María Bernal

  Noted events in his life were:

• Background Information. ²⁵²
Francisco Bernal (Griego) came to New Mexico as a boy in 1598, or else was born at San Gabriel sometime after. He was a brother of Catalina and María Bernal, and of Juan Griego the younger, all children of Juan Griego and Catalina Bernal.

His wife was Bernardina Morán, who was twenty years old in 1631, the last time either of the two are mentioned. Who their children were cannot be ascertained. Why Francisco took his mother's name, while Juan took his father's, is not known, unless they were half-brothers. There is a Juan Bernal in the soldier escort of 1608 who very likely was the younger Juan Griego.

Isabel Bernal, another sister of Francisco, married Sebastián González; these were the progenitors of the numerous clan that went under the name of González Bernal. María married Juan Gómez Barragán, Catalina married Juan Durán, and Juana was the wife of Diego de Moraga.

The Bernal individuals living at the time of the 1680 Indian Rebellion were descendants either of Francisco Bernal or of the Bernal sisters, choosing this appellation instead of their father's. Catalina Bernal, a widow, extremely poor, who passed muster in 1680 with a family of nine persons, children and grandchildren, was in all likelihood the widow of Juan Durán.

A Francisco Bernal, single and twenty-two years old, is the only male Bernal listed. He had a family of eight, mother, brothers and sisters, nephews and nieces. He was described as a native of New Mexico, of medium, thick-set build, very swarthy, with curly hair, and somewhat bow-legged. Most likely he was a son of the first Francisco Bernal and Bernardina Morán.

Several Bernal folks, mostly women, returned with the Reconquest.

~ Origins of New Mexico Families: A Genealogy of the Spanish Colonial Period, Kindle Locations 773-795