I have it on high authority — unofficial family historian, my Aunt Linda — that there are none of our Romero’s in Romeroville, New Mexico…but wow, who even knew we had a whole town named after us? Not I. So, needless to say, as soon as we saw that big old exit sign, Ginger and I totally had to stop (literally on the side of freeway for the pic above!) to take some pictures.
And trust me, that didn’t take nearly long as we thought it would, as there wasn’t much to see in Romeroville. I mean, unless we missed the bustling city core completely, “my town” isn’t much more than a few rustic houses nestled up alongside the interstate just outside Las Vegas, NM.
But the proud Romero name was everywhere you looked. There was Camino Romero, Romero Court, and our name was even emblazoned on the train track warning sign thing. Crazy!
Crazier still was the fact that Ginger ordered me to stop in the middle of the train tracks so she could get that picture below.
I don’t think we were in danger in getting plowed in half — hell, who knows if the trains even still run through Romeroville these days — but yikes, what a headline that would have made! If, you know, they had a newspaper in town…
Anyway, not much else to write about Romeroville. I just thought it was cool that there was a town named after my people, even if it is little more than a grungy old frontage road alongside I25.
make. see. eat. do. 
I enjoyed reading about Romeroville. And now that you have that experience under your oversized belt, I’m looking forward to the day when I read a blog post about the Romero Overlook Visitors Center off Highway 152 en route to Santa Cruz.
Who knew that President Kennedy was at the groundbreaking! 🙂
BTW, notice that I heeded your request and waited until someone else commented before adding my own contribution, so that I don’t take up too many precious slots on the “Recent Comments” listing. 🙂 hehe
Yes, I was a bit enthusiastic to take that cool picture, and in the excitement of the moment I failed to realize that Tom had stopped the car smack-dab in the middle of those Romeroville train tracks! Yikes indeed!
It is a good thing we didn’t make the news that day…that’ll teach me to look at my surroundings before snapping a pic. 🙂
Hey cool pics of Romeroville. I did not also know there was such a town, and i have lived in NM all my life. Nice to know
Thanks
Camilo F. Romero III
Roswell, NM
Thanks for your comments, Camilo! Nice to hear from an unrelated Romero in NM. Yeah, who knew we had a town named after “our people”? Funny, huh?
Like I said above, there isn’t much of anything in Romeroville, but it’s still cool that the town exists at all in my book…so, que viva los Romeros! 🙂
It is a shame that people with the Romero name , Dont know that the town was named after Senator Trinidad Romero !!!
Perhaps if I were from the town, I’d know that too. Thanks for your comments anyway, Greg! 🙂
About Bartolomé Romero, II
Bartolomé Romero, II christened April 5, 1557 at the church of Nuestra Senora de la Asuncion, Corral de Almaguer, Castille La Mancha, España deid 1632 Nuevo México
Married:
1. Lucia Lopez Robledo born about 1573 in España died about 1625. Lucia was the daughter of Pedro Robledo and Catalina Lopez.
Children of Bartolomé and Lucia Lopez Robledo
1. Bartolome lll 2. Matias 3. Agustin 4. Ana, who married Francisco Gomez 5. Maria, who married Gaspar Perez.
Bartolomé and his wife were members of the Oñate expedition to New Mexico in 1598. Bartolomé was Oñate’s Captain of Artillery. At this time he is described as “having a good stature, dark and black-bearded.” He was quickly promoted to captain after their arrival in New Mexico. He was 35 in 1598.
Strong evidence from archives of the inquisition indicate that the Romero’s who came to New Mexico were Jewish coversos,who continued to live under church suspicions of Jewish practices.
In his book “To the End of the Earth,” Stanley Hordes speculates that Bartolome Romero, one of Juan de Onate’s officers, was a New Christian and possibly a crypto-Jew. Romero was from the small La Mancha farming community of Corral de Almaguer. This village apparently had a large Jewish community including a number of Romeros who in church records were described as New Christians. In addition, Romero’s mother Maria de Adeva may have been related to a promintent Jewish family known as the (Ben)adevas. Hordes also believes that Romero’s father in law Pedro Robledo may have also been a crypto-Jew based on his family history.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=6&ved=0CFIQFjAF&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newmexicohistory.org%2Ffiledetails.php%3FfileID%3D510&ei=ZcYQUcb7LqHm2AWvqYCoAw&usg=AFQjCNGNWPlH5OMQcty_698_4CG103xrPg
Wow! Thanks for the detailed information, Kenny. That’s really cool to know. It all clears up any questions I had about being related to that strand of Romeros. As far as I know, the first member of our family to come over from Espana was Francisco Xavier Romero. I don’t remember the exact year he came, and we may still be related somehow, but, I do know he was the first one from our familia in New Mexico. Thanks for your comments though!
Look at this site and see if you can look up your family tree. http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CDwQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rootsweb.ancestry.com%2F~nmscgs%2FSOCORRO%2Fwga104.html&ei=uGQRUZ6mIOGqyAGM2YDwDQ&usg=AFQjCNHgGcl5ygO0S25VdfHe07PvJTQCbg
We started off in SAN GABRIEL NM<~~~~FIRST CAPITAL OF NEW MEXICO FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO THOUGHT SANTA FE WAS THE ORIGINAL AND ONLY CAPITAL OF NEW MEXICO. Then headed to ALBUQUERQUE and from there we ended up in TOME NM. Now I reside in BELEN NM.
If you ever have extra time on your hands head to the NM HISTORY MUSEUM in OLD TOWN. There you will find some statues of the first settlers of NM. On the west side of the statutes there is a plaque with the names of the first founding families of NM. http://m.flickr.com/lightbox?id=6496053257
Hello out there my grandfather was Raymundo Romero from Romeoville. And my father Eugenio Romero. UNFORTUNATELY I do not know any of their relatives. Any one know my familia?