2019--Week 3--Unusual Name

JAN. 24, 2019 UPDATE:  I've continued to poke around on the internet looking for other de la O descendants, and I've found another interesting theory about the source of the name. I found this on a blog called "Cafe de la O: Origins of the de la O Family in the Americas".  This one was posited by Daniel de la O from Mexico College who had done some research on the family name while working on his masters' thesis.  In the French language, the French word "l'eau" means water (singular).  That would literally mean someone "from the water", as in a location.  He explains his research pointed to one of the origins of the surname in France, in the region of la Vierge de l'eau. This means Virgin of the Water, famous because the Virgin Mary appeared over a water spring.  None of this is confirmed in any way, but I find this theory more plausible.


In the distant past of my paternal grandmother, Papias Peru (1888-1967), is a woman named Maria Margarita de la O (1734-????), wife of Juan Bautista Peru (1727-????). I've been seeing this for a while on various family trees linked to other members of my grandmother's family.  I've added this lineage to my own family tree as "place holders" for the time being, with the expectation that I will do a thorough vetting and validation when I get back to researching this part of my family.  I'm worried that this is someone's wishful thinking to descend from this couple, as Juan Bautista Peru's military exploits from a local presidio in Mexico have been well documented.   All I need to do is find sources for the connections between Juan Peru in 1727 to my grandmother's birth in 1888.  (Tongue in cheek.......)

In the meantime, I've been puzzled by the name "de la O" wondering if that was a transcription blunder that had rendered the name untranslatable.  And then, just yesterday, I received a message on Ancestry from the wife of one of my Peru cousins.  Although I had not inquired about it, there was a link to a blog on the history of the "de la O" name in the larger message she sent me about our family tree.

From reading the blog, I learned the name "de la O" originated in Spain and refers to the O's sung in spiritual hymns.  Maria Margarita de la O was evidently highly regarded in her village for being the "madrina" or godmother to many children of different backgrounds, including mestizo, mulatto and español, and for children of unknown parentage. Just to keep it interesting, her name was also sometimes written “Margarita De Lao.”

Given that it sounds like she and her husband were both people to be admired, I hope I can prove my relationship to this woman with such an unusual name!