The Ancestry of
Concepción Rey Capdevila
Report Summary
This report is a first approach to the ancestry of Concepción Rey Capdevila, who was born in the city of Seville in 1881 and subsequently emigrated to the United States with her husband, Ramón Granados Márquez.
This initial work has focused on documenting Concepción’s immediate ancestry within the city of Seville, and has faced challenges resulting both from the research facilities in Seville and from the movements of the Rey family itself. With regard to the former issue, genealogical Research in Seville is hampered by the fact that all of its sacramental records are still in their parishes of origin, and the only ecclesiastical archive with any centralised holdings, the Archdiocese Archive, has been closed for over a year and has no firm opening date. Regarding the latter issue, the fact that Antonio Rey and his father-in-law José Capdevila both worked in the building profession probably influenced their families’ frequent change of address; they are never to be found at the same place in any consecutive municipal census lists. Fortunately, Concepción’s birth in a census year made it possible to find her family at the address given on her birth record, determine her mother’s age, and then find her mother’s birth record after searching through over 2,000 entries for children born in Seville in 1843. This record made the rest of the research possible.
Opportunities for Further Research
There are many possible avenues of research open to continued work on Concepción’s ancestry. Antonio Rey’s paternal family leads to Sanlúcar de Barrameda, a parish whose records are known to be highly complete and well-preserved for at least 200 years before his birth. Concepción’s grandfather, José Capdevila, was born in Seville, but his father was a native of the city of Barcelona, and his mother a native of the city of Cádiz. Although many Barcelona church records were burned by communists in the 1930s, it may still be possible to trace the Capdevilas further in the marriage licences held by Barcelona’s diocesan archive; while the city of Cádiz generally has very complete and easily accessible parish registers for the period of interest, as well as also having marriage licence applications. If access can be gained to the holdings of Seville’s archdiocesan archive, the marriage licence applications of José Capdevila, in 1837, and José Muñoz, in 1813, should include their baptism records, thus identifying their parishes of origin, and perhaps their grandparents, which in the former case would provide the crucial link to further research in both Barcelona and Cádiz.
Matthew Hovius
December 2006
The Ancestry of
Concepción Rey Capdevila
First Generation
1.Concepción Rey Capdevila was born1 on 31 Jul 1881 in the city of Seville.
Concepción married2 Ramón Granados Márquez on 20 Jan 1903 in A civil ceremony by proxy in the city of Seville. Ramón was born in Aracena, in the province of Huelva.
Second Generation
2.Antonio Rey Pozo was born3,4 about 1835 in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, in the province of Cádiz. He married Concepción Capdevila Muñoz.
3.Concepción Capdevila Muñoz was born5,6 on 7 Sep 1843 in the city of Seville. She was christened7 in its parish church of San Vicente Mártir.
As an adult she seems to have used only the name Concepción, yet she was baptised and
registered as María. The two names usually go together in Spain, so it's possible that her
parents never realised that the name 'Concepción' had been left off of their daughter's official
records.
Third Generation
4.Manuel Rey was born in Sanlúcar de Barrameda. He died8 before 1881. He married9 Josefa María Pozo before 1830.
5.Josefa María Pozo was born10,11 about 1811 in Sanlúcar de Barrameda.
Although their marriage record has not yet been located, Manuel and Josefa can be assumed to
have married by 1830, for on the 1881 municipal census of Seville Josefa was shown as a
resident of the home of her 51-year-old son, Salvador Rey Pozo. They lived in the same
building as Antonio Rey and his family.
6.José Capdevila 12 was born13 in Seville. He died14 before 1881. He married15 Francisca Muñoz on 27 Jul 1837 in Seville's parish church of San Vicente Mártir.
Clearly San Vicente was the home parish of Francisca's family, not of José's. He was not
baptised there and no other Capdevilas ever appear in its records, not even as godparents to
José's children.
José and Francisca's address is first given in the 1842 baptism of their son Manuel, when they
were stated to be living at Calle Ancha de San Vicente, Nº 2. They were still living there in
1843, but by 1845 had moved elsewhere in the parish, to Calle Rompeserones Nº 6. From 1847
through 1849 they were at Plaza de la Gavidia, Nº 4. There are no more children of theirs among the Parish of San Vicente Baptisms, nor can a death record be found at that parish for
José Capdevila, José Muñoz or Ana María Conejero. It seems likely that around 1850 the entire
Capdevila-Muñoz family moved, perhaps only a few streets away, but administratively outside
the boundaries of San Vicente. They were not living at any of these addresses in 1865, the year
of Seville's first surviving municipal census.
In 1842 José was referred to as an 'albañil'; in 1843, 'alarife', and by 1849 'Maestro Alarife'.
7.Francisca Muñoz 16 was born17,18 on 3 Feb 1816 in the city of Seville. She was christened in its parish church of San Vicente Mártir. She died19 after 1881.
She was christened with the names Francisca de Paula Antonia Ynes Blasa. Curiously, her
godparent, as well as that of her sister Micaela (born 1818) and the witness at her parents'
wedding, was someone named Francisco Antonio Caldevilla. It seems unlikely though that he
was related to the Capdevila family as the two surnames look similar but sound noticeably
different.
The marriage record states that prior to the wedding Francisca had received her father's consent
to marry and that the third reading of the Banns in church at each week's Sunday service had
been skipped due to dispensation received from the Diocese.
Fourth Generation
10.Vicente Pozo 20 .Vicente married
11.Josefa 21 .
Vicente and Josefa are named on the 1881 municipal census of Seville as the parents of Josefa
Pozo; but the elder Josefa's surname is not given.
12.Ramón Capdevila was born22 in the city of Barcelona. He married Candelaria del Castillo.
13.Candelaria del Castillo was born23 in the city of Cádiz. She died24 after 1840.
Presumably she was the same person as the María Candelaria del Castillo who acted as
godmother at the christening of José María Capdevila in 1840, although the priest who wrote
the entry did not specify that the person referred to was the child's grandmother.
14.José Muñoz was born25 in the city of Seville. He married26 Ana María Conejero on 18 Jul 1813 in Seville's parish church of San Vicente Mártir.
15.Ana María Conejero 27 was born in the city of Seville.
It appears that neither José nor Ana María were native to the parish where they married. Their
marriage record specifies that they both received their fathers' permission to marry; in theory
women at that time always required paternal permission, but men did only if they were under
21. Baptism records at San Vicente were searched to 1784 and did not contain a match for
either spouse.
Fifth Generation
28.José Muñoz 28 . José married
29.María Baca .
30.José Conejero 29 . José married
31.Inés Cornejo 30 .
Appendix A - Sources
1.Civil Registry [Seville], Birth Record of Concepción Rey Capdevila, Page 186, Vol. 43-4, Sec. 1.
2.Granados Family Web Site, Online at [Dec 2006].
3.Civil Registry [Seville], Birth Record of Concepción Rey Capdevila.
4.City of Seville, Municipal Census for 1881, Vol. M-V, Sagrario Parish, Municipal Archive, Seville.
5.Civil Registry [Seville], Birth Record of Concepción Rey Capdevila.
6.City of Seville, Birth Record of María Concepción Capdevila, Microfilm Roll 960, Pos. 1274; Record 2338, P. 587, Municipal Archive, Seville.
7.Parish Church of San Vicente Mártir (Seville), Baptisms 1835-1844, P. 311.
8.Civil Registry [Seville], Birth Record of Concepción Rey Capdevila.
9.City of Seville, Municipal Census for 1881, Vol. M-V, Sagrario Parish.
10.Civil Registry [Seville], Birth Record of Concepción Rey Capdevila.
11.City of Seville, Municipal Census for 1881, Vol. M-V, Sagrario Parish.
12.City of Seville, Birth Record of María Concepción Capdevila.
13.Civil Registry [Seville], Birth Record of Concepción Rey Capdevila.
14.Civil Registry [Seville], Birth Record of Concepción Rey Capdevila.
15.Parish Church of San Vicente Mártir (Seville), Marriages 1826-1848, P. 173.
16.City of Seville, Birth Record of María Concepción Capdevila.
17.Civil Registry [Seville], Birth Record of Concepción Rey Capdevila.
18.Parish Church of San Vicente Mártir (Seville), Baptisms 1816-1825, P. 3 verso.
19.Civil Registry [Seville], Birth Record of Concepción Rey Capdevila.
20.City of Seville, Municipal Census for 1881, Vol. M-V, Sagrario Parish.
21.City of Seville, Municipal Census for 1881, Vol. M-V, Sagrario Parish.
22.City of Seville, Birth Record of María Concepción Capdevila.
23.City of Seville, Birth Record of María Concepción Capdevila.
24.Parish Church of San Vicente Mártir (Seville), Baptisms 1835-1844, P. 158 verso.
25.City of Seville, Birth Record of María Concepción Capdevila.
26.Parish Church of San Vicente Mártir (Seville), Marriages 1801-1825, P. 143 verso.
27.City of Seville, Birth Record of María Concepción Capdevila.
28.Parish Church of San Vicente Mártir (Seville), Marriages 1801-1825, P. 143 verso.
29.Parish Church of San Vicente Mártir (Seville), Marriages 1801-1825, P. 143 verso.
30.Parish Church of San Vicente Mártir (Seville), Marriages 1801-1825, P. 143 verso.
Dec 2006 – M. HoviusAncestry of Concepción Rey CapdevilaPage 1