Bernardino de Sena y Valle

Bernardino de Sena, a foundling born in the Valley of Mexico, came to New Mexico in 1693 as a boy of nine with his foster parents Jose del Valle and Ana de Ribera. The lad had a round dark face, large eyes and a thick nose. In 1703 he was still known as Bernardino del Valle at Pojoaque where his foster parents settled. He married Tomasa Martin Gonzalez on February 8, 1705, as "Bernardino de Sena y Valle", when he stated that he had been born in Tezcuco of unknown parentage, and was eighteen years old. However, when he made his last will fifty-three years later, he gave his parents’ names as Agustin de Sena and Maria Ynez de Amparano of Mexico City.

From the time of his marriage until his death, Bernardino lived in Santa Fe, where he acquired considerable property, including the Plaza which now bears his name, and became its most respected citizen. In church matters, he was instrumental in gathering funds for the restoration of San Miguel chapel, was mayordomo of the Conquistadora Confraternity through most of his adult life, at the same time serving as handler of money and property for the Franciscans, who mourned the passing of their Sindico on November 11, 1765, when he was buried in the ancient chapel of San Miguel. He asked to be buried in San Miguel, and vested in the Franciscan habit. His first wife Tomasa Martin Gonzalez ("nuestra sindica", the friars wrote), had been buried in the Conquistadora chapel on February 20, 1727.

Bernardino made his will in July, 1758 but lived to add a codicil on November 10, 1765. In it he declared that he had been married twenty years to Tomasa Gonzalez, by whom he had only one son, Tomas Antonio, who was married to Luisa Garcia. He also mentioned a daughter, Maria Francisca, but it is not clear if she was a real daughter or an adopted one.

His second wife was Manuela de Roybal, married to him for twenty-nine years, but without issue. However, they had reared four adopted children: Santiago, Baltasar, Maria de los Dolores, and Jose "el Coyote". His Roybal widow wrote her own will in 1778, and was buried on May 1 of that year in the Conquistadora chapel.

Source: Origins of New Mexico Families A Genealogy of the Spanish Colonial Period by Fray Angelico Chavez