This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/EW.2ADI/143.1 Message Board Post: Hi: The Estrada family did not originate in Spain. They came from Loreto, Baja, Mexico. Jose Mariano Estrada was born in Loreto in 1784. He is the originater of the Monterey-San Luis Obispo Estradas. My family knew them personally. Look in Marie E. Northrop books, Spanish-Mexican Famlies of Early California, 1769-1850, Vol. II also Mutnick's books from Pastime Publishers of St. Mary's college, Moraga, Ca. The Estrada's relative would have come to Mexico from Spain in the 1500's and married into the Mestijo lines of Mexico. There is lots of information at Los Californianos club, as well as, modern day Estradas. Also look in the book about Mariano Estrada, THE UPSIDE DOWN RIVER, History of the Salinas River by Anne Fisher. San Luis Obispo County has information about Don Julian Estrada whose land was near the present day San Simeon, California.