Miranda (Fimbres)

Our Miranda branch is one that we know the least about.  The furthest we can trace back is to Manuel Miranda beginning at least in the early 1880s in the Territory of Arizona, which would make him one of the earliest settlers of Arizona.

Family oral history says he was a Yaqui Indian, although we now know as a result of paternal DNA testing that he was not full-blooded Yaqui.  The testing showed that our male line eventually traces back to Western Europe, and likely to the low countries of the Netherlands or Belgium. We do know that the traditional home of the Yaqui people is near the Rio Yaqui in northern Sonora state in Mexico, and thousands crossed into Arizona from Mexico starting in the mid-1800s to flee the military regime of Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz.

The DNA testing also linked us within one marker to three separate individuals whose last names are Fimbres.  The testing suggests that approximately three generations back from Manuel, our direct male line meets with the three Fimbres individuals.  The Fimbres came to Suaqui Grande, Sonora State in the early 1800s, probably from Moctezuma, Sonora and before that Huasabas, where it appears that two “Basque brothers” arrived from Spain.  As a result, our theory is that Manuel’s father was a Fimbres who likely only fathered the child but was otherwise completely absent.  Therefore Manuel carried his mother’s maiden name of Miranda, and for this reason Manuel and his descendants carried the Miranda surname forward instead of Fimbres.

Manuel’s descendants lived in Arizona for most of the 20th Century.  His only son Francisco lived in the mining towns of Clifton and Ray-Sonora.  Francisco’s son Romulo lived nearly his whole life in Clifton before spending the final five years in Los Angeles, California.  Francisco eventually assumed his mother’s maiden name (Jordan) and had another family that carried the Jordan name instead of Miranda.  Their descendants continue in Arizona, with some branches in California.  In all, at least four generations of Mirandas lived in Arizona.

What is certain is that the Miranda family, with its mix of Native American, Spanish, Belgian, and even a touch of German-Polish blood (Sprinz branch), was among the earliest latin settlers in the present-day United States.  The Mirandas experienced the U.S. Civil War, the U.S. wars against the Native Americans, World War I, the Great Depression, World War II, segregation, and several waves of more recent latin american immigration to the United States.  Ultimately, they left Arizona for good in the 1980s, with some branches settling in Los Angeles, California and others in the Mid-Atlantic United States.

Related branches associated with our Miranda (Fimbres) line we are researching include Jordan, Hermosillo, Lucero, and Sprinz.

The beginning of our Miranda line:

• Manuel Miranda (generation 1)
• Francisco Jordan Miranda (generation 2)
• Romulo Lucero Miranda (generation 3)