Trinidad Ortiz, First Wife Of Thomas Tucker

Trinidad Ortiz was born Maria Trinidad Ortiz on June the 4th of 1844 and baptized on the 7th of June in 1844 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the daughter of Jose Antonio Ortiz and Ysabel Pacheco, her padrinos were Jesus Romero and Ygnacia Ortiz. She was the eighth of nine children born to the couple. She was born 2 years prior to the American occupation of New Mexico but in all reality probably had no memories of the time prior to the American presence.

We know that about 1862 at the age of 18 she gave birth to a son out of wedlock. The son was named Samuel Ortiz.

Later, sometime in 1865, she ended up with Thomas Tucker, born circa 1837 in Pennsylvania, the publisher of the Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper. Their first three children were born prior to the marriage which occurred in the Catholic Church in Santa Fe on the 13th of October of 1870 The marriage occurred almost a whole month after the birth of their third child, Adelaida, on the 15th of September of 1870.

In the 1880 U.S. Federal Census Samuel Ortiz is listed as a printer and the step son of Thomas Tucker a publisher and living in the same house with Trinidad and the rest of the family. Samuel's father is not named but is listed as having being born in New Mexico as compared to his step father, Thomas Tucker, who is listed as having been born in Pennsylvania.

Over the years Trinidad was to have six additional children with Thomas Tucker. The last of these, Sara Isabel Tucker, was born September 22, 1893.

Some thing happened to the marriage of Trinidad Ortiz and Tomas Tucker between the birth of their last daughter, Sarah Isabel in 1893 and the time records show Thomas Tucker was living with another woman, Adela Martinez, in 1897.

What happened we can only guess at. But there must have been a divorce or more than likely an annulment of the marriage sometime between 1893 and when Thomas married for a second time on the 28th of February of 1902. The Catholic priest would not have married Thomas a second time to Adela had there not been a death or a an annulment.

This was a time of cultural conflict in New Mexico, the Americans had been here since 1846, or about 20 years before Trinidad and Thomas ended up together. She was not the first Hispanic woman to end up with an American, married or otherwise. but it was still a rare event.

Trinidad Tucker is listed as a widow in the 1910 U.S. Federal Census and is still enumerated in the 1930 Census. She was burried on the 13th of August of 1933 at the age of 89 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.