Origin of Ceja surname
Hola to all fellow weekend geneologists! I thought I'd post this message for all to read as you all seem to be searching for common roots. I have a great amount of information on the Ceja surname. It's origin is Galician, a country in the northern part of Spain. This area has strong Celtic roots and in fact shares many Celtic traditions with Ireland and Scotland, such as playing the gaita (bagpipes), and the area itself reminds people of the misty rolling green hills of Ireland. Celtic legend in this area has it that Ireland was populated by Celts that first came from Galicia. The first reference to the Cejas was in 1387 in the small village of Friol, in the province of Lugo. Another area was in Brates, near the northern coastal city of a Coruna.However, in those times it was written differently, and it was pronounced in Galego (Galician). Don Vasco Gomez das Seixas (Cejas) was a communal leader in those times, a very important person who overlooked several communities during his reign. His son, Alonso Mexias de Aceijas, was an galant capitan under the Marques de Villanueva. Different spellings of the surname are: Sejas, Seixas, Aceijas, Azexas, Aseixas, Acejas, Acexas, Azeixas and Xexas. The surname also spread to Portugal and to the Canary Islands where they were known as "Cejas" "Seijas" or "Sejas". The surname also spread to other parts of Spain including Castille and Andalucia. In those times, Spain was a great sea power and one of their major ports was Vigo, on the western edge of Galicia. I would surmise that the first Cejas probably left from this port to the New World. I don't know when the first Ceja arrived in the New World, but the earliest reference to a Ceja was in the mid 1600's, in Guanajuato, Mexico.
The Ceja surname has a coat-of-arms. It's decribed as a shield, crimson in color with three silver doves. I don't know the shape or the orientation of the doves.
I hope this bit of information on the Ceja surname helps all of you who are interested in finding their roots. A great resource for finding "lots of Cejas" is the Mormon's web-site 'www.familysearch.org'. They have records of all spanish surnames in Mexico going back several generations. If anyone else has any other information on the Ceja surname, I'd like to hear from them. Good luck to all!
More Replies:
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Re: Origin of Ceja surname
Richard Ceja 4/26/02
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10/09/00
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2/06/02
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Re:the ceja family
jose ceja 8/09/02
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Re:the ceja family
Luis Ramirez 1/06/09
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Re:the ceja family
10/09/00
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Re: Origin of Ceja surname
10/02/00
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Re: Origin of Ceja surname
10/03/00
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Re: Origin of Ceja surname