The following information on the Granados family traces the American Granados family's heritage back to its origins in Spain. The information below was compiled by Luis Granados, II (aka "Sonny"), son of Luis Granados, grandson of Ramon Granados and Maria Concepcion Rey.

GRANADOS

The Granados name is one of great antiquity possibly even of ancient pan European Celtic origin. The name was well established in the ancient Roman Province of Cantabria, (Santander) at the time of the Visigoth conquest in the 5th Century AD. The oldest official record was in 438, when a Granados paid a fine or fee to keep his house from being destroyed. A story, printed on a wine bottle label used by a relative for business patrons, says the name originated in the mountains of Burgos and spread through the peninsula with the re-conquest of Aragon and Valencia.

Knights of this lineage served under King Alfonso X "The Wise" in the conquest of Andalucia, especially in the recapture of Jerez de la Frontera from the Moors in 1254, where Don Pedro Fernandez Granados distinguished himself. In reward, the King granted him hereditary titles and their corresponding estates in Andalucia. The name is mentioned many times in Los Libros de Repartimientos de Tieras de la Conquistas de Andalucia, and its nobililty is mentioned in Las Ordenes de Santiago, Calatrava y San Juan de Jerusalem and La Real Maestranza de Seville.

It is believed that the family may have settled in Aracena in this time period but cannot yet be determined conclusively. Further research may turn up information on this.

One of the peculiarities of Genealogical work is that the further you go back the more you discover familial connections to others. Some of the family names turn up in odd places. In 1517, Francisco Fernandez de Cordoba discovered the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, and in 1540, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, a Spanish explorer, led an expedition into the American Southwest in search of gold, and discovered the Pueblos of New Mexico. His lieutenant, Garcia Lopez de Cardenas, discovered the Grand Canyon.

Luis Granados-Rey claimed that the original Muñoz was a representative of Caesar's government in Rome. Among other powers, he was authorized to mint money, and was very good at it, so good that when the Roman soldiers invaded England, they preferred to be paid in coins minted by Muñoz. They called his coins munoz, a term which eventually became money.

Granados Family History
By Kathrine Collins Granados

Spanish Surnames
Surnames did not come into widespread use until the late 1300's and early 1400's. When a member of one family married one from another, composite surnames were used. There were no birth certificates or other legal documents to fix someone's name at birth; a first name would be bestowed at baptism, but a surname could be chosen later. Most Spaniards didn't begin to use surnames until the late 1500's, when parish priests began keeping sacramental records to allow them to distinguish between their parishioners, to impede marriages between first cousins and insure that last wills were implemented..

The Surname Granados
According to the Diccionario de Apellidos Espanoles, the surname Granados is rather frequent throughout Spain, although it occurs chiefly in Andalusia and Extremadura. The Nobiliario Espanol opts for a concise entry:. "Castilian. From the mountains of Burgos, from whence it passed to Castile and to the conquest of Andalusia. Arms: Silver, a pomegranate vert, fruited gules." Under the heading Granado/Granados, the Diccionario Heraldico y Genealogico de Apellidos Espanoles y Americanos reports: "Chroniclers discussing this surname are in agreement regarding its origins in the mountains of Burgos, within which they included the mountains of Santander. Some of these authors add that the family's original roots lie in Laredo.

The Granados name was well established in the ancient Roman Province of Cantabria, (Santander) at the time of the Visigoth conquest. The oldest official record was in 438, when a Granados paid a fine or fee to keep his house from being destroyed. A story, printed on a wine bottle label used by a relative for business patrons, says the name originated in the mountains of Burgos and spread through the peninsula with the re-conquest of Aragon and Valencia. Knights of this lineage served under King Alfonso X "The Wise" in the conquest of Andalucia, especially in the recapture of Jerez de la Frontera from the Moors in 1254, where Don Pedro Fernandez Granados distinguished himself. In reward, the King granted him hereditary titles and their corresponding estates in Andalucia. The name is mentioned many times in Los Libros de Repartimientos de Tieras de la Conquistas de Andalucia, and its nobililty is mentioned in Las Ordenes de Santiago, Calatrava y San Juan de Jerusalem and La Real Maestranza de Seville.

In 1627, Matias Granados was commissioned an Alferez (Ensign) in the Spanish Army serving in the bloody engagements of Flanders in the Spanish Netherlands. During the 1700's and 1800's men surnamed Granados served as officers in the Spanish Cavalry, Infantry and Artillery, some as health officers, and at least one military chaplain.

A judge named Felipe Granados y Lagartia retired from the Justice Ministry in 1876,while a Juan Granados Huertas retired as Sergeant-at-arms of the Spanish Congress in 1910. The Granados family probably settled in Aracena around 1600. At that time, a Fernando Granado Francisco was the Inquisition's Familiar in the town, a fearsomely powerful position in Spanish society of that era. (A familiare was the chief civilian authority responsible for carrying out punishment of heretics.) Fernando married Isabel Cid Valladares and some of their children took holy orders. A 1723 list of Aracena clergymen includes a Francisco Granado Infante and an Alberto Jose Granado. In 1791, Aracena residents included Celestino Granados, who lived on Calle Real, and Don Jose Granados, on the town square. An Isidro Granados who lived in Seville but also owned property in Aracena is also recorded.

The 1752 Aracena Census showed a population of 540, but the town had 1,367 inhabitable dwellings. Apparently the flight from the countryside to the cities had begun. Three family members, Don Andres Muniz y Villafranca, Don Gines de Valladares and Don Juan Galvan appeared before officials in behalf of the town. The Granados families prominent in 19th Century Aracena descend directly from the earlier lineage known as Fernandez de Granados. A few lines of the Granados family can be traced to the early 1500's and three different titled nobles of present-day Spain include the Granados lineage in their ancestry.

An 83-volume Spanish heraldic work Diccionario Genealogico y Heráldico Hispanoamericano notes that through the 1830's marriage of Rosa Granados to Don Francisco Calonge, and the subsequent marriage of their daughter Maria Calonge y Granados to Don Miguel Sánchez-Dalp, the Granados family is ancestral to the present-day Count of Las Torres de Sánchez-Dalp, the Marquis of Aracena and the Marques of Casa Dalp.

In the 1690's, Juan Fernandez de Granados was a Regidor or Alderman of Aracena's City Hall . A document in the Archivo Historico Nacional cites a Royal order issued in 1716 stipulating that Juan and all his male-line Granados descendents "shall enjoy and be reputed in any place where they shall reside as hijosdalgo (Noble) and obtain the pre-eminencies that they are entitled to as such". A document in Madrid signed by Juan Fernandez-Granados on December 21, 1790, was as one of ten witnesses for a man named de Rioja, who was admitted to the Order of Santiago.

The most powerful member of the family in the mid-1700's was Don Isidro Fernandez de Granados y Garay. A nephew of Father Alberto Fernandez de Granados, he eventually inherited most of the priest's estate. In 1759, he received from his uncle Alberto the right to occupy the Regidor position that Alberto had inherited. In 1767, Isidro Fernandez de Granados was named Warden of the Castle of Triana in Seville by the Duke of Sanlucar la Mayor. He also held the position of Castellano of the Fortress of Aroche, a town near Aracena. In 1763, a lawsuit was filed against Isidro Fernandez-Granados by Andres Muniz and Gines de Valladares over an obscure legal point. All were family members. Mayors (Alcaldes) were allowed to sign documents as Mayor for the Commoners or Mayor of the Noble Class. Isidro was sued to stop him from signing as Regidor for the Noble Class. This suit and countersuit dragged on and eventually both families' status was upheld. However, when a Valladares was sued by Aracena's City Council for having illegally fenced in a watering ground used by all townspeople, his defence attorney was a Granados. The initiator of the charges against Valladares was Isidro Fernandez de Granados, Chairman of the Aracena City Council, and Valladares was defended by Isidro's first cousin, Juan Fernandez de Granados y Oliva.

In 1785, a Valladares from Aracena became Bishop of Barcelona, and members of the Muniz and Barrera families clearly belonged to the local gentry and held the coveted Regidor post on the city council. Unfortunately, a Granados family preference was to fail to make wills, letting their heirs decide how their estates should be divided. The Royal Hidalguia title was granted to the Granados family in 1710, and Isidro Granados held a noble position in Seville Between 1762 and 1767, one of Father Alberto Fernandez Granados' brothers -- either Julian or Gabriel -- married a Valladares woman as his second wife. This irritated the rest of the family; as a consequence Celestino Granados was not included in the priest's will.

Manuel Barrera y Nervaez, a friar who was the brother of Pedro Pio de la Barrera y Narvaez, had to submit a "Limpieza de Sangre" file in order to prove that he was free of any Moorish, heretical or other taboo ancestry. The document is 27 pages long and should give several generations of his ancestry. Since the Monsalves family moved away from Aracena, there is some hope that their ancestry could someday be obtained from parish records from another town.