House of Sáenz de Oiza (surname)
The name derives from the name Saenz, Saens, as Sainz and Saez. This is because in ancient chronicles and documents the members of the same family were sometimes cited as Saenz or Saez, so it is sometimes considered to be the same surname.
The Saenz house name appears on the work of Joseph Maria Mena, "Surname Shields of Seville and Cordoba that went to the Indias". The surnames of Seville come mostly from the two hundred knights of lineage that recaptured Seville in 1248, accompanying the king San Fernando. These name is from a pre-invasion of Spain by the Moors, that is, going back to Visigoth period (7th to 9th century).
Its origin is cited in the mountains of Santander, but also had lineage in Vizcaya, La Rioja and Navarra. What does appear clear is the enormous difficulty for joint research to those patronymic surname (habitation surname) derived from large families that carry no kinship links between them. In the mountains of Santander there are two houses of this lineage, "Nestares" place in 1545 and the "de Rozas", in 1590. Both duly proved their nobility.
Another family named Saenz de Larramendi had the Legaria house in Navarra. A family stood in Riaza, Segovia, proving its nobility in the Royal Chancery of Valladolid. As an example of Saenz there is the quote of a character from the American line, Manuela Saenz, a politically absolutist regent that was a minister of state and regain power from Fernando VII that appointed him minister but had to be forcefully taken out of power by external representators because of to the intensity and toughness that was dedicated to pursue liberal elements.
The family owns land in the village of Calera, Valle de Carranza and Valmaseda (Vizcaya). Also its power spread to Guipuzcoa, Alava and Navarra, emanating from another house of Solar, in the town of Carazo, representated in the Salas de los Infantes (Burgos).
With the discovery of the New World there were many men and women who crossed the Atlantic in search of new horizons and specifically those bearing the surname Saenz, extended their lineage to America. So after our research in the Archivo General de Indias, which contains the names of passengers who traveled the New World, we find that Juan Saenz, scribe, a native of Viguera, single, son of Juan Perez and Maria de Sotes, left to Charcas, providing services to the Doctor Juan Saenz, 10 January 1592.
The name Oiza appears collected by the Chronicler King of Arms, Don Vicente de Cadenas and Vicent, in his "code of arms of the Hispanic Community", that means that the lineage has an official and certified coat of arms. Thousands of coats of arms are also part from various sections of the National Historical Archive, as well as the Royal Chancery of Valladolid, Hijodalgos and Vizcaya, etc. In summary, the name Oiza has done some testing of nobility.