Nobility In Spain

For my family migration relic I choose a decree that was written for my many-times Great Grandfather and his coworkers by King of Spain. In the late 1690’s my family moved from Belgium to Spain to work for the Spanish government making cannons. This is where my last name changed from its original spelling to the current spelling Roqueñi. Growing up I had heard about how my family had been hired by the Spanish government to make cannons for the military and had been granted nobility in the country.  It was not till my father’s cousin took the trip to Spain and found a copy of the document in the archives that I knew this story was true.

To me this relic shows not one but two great migrations in my family tree, the first from Belgium to Spain and the second one from Spain to American. The trip from Spain was not well documented, however what we do know is that my Great Grandfather traveled to America from Spain with the last leg of the trip was from Cuba to New Orleans on the ship the Excelsior arriving on December 13, 1915. Around 10 months later my Great Grandmother made the journey directly from Spain to New Orleans where she met with my Great Grandfather. From here my great grandfather made the journey to Arizona where my family set up his final place of residence where my Great Grandfather began working in the Phelps Dodge Smelter in Douglas, Arizona.