Explanation: Blog Post about Senator Salazar

To the NMGS Blog readers:

Since I have received correspondences about my post "Obama Pick Claims New Mexico Ties", I wanted to make a few things clear. I was not meaning to be disrespectful in any way towards United States Senator Ken Salazar's claim that he can trace his lineage back to 1598 New Mexico. The point of the post was to inform my readers about Senator Salazar's claim. However, being a responsible genealogist, I wished to point out that his claim has not been verified, at least to my knowledge. In order to clarify what I meant, I wish to make a few more arguments

1.) When Senator Salazar made the claim at a press conference, he did not have the time or resources to support his claim. The purpose of the press conference was to announce his appointment and to give a little bit of biographical information about himself. It wasn't a genealogical presentation and wasn't meant to be.

2.) There may be research out there that shows that Senator Salazar can trace his lineage back to 1598 New Mexico. He, or someone else, may have published an article or book showing proof of this lineage. The fact is, I personally don't know of any such research. Therefore, I wasn't going to say that his claim is supported by facts. It may be, it may not be, the fact is, I don't know so I won't say that it is true.

3.) I noted that saying that his roots going back to 1598 Santa Fe is not true. Santa Fe was not founded until 1610. Settlers were living in Santa Fe prior to 1610, but Santa Fe was not the first settlement in New Mexico. There were settlers in New Mexico in 1598, but not in Santa Fe.

4.) I noted that Fray Angelico Chavez's book "Origins of New Mexico Families" claims that the first Salazar that came to New Mexico shows up in records in 1625. I understand that there is other research out there, and there may be others who found Salazars who were in New Mexico in 1598. I used this reference to Chavez's book because the book is well known by New Mexican researchers.

5.) I also mentioned that Senator Salazar could be refering to another line in his genealogy, other than the one following his Salazar surname. There were plenty of other Spaniards who were in New Mexico in 1598 that he could have, and probably is, descended from.

6.) I wish to quote a paragraph from my previous blog post:

It would be interesting to find out more about Senator Salazar's family. Of course, until proof is offered, his claim is unverified. However, it is not unlikely that he does have New Mexico roots going back a number of centuries.

I was not saying that I did not believe that Salazar had roots going back to 1598. I was simply saying that I personally did not have proof. That's it; that's all.

Robert Baca
President, New Mexico Genealogical Society


P.S.: "Joe" wanted me to share this picture of Senator Ken Salazar that was taken at an Obama rally. I believe that Joe took it himself. Since the election is already over, I hope no one thinks that I'm trying to support a certain political view, party or candidate. This is simply a photo that I'm sharing with you that one of our readers shared with us. And it's a good visual for this post.


United States Senator Ken Salazar