A Puerto Rican Look at: Colorized Pedigrees!

I've been seeing these style of pedigrees online for a while now and decided I should give it a go! Thanks to Zalewski Family Genealogy blog  I was able to use the template and create my very own pedigree. Because my family has been on the island of Puerto Rico for over 200+ years, I didn't think it would have made sense to create a chart with just the same color over and over again to represent Puerto Rico. With this template I was able to include up to my 3rd great grandparents, which are 32 different ancestors! I was able to include their surnames on the side as well, giving you an idea where my family surnames originate from on the island. It was interesting seeing how diverse my family tree is in terms of locations. If you notice, it was only recently that my family came to the capital of San Juan with 3/4 of my grandparents being born there, though all of them spent their formative years growing up and living there. If you take a further look, my family has been present on the island for those 200+ years in almost all my branches, there is only one ancestor that made the cut for being from another place and that's my 3rd great grandfather from Mallorca, Spain.

I definitely had a lot of fun doing this pedigree and there are so many other styles you could do as well! Though morbid, I'm thinking of creating a pedigree with family deaths to see if there are any recurring patterns and to have an idea of what is potentially passed down in my family. You could also even create a pedigree with signatures of your ancestors! Though I would love to create one, unfortunately most of my ancestors didn't know how to write since they were all farmers and barely attended school past what we know as elementary/middle school.

Colorized Pedigree [Personal Photo]

I'm not sure how common it is to move so much to different cities but if you notice my mother's side of the family, they were notorious for making moves across the island. My father's side on the other hand seems to stick more to certain towns. For example, we have been in the towns of Corozal, Lares, and Toa Alta for many many years on my dad's side of the family. To give you an idea, here's a list of all my family locations which include 20 different locations on the island, those being: 

• Adjuntas, Puerto Rico
• Barranquitas, Puerto Rico
• Corozal, Puerto Rico
• Jayuya, Puerto Rico
• Lares, Puerto Rico
• Maunabo, Puerto Rico
• Manatí, Puerto Rico
• Morovis, Puerto Rico
• Patillas, Puerto Rico
• Quebradillas, Puerto Rico
• Salinas, Puerto Rico
• San Juan, Puerto Rico
• San Sebastián, Puerto Rico
• Toa Alta, Puerto Rico
• Utuado, Puerto Rico
• Vega Baja, Puerto Rico
• Vieques, Puerto Rico
• Yabucoa, Puerto Rico
• Yauco, Puerto Rico
• Mallorca, Spain

I recommend any genealogist who enjoys working with their tree to give this a go. It was super easy to create and could make a very cool poster for a wall! You could even include names and dates to give it more importance as well! 

52 Ancestors – #47 María de Carmen Chéverez Santiago

Today I want to focus on my 4th great grandmother on my maternal side of the family - María del Carmen Chéverez Santiago.

María del Carmen was probably born in Corozal around the 1830s, it is also possible that she was born in Toa Alta but from my search I haven't been able to find her there. María del Carmen was the daughter of Felipe Chéverez Rosado and Teresa de Jesús de Santiago, her parents themselves were born in Toa Alta and at some point move around to Morovis and probably lived some time in Ciales. María del Carmen later would marry José María Santos Avilés and together have five children (documented so far): María Guadalupe, María Leonor, Felipe, Gumercinda and Lorenzo.

Since María del Carmen wasn't born around the time of census taking I don't have much information on her or her life. I know that she had a sister named Simona Chéverez Santiago who lived in Ciales and married a man named Jesús Ortega Ocasio. Also, that María del Carmen probably died in Morovis around 1893-1909 but I haven't been able to find her death certificate.

The main reason I wanted to include her in this challenge, is because of just that reason, she has been quite a challenge to learn information about! I believe her family holds a potential key to finding a connection to my dad's side of the family. Equally her husband could also be related to my paternal side of the family being that both of their families comes from Toa Alta.

Hopefully I'll be able to trace some more information on her family and learn more about her. Let's see! 

Sibling Saturday: Family Twins Ernesto and Ernesta

I haven't used any of the Geneablogger blog prompts yet since I've been busy with the 52 Ancestor Challenge, but I think today is a great day to use one and you'll see why.

Today is my great grandmother's birthday, as well as her twin brother's! Unfortunately, my great grandmother and her brother have passed on and if they were alive today they would have been celebrating their 91st birthday. They were both born today, March 1st in the year 1923 in the town of Vega Baja, Puerto Rico. Their parents were from Morovis and how/why they gave birth to their twin children in Cabo Caribe, Vega Baja is beyond me. (I recently talked about this in a post about Ernesta's mother Ramona Rivera).

Ernesta Miranda Rivera [Personal Family Photo]

The story of their birth is an interesting one! My maternal grandmother tells me that when Ramona Rivera Rivera was delivering her child, they were unaware that it was a set of twins. Back in the days in Puerto Rico, many childbirths occurred at home due to inaccessible to centralized hospitals and the low socio-economic status of many working class families. The story goes that Ramona gave birth first to Ernesto and after his birth there was another placenta. When they cut open the placenta, inside was my great grandmother Ernesta. Quickly googling the phenomena, it is scientifically possible - it is known as "intact amniotic sac" and according to an article it is "ultra rare". I'm not sure how true this story is, their birth certificates don't mention anything of the sort yet at the same time I wonder how birth certificates would actually even mention birthing stories on documents. 

Ernesto Miranda Rivera [Personal Family Photo]

My great grand-uncle Ernesto Miranda (pictured left) worked as an ambulance driver. I actually don't know too much about Ernesto, I have that his wife's name is Angelina Rodríguez and that they had two sons together. Ernesta (our family calls her Ernestina) moved to San Juan as well as her brother but I wonder if the family just drifted apart, whether on purpose or by mistake. According to a social security record I found, it seems that Ernesto passed away in 2010 in San Juan, which actually wasn't too long ago. My maternal grandmother remembers talking and meeting Ernesto but we really don't have too much on him and his life. I have this picture thanks to some searching I did in my grandmother's closet while looking through my grandfather's things. In the photo album he had, there were many pictures of his mother and some of his uncle and cousins from his maternal side of the family.

Hopefully I'll learn more about Ernesto's life one day! Especially since he was my great-uncle, which is pretty close genealogically speaking. In Puerto Rico, we still would have called him tío just as I do with my other great-uncles and great-aunts (tía). 

52 Ancestors – #9 Ramona Rivera Rivera (1887-19??)

When I began to start my genealogy, I remember asking my maternal grandmother for every and any name she knew of the family. Luckily, she was also pretty well informed about some of maternal grandfather's maternal ancestors. On this post I want to focus on my 2nd great grandmother Ramona Rivera Rivera, or as my grandfather called her "las tres R's" (eRRes) – "the three Rs".

Ramona Rivera Rivera [Personal Family Photo]

Ramona Rivera Rivera was born in the barrio of Vaga in Morovis, Puerto Rico – a municipality located in the central region of the island. Morovis, was originally connected to the town of Manatí and later separated in the year 1815. Before that, the town was part of the lands of the Taíno Cacique Orocobix. Ramona was born on the 17th of August of 1887 and had an older sister named Gregoria who was around 10-12 years her elder. Despite being born in Morovis, Ramona's parents were from a different town according to records. Her father Francisco Rivera Rodríguez was from Barranquitas as well as his wife Estebania Rivera Rodríguez (so far there is no relationship between the two, seems that their double surname is just a coincidence).

Morovis' Flag [Wikipedia]

Ramona lost her father around the age of 13 and was raised by her mother until 1919 when she passed away from senility. In the 1910 census, Ramona and her mother Estebania appear living with Gregoria who already had eight children with Agustin Rosado Olmeda. In 1920, my 2nd great grandmother was married and living with her three children (Miguel, Isabel, and Lorenzo) and her mother-in-law María Santos Chéverez in a rented home still in Vaga, Morovis while José was employed as a worker on a coffee farm. Oddly enough, Ramona is written down as "Ramona Rivera Rodríguez" and also my great grandfather remembers her as "Ramona Rivera Rodríguez". Yes, her parents were both Rivera Rodríguez but she in turn was Rivera Rivera; just a simple confusion?

José Miranda Santos, 1920 Census [Ancestry]

Ramona Rivera "Rodríguez", 1920 Census [Ancestry]

Notice how they seem to be living in a shared home with another family, this is the first time I have seen my family sharing a home with others who (from what I know so far), are not related to them either biologically or through marriage. My 2nd great grandmother lived in Vaga, Morovis from 1887 through about 1937, but for whatever reason she gave birth to her twins (my great grandmother and her brother) in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico. Judging by the map below, Vaga is not a bordering town of Vega Baja, so why would Ramona give birth in that town? The information on the birth certificate is a bit funky, it mentions that the person that came to register the birth of the twins (Ernesta and Ernesto) was "José Miranda Cheveré" the "mother" which has some mixed up information. The rest of the siblings were born themselves in Vaga, Morovis. A weird little mystery here!

Barrios of Morovis, Puerto Rico [Google]

Many if not all of Ramona's children lived past childhood, but in 1938 the family would go through a tragic event. Sometime between 1935 and 1938 the family moved from Vaga, Morovis to the town of Damián Arriba, Orocovis, Puerto Rico. Damián Arriba and Vaga and neighboring towns straddling the Morovis/Orocovis border, so getting there was much easier to explain in this case. It seems that the family moved to Damián Arriba in April of 1937 according to a record I found in Barros, Orocovis. On October 11th, 1938 José Miranda Santos passed away. At first I thought nothing of it, but when I looked at the cause of death it sent a shiver running down my spine. 

My 2nd great grandfather José Miranda Santos committed suicide by hanging himself with a rope. It broke my heart to read that at the age of about 52, he felt this was the only way out. I don't know the situation behind this tragic death, he last appeared on the 1935 Census and it gives us some clues to his life but not his death. José was still employed at the time and seems to have received a raise since he was now an "administrator" on a coffee farm. He was living in a home with two rooms and even had the luxury of a latrine. 

Barrios of Orocovis, Puerto Rico [Wikipedia]

José left my 2nd great grandmother with 8 children, two of which were less than 8 years old. My great grandmother, Erestina Miranda Rivera, would have been 15 at the time of her father's death, how did she feel about all of this? I couldn't believe that all of these years of hearing the names Ramona Rivera and José Miranda, no one had told me that José had killed himself. When I rushed to my mom with what I thought was "new information", she just shrugged her shoulders and told me that she knew about her great grandfather's death. But how come I, the family genealogist, wasn't told!?!

How was Ramona's life afterwords? My grandmother got the chance to meet Ramona and remembers her living in Cataño in a wooden house with a sink that was outside her window enclosed by a wall with nails she could hang things up on. She said that Ramona had blue eyes and always wore white embroidered shirts with a handkerchief over her head. She had white hair and usually wore it up in a bun. She also remembers her being tall, missing a few teeth, sold tapetes (rugs?) and had a "witch nose". My grandmother says she was buried in Río Piedras but I have yet to find a death certificate for her since I am unaware of the range of years for her death.  

Interestingly with 23andme I have been able to find out that Ramona Rivera Rivera's maternal haplogroup would have been A2, since Ramona is my grandfather's direct maternal ancestor. I have only one photo of Ramona and in it she has some indigenous looking features to her face. Ramona's ancestress could have been a Taíno/Arawak woman living in the central region of the island under Cacique Orocobix's command and leadership. Hopefully one day I will be able to find her death certificate and maybe even a tomb! I imagine Ramona was a very strong woman to continue raising her children despite the death of her husband – and in her I find strength. 

Clearing Up A Mix-Up

In all honesty, my maternal grandfather's line has been one of the hardest to trace for what ever reason. Mostly because I have no communication with him, but I was fortunate enough that my grandmother was aware of some names in his family such as his mother's name as well as her parents which was a great start. His father (my great grandfather, Manuel Correa) was the hardest person I probably had on my tree to find. Every time I looked at my family tree, that area of the family tree was blank, along with my father's branch because no one was aware of names, dates or places, but later that all changed.

With my maternal grandfather's line, I knew that his mother's name was Ernesta Miranda Rivera who died in 1989 and that her parents' names were Jose Miranda and Ramona Rivera. I also knew that Ernesta was born in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico with a twin brother. The story goes that while her mother was giving birth at her home, first came out Ernesto (her twin brother) and then her mother gave birth to a 'bag' (which was the placenta of Ernesta) and the doctor cut open the placenta to find Ernesta inside. I don't know if this is medically possible but it makes a great story about her birth.

My Great Grandmother Ernesta Miranda Rivera (1923-1989)

Knowing she was born in Vega Baja and in 1923 she would have to appear on the 1930 Census with her family in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico I searched the records on ancestry.com and found them.

Ernesta Miranda Rivera in 1930 living in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico

For some reason, mainly because I was told that Ramona Rivera was Ramona Rivera Rodríguez , I thought her parents were Conrado Rivera Ortiz and Asunción Rodríguez Figueroa who lived in Vaga, Morovis, Puerto Rico in 1910; where my great great grandmother had also lived (There was a Ramona listed with them in 1910). Yet after finding both Ernesta's birth and death certificate, I found out that her mother was actually not Ramona Rivera Rodríguez but Ramona Rivera Rivera. Both her parents were Rivera Rodríguez themselves, Ramona's father being Francisco Rivera Rodríguez from Morovis and her mother Estebanía Rivera Rodríguez according to records from Barranquitas, Puerto Rico she was born abt 1839 and died on 23 July 1919 in Vaga, Morovis, Puerto Rico. (Estebanía and Francisco do not share the same parents and from the looks of it might not be closely related since it's said that his Francisco's father was from Bayamón and his mother from Morovis while Estebanía's family was from Barranquitas.) So for a while I was confused about who Ramona was but thankfully I've corrected her branch and added the right names! Pictured below is a woman who I believe is my great great grandmother Ramona Rivera Rivera, I'm not completely sure but I found her picture in my grandfather's photo album where I also found pictures of his mother and him as a child. Notice how half of the picture seems to be missing, there's a hand (looks like a man's hand) holding the woman around at the arm. Who could that be and was he intentionally wiped out of the picture? Sometimes some mysteries may never be solved!

A picture of who I believe is Ramona Rivera Rivera