Our historyCenturies of life
The documents preserved for centuries in the house refer to the name of Lorenzo Andrés da Balsa as eponymous ancestor of the family, assuming that the by-name of Lourán derives from Lourenzo, who lived between the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th. A document from 1827 contains another relevant name, that of Salvador Antonio González Rodríguez, born in the parish of Vilalba, and who came to As Restrebas after marrying María Balsa Lorenzo, daughter of Luis da Balsa, who we think was the brother of the above-mentioned Lourenzo and of Dominga Lorenzo. The marriage between Salvador
González, who introduced the surname González for the successive descendants of the Louráns, and María Balsa, can be considered as the starting point of the genealogy of the family.
We won’t dwell upon the branches of a genealogical tree that keeps opening out and growing like the big chestnuts that shelter the house from the wind. Taking a small leap in time we get to the beginning of the 20th century, when the hay loft was built and engraved as follows: “BUILT BY SALVADOR GONZALEZ AND HIS SON ANGEL G. COUTO BEING MASTER HIS NEPHEW ANGEL G. PAZ. YEAR OF 1917”. We need to consider that the house would have already undergone numerous enlargements during the 19th century.