On Research on Individuals

It should be noted that other musters were conducted during the course of the expedition, but the Compostela list is the only one known to have survived. The location of any of those other muster rolls could potentially add significantly to the universe of known, named expeditionaries. Even though one might wish for a more complete list of the individuals involved in the Coronado Expedition to Tierra Nueva, the present data base covers a much larger and more diverse group of expeditionary members than has ever before been identified.

At the end of active research in "Members of the Coronado Expedition, a Search for Documents" in 2010, the Flints estimated that at a minimum 2,800 individuals comprised the various units and subgroups of the Coronado Expedition to Tierra Nueva. Of this number, 394 are included in the data published here.

Information about many other individuals, however, is compiled in the data base. Of direct relevance to the Coronado Expedition, there are 46 individuals who had direct connection to the expedition, but did not actually make the journey themselves, ranging from Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza to Guido de Lavezariis and Ruy González, all among it financiers. Of interest primarily because they were related to members of the expedition, there are parents, spouses, children, and grandchildren, as well as friends and other associates. All in all, this data base includes information about a significant sample of the mid-sixteenth-century population of New Spain, as well as a smattering of data regarding contemporary residents of Castilla and other locales in Europe.