Re: Calling All Nieves's
-
In reply to:
Calling All Nieves's
Rebecca Nieves 6/03/03
Well Rebecca we are on the same quest.
I have been curious about where our last name comes from
for years. The only country where you find a large number
of Nieves' is Puerto Rico. Very few are found outside.
I have only been able to trace the last name as far as
mid 1800's and only within PR. I did find some entries
in ellisisland.org of some Nieves' that arrived in the
early 1900's from Spain.
Within the large number of Nieves' in PR most are are
the center south of the island. Mainly Ponce and its
surrounding towns. The time period when Nieves begin
to appear in this area coincides with a large migration
of refugees from Corcega, France. I have not been able
to find any connection yet. But apparently this island
territory of France was constantly invaded by Spain,
Italy, England, etc. It often changed control between
these countries and France. Don't know why but many,
many migrated to PR while it was still a spanish
colony. I'm still researching this.
I've also found some Nieves in Portugal and Brazil.
(spelled Neves) Might be some connection there.
Due to the lack of sufficient Nieves' in Spain one
would be lead to believe that the name didn't
originate there. Maybe even native to PR but that
to me seems a little unlikely.
Sincerely,
Martin Nieves
[email protected]