I have just finished reading a very interesting book, "Genealogical Fictions - Limpieza de Sangre, Religion, and Gender in Colonial Mexico." This is basically a history of the concepts of racial purity in Spain and their evolution into the casta system in colonial Mexico.
There is a little discussion of the status of descendants of the former indigenous nobility, including the descendants of Moctezuma, in Mexico.
This has some implication to proving the ancestry of Petronila de Moctezuma, provided the relevant documents exist and can be found. These could be the information de limpieza de sangre it the probanza de limpieza de sangre.
Chimalpahin, which is mentioned only briefly in Genealogical Fictions, gives some details on the Valderrama de Moctezuma lineage, noting that some of the daughters became nuns, and at least one son became a priest. Perhaps an informacion or probanza exists for one of them. Chimalpahin also refers to five other children whose names are not known.
Petronila is not named in Genealogical Fictions, nor in Chimalpahin's history. Perhaps she is one of the five unnamed children
I've looked at the PARES website, as well as the AGN Mexico City website without success for digitized versions of these kinds of documents.
Does anyone have insight to where these documents of these types could be found?
George Fulton
Pleasanton