither seemingly were Urbino Tapia and Mariana Lorenzana, Manuel Romero and Gregoria Ontiveros, Antonio Bermudez and Buenaventure Alvitre, or Ana Maria Lugo, widow of Hilario Bermudez—all of which appeared in Santa Gertrudes eight years before.
Also notably absent was, as said earlier, Maria Casilda Soto de Lobo, who was, in fact, granted the Rancho La Merced, encompassing the area south and west of Misión Vieja, in the same year as the census. There were, however, several persons listed as residing at "R. de la Merce," which almost certainly is the same rancho. These were five men and boys, Domingo Salgado (10 years old), Juan Ochoa (40), Francisco Granillo (25), Nicolas Dias [Diaz] (40) and José Maria Ramirez (20.) This latter may be the one by that name who lived in the Los Nietos/Whittier area with his wife Josefa Rangel and very large family of at least fifteen children until his death in 1883, after which he was buried at the El Campo Santo Cemetery on the grounds of the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum.
Finally, there is a section listed in the 1844 census under "Misión Vieja." Within this delineation were four families, consisting of brothers and sisters in the Alvitre family. This included the older of the four, Jacinto and his wife Lugarda Moreno with their four children; Juan and his spouse Tomasa Alvarado with their five progeny; Claudio and his wife Asención Valenzuela along with their five children; and Dominga with her spouse Antonio Valenzuela, listed with a son. It appears that Asención and Antonio Valenzuela were not related, their familes coming from the Mexican states of Sonora and Sinaloa, respectively.
Next comes an examination of the United States Census of 1850, which carried its own confusing circumstances!
The above scan is from a page of the published census transcript in the Southern California Quarterly, December 1960.
Contributed by Paul R. Spitzzeri.
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