Lucas Montano (abt. 1620 - abt. 1655) Sebastiana Lopez de Garcia (abt. 1625 - abt. 1685) Lucas Montano and Sebastiana López de Gracia were the parents of our ancestor, María Montano [abt.1643-1729], who married our blacksmith ancestor, Juan de Moraga [abt. 1638-after 1681] about 1659 in New Mexico. Lucas was probably born in New Spain [Mexico].  He came to New Mexico in 1636 as part of a troop escort to a supply caravan. It is possible that he was related to a Pedro Suares Montaño, who had been a military escort in New Mexico earlier, but we don’t know. Lucas married Sebastiana in New Mexico about 1641.  They had at least three daughters, Catalina Montaño, María Montaño, and Magdalena Montaño, and probably a son Sebastián Montaño.  The marriage endured only about fifteen years when Lucas died.  Sebastiana married Diego de Apodaca soon afterward.  They resided in the Salinas District, probably at Tajique. Diego was a lecherous man who forced incestuous activities on his stepdaughters.  He was imprisoned in 1661 and was condemned to death, but he was not executed.  He was reported two years later as staying with his sister’s family on the Rio Grande River [then called the Río del Norte].  He is heard of no more in the annals of New Mexico.  He either died or left New Mexico before the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. [pp.5, Revised Edition, Origins of New Mexico Families, by Fray Angélico Chávez] Sebastiana, separated from Apodaca after the molestation charges, owned an estancia located 2.6 miles [one league] from the mission of Quarac in the Salinas District.  Quarac no longer exists; it is just a mound of deteriorated adobe bricks. [New Mexico Roots, Ltd.; by Angélico Chávez; #1571 {DM 1729, August 5, Santa Fe}; Archivo General de la Nación, tomo 593, ff. 63, 80-82] Sebastiana survived the Pueblo Revolt as did her children from Montaño and Apodaca.  She died about 1685 in Guadalupe del Paso [El Paso] during the Spanish exile from New Mexico. Her children returned to New Mexico in 1693 and continued to be part of its history.   FAMILY  OF LUCAS MONTAÑO AND SEBASTIANA LÓPEZ DE GRACIA   [1]        María Montaño, our ancestor, was born about 1643 in New Mexico.  She was probably a victim of the incest committed by her stepfather. She married Juan de Moraga, our ancestor, about 1659.  He died about 1680, and in 1685 she married our cousin, Hernando Martín Serrano III, in 1685 at Guadalupe del Paso [El Paso].  They returned to New Mexico in 1693.  She died about 1729, in her eighties. [2]        Magdalena Montaño was born about 1645.  She, too, was likely a victim of her stepfather’s molestation conviction; no information about family. [3]        Catalina Montaño was born 1650.  She, too, was likely a victim of molestation by her stepfather, Diego de Apodaca. Catalina married Domingo de Arzate about 1665.  She later married Juan Alonso Maese.  She died in May, 1711.  Her descendants settled in what became Bernalillo and Santa Fe counties. [4]        Sebastián Montaño, born about 1648, was apparently the only son by Lucas Montaño. Sebastián had a child with an Indian woman named Juana. He died before 1690, probably at Gudalupe del Paso. Sebastían was on Governor Otermín’s Sept. 1681 muster list at Guadalupe del Paso [El Paso] to fight the Pueblos for re-entry to New Mexico.  Probably a son to Sebastián was José Montaño, who was living at Guadalupe del Paso in 1696 when he with his uncle, José Apodaca, served as witnesses at a marriage. José Montano, living in Santa Fe, was twenty years old in 1695. He married Maria de Cuellar and went to live in the Rio Abajo, where in 1715 he wounded a man, because of jealousy, at the home of his mother-in-law, who was then married to Tomás García. José Montaño was still living in 1734 when he and Maria were sponsors for a child of his sister Juana and Nicolas de Chavez. In 1750 he trespassed on Alameda Pueblo lands and got a fine imposed by Governor Gachupin. He is in all probability the Jose Montano who died a "muerte violenta" at Tomé, June 29, 1756. His widow was still much alive in 1772 as one of the first settlers of the Rio Puerco country in Río Arriba County with three of her sons. Their children were: Pedro, who married Paula Gallegos in 1748; Joaquin, who died at the age of eleven, April 28, 1742; Juan Bautista Montaño, husband of Rosalía Jaramillo; and Bernabé Manuel Montaño, who married Eduarda Yturrieta or Varela. The latter two sons were among the first Rio Puerco settlers with their mother.   FAMILY OF SEBASTIANA LÓPEZ DE GRACIA AND DIEGO APODACA   [5]        José Gonzáles de Apodaca  was born in the middle 1650’s.  He had three wives: Antonia Martín Herrera; Isabel Gutiérrez, whom he married about 1686; and Francisca Durán, who he married 3 June 1693.  He was a 46-year-old soldier, when he was a witness at the marriage of José de Aragon and Juliana Gamboa at Gudalupe del Paso on 7 February 1696.  His brother José Montaño was also a witness. [6]        Francisco de Apodaca married Juana María Martín Serrano before 1693. [7]        Cristóbal de Apodaca, born about 1658, married Regina Peralta. On 13 March 1698, in Santa Fe, Cristóbal, age 40, was a witness at the marriage of Diego de Beyta.   Submitted by Donald Rivara, June 23, 2009. Copyright © Genealogy Trails All Rights Reserved with Full Rights Reserved for Original Contributor