Maria Rafaela Feliz
In 1830, Rafaela was living at Villa de Branciforte (what is now Santa Cruz). Her grandfather was Jose Joaquin Castro, making her a second cousin of Petra Bernal de Castro. Her grandmother was Maria Antonia Amador, making her a second cousin of Agostin Bernal's first wife (Antonia Gregoria Berryessa). Therefore, also, her great-uncle was Jose Maria Amador, the husband of her recently deceased sister Maria Magdalena Bernal.
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Maria Petra Bernal
I've found very little information about Petra and only slightly more about her husband Juan Jose Castro.
She married Juan on 7 February 1827. Juan was the son of Francisco Castro and Gabriela Berreyessa. Gabriela's step-sister was married to Petra's brother Agostin Bernal.
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Maria Francisca Dolores Bernal
Alternately referred to as María de los Dolores Bernal (we'll call her Dolores), she was the first of Josefa's children born in the new Pueblo of San Jose. The Bernal family rose in importance in the new community. Around the time she was twelve, an exotic stranger arrived from San Francisco who must have captured her imagination. Antonio Maria Sunol quickly became acquainted with her father.
Much of this post is taken directly from “Witness to Empire – The Life of Antonio Maria Sunol” by James P. Delgado.
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Bernals in Pleasanton – 1850
For fifty years, the extended Bernal family was centered on Rancho Santa Teresa. The transition from Spanish rule to Mexican Independence brought them significant land holdings, making them relatively wealthy. Society remained much the same, but that would change rapidly. Although mostly fought in Texas, the Mexican–American War happened between 1846 and 1848 making California a territory of the United States, the Gold Rush occurred in 1849, then California became a state in 1850, and Americans flooded into the area claiming any land that didn't have a house on it.
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Maria Magdalena Bernal
Magdalena was born at Mission Dolores in San Francisco. A few years later, Josefa's family moved to the new Pueblo San Jose near Mission Santa Clara.
Magdalena became Jose Maria Amador's first wife in 1818 when she was 16 and he was 24. She died in 1828, so the next year, he married Josefa Joaquina Rogeria Sanchez (age 20 to his 35), who also died young. In 1844, he married Maria De La Soldedad Alviso (age 15 to his 50), who also died young.
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Maria Antonia Silveria Ortega
Antonia was the seventh child of Ignacio Maria Ortega, who was initially granted 13,000 acres called Rancho San Ysidro near present-day Gilroy. Shortly after Mexican Independence, Ignacio died and the rancho was officially granted to his three adult children in 1833:
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Dividing Rancho el Valle de San Jose
Under Mexican rule, one-quarter of the 48,436-acre rancho was granted to Agostin Bernal in 1839. But under American rule, he was required to prove his claim. Essentially, with the stroke of a pen, Congress declared all the land titles to be suspect and invalid until proven otherwise.
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Ygnacio Higuera
Jose Ygnacio Anastacio Higuera (1757–1805) came with the De Anza Expedition of 1776.
Ygnacio Higuera is reported to have been in prison for a year at the Presidio of Monterey. During that time his wife Michaela Bojorques had a child with Francisco Bernal. The child, Maria Margarita Bernal, is technically the step-sister of Ygnacio's second wife Ramona Bartola Bernal.
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Maria Juana Nepomuceno Higuera
After Antonia Gregoria's unexpected death in 1840, widower Agostin Bernal promptly married Juana Nepomuceno Higuera. He was 44 years old by then with six children, but his bride was 17.
The Higuera family was very well established in Alta California
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Josefa Antonia Gregoria Berryessa
The first of Josefa Bernals' sons to reach adulthood was Jose Agostin Bernal, born in 1797. Another son was born three years earlier and is buried in the Santa Clara Mission Cemetery. Agostin Bernal worked on his father's ranch and learned how to consolidate his wealth. When Joaquin died in 1837, Agostin inherited a portion of his father's land and cattle.
But before that, he married the youngest daughter of the Berryessa family, Josefa Antonia Gregoria.
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