María Gabriela Berreyesa Castro, also known as María Gabriela Berrelleza (1780–1851), was a
Californio
Californio (plural Californios) is a term used to designate a Hispanic Californian, especially those descended from Spanish and Mexican settlers of the 17th through 19th centuries. California's Spanish-speaking community has resided there sinc ...
landowner, from the notable
Berryessa family of California
The Berryessa family is a prominent Californio family of Northern California. Members of the family held extensive rancho grants across the Bay Area during 18th and 19th centuries. Numerous places are named after the family, including the Be ...
.
Biography
María Gabriela Berreyesa was born November 26, 1780, and christened the same day at
Mission Santa Clara de Asís
Mission Santa Clara de Asís ( es, Misión Santa Clara de Asís) is a Spanish mission in the city of Santa Clara, California. The mission, which was the eighth in California, was founded on January 12, 1777, by the Franciscan order. Named for ...
in upper
Las Californias
The Californias (Spanish: ''Las Californias''), occasionally known as The Three Californias or Two Californias, are a region of North America spanning the United States and Mexico, consisting of the U.S. state of California and the Mexican stat ...
, near present-day
San José. She was the first child of the family of María Gertrudis Peralta and Nicholas Antonio Berrelleza.
[FamilyTreeMaker.com]
''Descendants of Luis Cayetano (Berrelleza) Berreyesa''
. Retrieved on August 14, 2009. On February 16, 1795 she married 22-year-old
Francisco María Castro, third son of Joaquin de Castro, one of the founding settlers of the
Pueblo de San Jose,
[Winther, Oscar Osburn. ''California History Magazine'', Volume 14, 1935]
"The Story of San Jose, 1777–1869, California's First Pueblo, Part I."
Hosted at SFGenealogy. Retrieved on April 18, 2022. and a corporal in the artillery company of
Presidio San Francisco.
The two made their home in San José and produced thirteen offspring during 1796–1824. Castro was made an elector in 1822 after which he served as alcalde and on a civil board that heard disputes.
[
Castro explored land at the northeast edge of ]San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland.
San Francisco Bay drains water from a ...
in 1823, and was granted Rancho San Pablo Rancho San Pablo was a land grant in present-day Contra Costa County, California given in 1823 by Governor Luís Antonio Argüello to Francisco María Castro (1775–1831), a former soldier at the San Francisco Presidio and one-time ''alcalde'' ...
by Governor Luís Antonio Argüello
Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...
. He and his family moved to the rancho some time after 1824. He died in 1831 at Rancho San Pablo.[
Castro died on December 21, 1851, and was buried at ]Mission San Francisco de Asís
Mission San Francisco de Asís ( es, Misión San Francisco de Asís), commonly known as Mission Dolores (as it was founded near the Dolores creek), is a Spanish Californian mission and the oldest surviving structure in San Francisco. Located i ...
, known as Mission Dolores, in San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
.[ Rancho San Pablo was patented by the ]U.S.
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
to her children in 1852.
See also
*Berreyesa family
The Berryessa family is a prominent Californio family of Northern California. Members of the family held extensive rancho grants across the Bay Area during 18th and 19th centuries. Numerous places are named after the family, including the Be ...
References
External links
Berreyesa family photos
{{DEFAULTSORT:Castro, Maria Gabriela Berreyesa
People of Mexican California
1780 births
1851 deaths
Burials at Mission San Francisco de Asís