ORBETA The House Orbeta is located in a village named GORLIZ, in the Basque province of Bizkaia (Vizcaya in spanish-Biscay in english), this village is located at 25 kilometers fron Bilbao (North east), very close to the Town Plencia, the house Orbeta of Gorliz is located in the quarter or neighborhood Ibarra, then in Plencia there are (or were) three houses with the name Orbeta, but as Plencia is a Town, the name of the house only indicate the surname of the owner these three houses were located one in Barrenkale street and twoo in Artekale street

Coat of arms: In golden field, a blackberry tree painted on it's natural colour, fruited in gold

As I am not sure if I have translated properly the name of the tree of the Coat, the scientific name of it is: MORUS NIGRA

The meaning of Orbeta is not clear, some authors thought that is the lathin word (Urbs, Orbis) adopted by the basque language in this toponim Other authors thought that ORB means in basque , Manor place

So the translation can be (the house in the) manor place.Well most of the Basque houses were manor houses, because all the basques were nobles by law

Orbeta and Orueta are the same word

In the census of 1704 the house appears as Orueta, the Owner was Pedro Orueta

In the Census of 1745 the hose appears as Orbeta, the owner was Maria Ibarra Saratxaga

In the census of 1796 the house appears as Orbeta, the owner was Maria Iartua

In the census of 1796 of Gorliz there were some Orbetas Josefa Orbeta, Francisca Orbeta, Tomasa Orbeta, Juan Antonio Orbeta, Manuel Orbeta, they all were owners

In the census of 1745 and 1704 there are Oruetas but not Orbetas, so I think that the surname was Orueta and in the middle of the XVIII century was changed by Orbeta, probably this was caused because of the change of the V by B

Census of Plencia

In 1704 there aren't Orbetas

In 1745 appears Juan Orbeta, and Francisco Orueta

In 1796 appears in the census of Houses and owners
Orbeta House (new): Juan Antonio Orbeta.......Barrenkalle street
Orbeta House (new): Miguel Orbeta.....Artekalle street
Orbeta House, other (new): Miguel Orbeta.....Artekalle street
I don't know if is the same Miguel Orbeta

I have look up my family tree and I have not Orbeta ancestors, I remembered the Orbeta surname because my 3grandmother's sister was married with a man named Bonifacio Orbeta, but I only have his name

I don't know if is there any Orbeta Street, in Bilbao there is a Street named ORUETA, more exactly (Obispo Orueta, Bishop Orueta)

Also look at Louie Orbeta's History of the Orbeta Surname

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