Searching My "Lamboy" Branch

In the summer of 2018, I clocked in a lot of hours looking into my Yabucoa side of the family. Discovering the church death record of my 4th great-grandfather Manuel de Santiago fortunately unlocked for me new names of ancestors to search. These searches ultimately took me from Yabucoa to the towns of Humacao and Las Piedras, and what was once a dry well of information became a well filled with new surnames, dates, and ancestors. In this maternal line, I discovered a 7th great-grandfather with the surname "Lamboy" and this is who I want to focus on today. Below you can see how I descend from Feliciano Lamboy via my mother's side of the family.

Feliciano Lamboy - 7th great-grandfather [Personal Photo]

As you can see above, my 6th great-grandmother was the last member of my line to hold Lamboy as a paternal side where afterwards it gets daughtered out, meaning that the descendants of this line changed names based on the fathers, men who were not Lamboy. Here you can see it jumps to Ramos, Santiago (2 generations), Orozco, Dávila, and finally down to me as a Rivera - this is because if most of my ancestors in this line were women.

My 6th great-grandmother Lucrecia Lamboy Rabelo/Rivera was one of many children from her parents Feliciano Lamboy and María Rabelo/Rivera (she jumps from one or the other depending on record and year). In total, Lucrecia was a part of 13 children in total from this couple (so far) and interestingly enough, her mother's death record in 1803 states that Lucrecia along with Bernarda were born before her marriage with Feliciano. Which means two things: 1) Feliciano and María married and recognized their two first daughters thus giving them the surname "Lamboy" or 2) Lucrecia and Bernarda are from another relationship and Feliciano gave them his surname to protect the girls and the family from being social outcasts. Nonetheless, here we are, searching into this line my family - only DNA will tell if we are genetically "Lamboy", and even then being 7 generations far from me dilutes the amount of DNA I would inherit from this branch of my family. 

3 generations of Lamboy [Personal Family Tree]

Why are am I so interested in my Lamboy family you may ask? 

Lamboy - ¿Español?... ¡No!

Every time I come across a new surname in my family that I haven't heard of before, I jump on INE to find out its potential roots. For example, finding the surname "Magraner" in my family and seeing that the surname wasn't too common or popular in Puerto Rico lead me to search the INE and find out the surname is mainly concentrated on the east of Spain and mainly on the islands of Mallorca. 

And so I eagerly typed in the surname, only to discover... 

Lamboy Results... Or lack thereof [INE]

There were ZERO hits! No one (currently) in Spain uses the surname Lamboy (or less than 5 in total), which means that this surname probably isn't Spanish! I'm not too surprised though, the surname doesn't really have a Spanish ring to it and the -mb- combination feels a bit weird. The surname however has another variation on the island - Laboy.

What about Laboy?! 

I decided to type in this surname variation and see what hits I would get... and again, NOTHING! With this one it's also not too surprising since it seems that Laboy probably stems from Lamboy, whether as an orthographic mistake or an intentional doing... I'm not sure. Another branch of my family has the surname "Laboy" also from the southern area of the island but I haven't been able to search that line further yet. 

So this begs the question, who were the Lamboy? Where they one contacted branch of various arrivals? Where were they from? And how did they arrive in Puerto Rico?

Breadcrumbs

Searching for the Lamboy in Humacao, I was able to start putting some information together to see how many branches there might be and if/how they interacted with one another. If there were a ton, then this name was more common than what I thought. If there were a few, then there was likely a familial relationship between them. It seems that my family was in Humacao since the town's inception and so they were some of the first settlers to arrive. Where from? Well let's see what we know!

Working our way backwards up the tree, Marcelina Ramos Lamboy (my 5th great-grandmother) was baptized in 1799 in Humacao and her godparents were Feliciano Lamboy and his daughter María Magdalena. We can assume that this Feliciano Lamboy is her maternal grandfather and María Magdalena her aunt (my 7th great-aunt). Later in 1801, María Magdalena Lamboy appears again at the godmother of Juana Ramos Lamboy, my 6th great-aunt. Lastly, she serves as madrina (godmother) of José Ramón Ramos Lamboy in 1805.

María Magdalena Lamboy would go on to marry Toribio Solís Rodríguez in May 1806, mentioning that her parents were Feliciano Lamboy deceased and María Rivera. That record confirms that María Magdalena was the aunt of all of these children in their baptism.

In Las Piedras we find that the family was here before settling into Humacao's records, finding a baptism in 1788 for Florencio and his padrinos were Juan Lamboy and Isabel de los Reyes.

Since Humacao has an index for most of their baptism records I was able to document all of the Lamboy children born within 1793-1825, similarly I was able to document deaths in the town as well. See below for the excel I created with green marking baptism records and red-orange marking death records.

Lamboy Baptisms in Humacao, Puerto Rico

Lamboy Deaths in Humacao, Puerto Rico

Many of the records point to Feliciano Lamboy and María Rabelo/Rivera though there are other couples as well and one specifically caught my eye: Vicente Lamboy and his wife Bernarda Rabelo. As you can see both have the surname combo of "Lamboy Rabelo" which makes me think that Vicente and Feliciano would be brothers while Bernarda and María were sisters, respectively. Though I have no evidence to tie them together yet I decided to explore this couple and see if they had crossed paths with my 7th great-grandparents. 

Vicente Lamboy & Bernarda Rabelo

To begin, I was able to find their marriage record in Humacao, Puerto Rico - they were married in July 1796. Notice the information about Bernarda that struck me as interesting!

Vicente Lamboy & Bernarda de Rivera - Matrimonio 1796 [FamilySearch]

In the record above you can see that Vicente Lambo[i] (first time I saw Lamboy as "Lamboi", a typo I imagine) was a native of Guayama and the son of Marcos Lamboy and Baltazara Rodríguez while Bernarda was the daughter of María de Rivera. Did you catch what I caught?!

Here you can see that Bernarda appears as "Bernarda de Rivera" while in her children's baptism indexes above she appears as "Bernarda de Rabelo"... where have we seen this before? With my own 7th great-grandmother who sometimes as "María de Rivera" and "María de Rabelo"... leading me to think they are sisters! Equally, in various records Feliciano Lamboy and his daughter Lucrecia for example appear as natives of Guayama and here we see the same thing with Vicente Lamboy. 

From there marriage I have been able to identify four children born in Humacao: 

• Lorenza (1797) 
• Juan Evangelista (1800)
• María del Carmen (1802)
• Nicolasa (1804) 

If we take a look at their godparents we get to learn a bit more about who the family was surrounded by: 

• Padrinos de Lorenza: Feliciano Lamboy & María de Rivera
• Padrinos de Juan Evangelista: Severino Maldonado & María Magdalena Lamboy
• Padrinos de María del Carmen: Miguel Berríos & Estefanía Cordovés/Córdoba
• Padrinos de Nicolasa: Juan Antonio Lamboy & Paulina Rodríguez

From the four children listed above, three have "Lamboy" surnamed godparents and two right away we can identify - the first being Feliciano Lamboy (my 7th great-grandfather) and María Magdalena Lamboy (my 7th great-aunt). 

Lorenza Lamboy Rivera - Bautismo [FamilySearch]

Juan Evangelista Lamboy Ravelo - Bautismo [FamilySearch]

The third record points to a Juan Antonio Lamboy married to a Paulina Rodríguez as the godparents of Nicolasa. I have two Antonio Lamboy brothers for María Magdalena: the first an actual "Juan Antonio" born about 1783 and the second an "Antonio Lamboy" born in 1790. The former option makes the most sense as the latter would have only been 14 years old when Nicolasa was born in 1804.

Nicolasa Lamboy Rivera - Bautismo [FamilySearch]

This Juan Antonio Lamboy (my 7th great-uncle) was born in 1783 was married in 1808 to a "Victoria" mulata libre, though no surname is mentioned their children would go to carry "Lamboy Nazario" or "Lamboy de Matos". Could he have been previously married before 1804 to Paulina Rodríguez? His marriage record doesn't mention him as a widower but we know records often make mistakes. I would have to find a marriage record prior to 1804 to prove him as the same man. 

If this is the case, this would potentially mean that Feliciano Lamboy was a brother to Vicente Lamboy and María Magdalena and Juan Antonio would have been nieces and nephews appearing as godparents for their uncle Vicente. Not further evidence is discovered I can only speculate their relationship. 

Final Clues

A few months ago a kind Puerto Rican genealogist uploaded a list of foreigners in Puerto Rico in the year 1816, though not an all encompassing list, it mentions various towns and people from other countries along with their profession. Below, we see a Vicente Lamboy listed as French and he seems to be a carpenter. Now, could this be the same Vicente Lamboy that appears in Humacao? Possible. 

Extranjeros en Puerto Rico, 1816 [Shared by Puerto Rican Genealogist]

Some records point to Vicente Lamboy as being from Ponce or Guayama, both towns in the south and though not directly neighboring towns to one another, it's important to note that town borders have changed over the years and "Ponce" and "Guayama" as we know them now are much smaller than in the past. This historic map shows us how much bigger the borders of these towns were. 

Map of Puerto Rico [Google Images]

Though Humacao's territory lies on the east, it's possible that Vicente Lamboy moved around a bit and/or was officially registered as a foreigner in Ponce. A Google search in the "Books" section provides us another clue of a "Vicente Lamboy" present in Ponce again. 

Actos de Cabildo de Ponce [Google Books]

What's interesting is that the 1816 Register mentions "French" as the origin, which is interesting to consider because in no other records does Vicente Lamboy mention French. Of course, it is possible that these aren't the same men but considering late 1700s-early 1800s in the Ponce/Guayama area... how many Vicente Lamboys could there actually be? One truly doesn't know until you've exhausted all possible theories. 

Conclusions

My current research now lies in Guayama, trying to find any clues or evidence of Vicente Lamboy or Feliciano Lamboy. Could they have been brothers or even cousins themselves? Though Ponce is still on the table, the church's records online aren't as far back as Guayama and the evidence, for now, overwhelming points more to Guayama versus Ponce. I have been able to find some Lamboy in Guayama but so far none that have matched what I have in my tree, nonetheless, it's good to see that the name is present in the town. 

For now, French seems to be the only possible indication of a place of origin and though "specific" it's quite the opposite. I have seen French refer to Haiti, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Corsica, and finally France itself. So there really isn't a clear indication to where exactly he would have been from. Maybe another more detailed registration for Vicente would hold that information. The current 1815-1845 Registry of Foreign Residents of Puerto Rico online on FamilySearch has no entries for "Lamboy" or "Laboy". Hoping to discover more in the Guayama records!

"L" Registrations for Foreign Residents, 1815-1845 [FamilySearch]

Do you have Lamboy ancestors from Guayama/Ponce?

The Power of Names

I wanted to share this record I found while searching the Toa Alta baptism records again. In all my years of researching, I have rarely come across an entry this detailed for a slave's baptism. Four years ago, I posted "Whispers of the Past" where certain entries for slaves in the Registry of 1872 contained the name of their parents. This is first time I am seeing a church record include so much information for a slave.

Juan Luis Sandoval, negro adulto - Bautismo [FamilySearch]

Below is a transcription of the document above.

Transcription: En la Rivera de Toa Alta el día diez y ocho de mayo del año mil ochocientos y siete yo el beneficiado presbiterio Don Joseph María Martínez Cura Rector de esta parroquia de la Inmaculada Concepción de Nuestra Señora bauticé solemnemente puse oleo y crisma a Juan Luis negro adulto de diez y seis años de edad natural de Guinea en el lugar llamado Gabó, hijo de Ocai y de Gavena y a él lo llamaban Guinbi, esclavo de Doña Manuela Sandoval, fue su padrino el caballero regidor Don Juan Antonio Mexía a quien advertí el parentesco espiritual y sus obligaciones, de que doy fe. [firmado] Joseph María Martínez. 

The main information to discern from above is that on the 18th of May 1807, Juan Luis, a black adult of 16 years of age, native of Guinea from the place of "Gabó" son of Ocai and Gavena who was previously known as Guinbi, slave of Manuela Sandoval, was baptized in the church of Toa Alta, Puerto Rico.

Interestingly enough, three other slaves belonging to Manuela Sandoval are also baptized in 1807 along with Juan Luis, none of them however have as much information to them as Juan Luis. The slaves are as follows: 

Juan Manuel, esclavo de Manuela Sandoval, adulto, natural de Guinea

Andrés Antonio, esclavo de Manuela Sandoval, adulto, natural de Guinea 

Manuel Antonio, esclavo de Manuela Sandoval, adulto, natural de Guinea 

Besides stating that they were "natives of Guinea" no ages or parents' names are mentioned. These type of entries are more common amongst slaves and it's interesting that Juan Luis' entry has so much detail. 

Why only Juan Luis?

It is possible that Juan Luis was quick to learn Spanish and was allowed to share his information when baptized. I'm not sure if Manuela Sandoval was kind enough to let him share this information or if Joseph María Martínez asked him these questions himself when he was baptized. It is likely that Juan Luis was brought to Puerto Rico that year or maybe the previous year and was well aware of who he was, where he was from, and the names of his parents. Potentially even his age is maybe correct seeing as how he was the only slave of four to mention an age. This would mean that Guinbi, later known as Juan Luis, was likely born around the year 1791. 

"El lugar Gabó"

My guess would be that Guinbi was originally from the country today known as Gabon (Gabón in Spanish). From my understanding of the 17-18th century slave trade, most of the western area was known as "Guinea" and so it included various countries that today are: Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, and various islands and other countries as well. A map of the times gives us a better idea of the extension of this area known as the "Gulf of Guinea". 

Map of the Gulf of Guinea, 1740-1749 [Bibliothèque Nationale de France]

Unfortunately, this is the closest we are to knowing where Guinbi was from, no town is mentioned and the fact that his baptism includes the actual country and his parents' names is a feat in and of itself.

Guinbi, son of Ocai and Gavena

Since we are dealing with Spanish orthography, we are not sure the correct or accurate spelling of their names. For example, the "u" is used after the "g-" in Spanish but this might not be the case in other languages, the "n" might be a "m" giving us something like Ginbi or Gimbi. His father's name might take a "k" instead of a "c" and the "a" might be a more "e" sound, something along the lines of Okai or Okei. Lastly, his mother's name could take "b" instead of a "v" since Spanish doesn't distinguish the two giving us Gabena. And who's to say these weren't short versions of longer names as well! 

The three main indigenous languages in Gabon are Fang, Mbere, and Sira - all being Bantu languages. I would imagine their names fall under one of these languages but of course there is always the possibility it doesn't. An ethnographic and linguistic analysis of these names and cross referencing other sources of the time which help to distinguish African names in Spanish orthography would be helpful to discover their Gabonese names.

Conclusions

It would be interesting to follow Juan Luis' life and see what became of him in Puerto Rico. How long did he stay enslaved? Does he end up marrying and having children in Puerto Rico? Does he have descendants out there? If only these type of detailed records existed for all of our enslaved ancestors! 

Genealogical Resolutions for 2020!

With the new year comes change and excitement for what's to come! For me, not only do I focus on life goals and resolutions for the entering year but I also try to create some resolutions based around genealogy. I spend quite a bit of time (read: a lot) doing genealogy on the day to day, as it is a very important aspect of my life. Creating genealogical resolutions is something I started a few year back in 2018 and followed through recently in 2019 (broken into Part I and Part II).

At the end of the year I also reflect on those resolutions/goals and see where I am with them. Here are the reflections for the last two years:

• 2018 Reflection
• 2019 Reflection

So I figured, why not keep up with this new habit and see what goals I'd like to set for 2020! Here are my genealogical resolutions for the year! 

GENEALOGICAL RESOLUTIONS FOR 2020!

1. Take a Genealogy Course
This is a carry-over resolution from last year and I'll bring it into 2020 because it's something I really want to do. Currently I've been looking at the Boston University genealogical courses, however if you know of one aimed at Latin American/Caribbean genealogy drop a comment! I'd love to take a course crafted for the type of genealogy I'm mainly focused on. Though I'm not sure I'll be able to take a course this year, I'll see if I can register myself in the fall for the winter or spring semester 2021, at the latest!

2. Learn/Practice/Better my French
I wanted to commence this resolution this year, but honestly as a teacher the year always get the better of me, like, how is it already January 2020? I'm not sure how much time I'll have this summer but hopefully I can set some time aside for doing some French work. I still have textbooks/books from high school and college, so I should definitely be able to do some self-studying for now, and of course there's Duolingo, music, and movies as well!

3. Get more serious about my platform
This is something I've been thinking about for some time now. I've been researching for about 15 years and writing on my blog ever since 2011, and I want to take it to a next step. Whether that's getting a (.com) for myself, branding myself better, or putting my name out there, I want to have a more steady publishing stream and reading crowd for my blog. The only drawback is that this isn't a full-time job, so sometimes genealogy or blogging will take the back-burner while I focus on my day job. We'll see what steps I take in this direction, even if they're baby steps, I hope it's some!

4. Revisit my lines from Toa Alta, Puerto Rico
It's been about 9-10 years since I've searched this branch in intensity. I remember vividly when I was in college, specifically the summer of 2009, FamilySearch had released some of Puerto Rico's church records online, and Toa Alta was one of the first towns to go up. I remember furiously searching the church books and finding as many ancestors and connections as possible; however, I was also naïve to some extent. I didn't pay attention much to godparents and the roles they played in documents and in the lives of my ancestors. So I want to go back and research more calmly these documents again and see what I can find. Especially since recently I made a breakthrough on my Rivera-Román line in nearby Guaynabo and now I have some more generations and names to work with that might be found in Toa Alta.

5. Catalog/Keep track searched FamilySearch Films
This resolution is tied to my goal above. I find that sometimes I read, re-read, and sometimes even forget what films I've searched or which specific books and what ancestors I looked for in that specific time. I usually take notes on pieces of paper as I go, which then end up getting forgotten about or lost somewhere amongst other pages/loose papers. So my resolution is to create a digital database (probably Excel/Google Sheets) where I can keep track of the searches I've done. This would include writing down the film number, the church books, which pages I've seen, and what ancestors I've searched for. The further I go back in time with research the more I'm noticing that a lot of towns like Guayama, Coamo, San Juan etc. are getting repeated across multiple family lines, so to hopefully simplify this I want to track this more neatly and more accurately.

6. Continue note-taking throughout my tree
Similarly to resolution #5, this is something I want to better and is slightly different than the resolution above. I want to continue keeping track of certain clues, potential family members, and events in my ancestor's pages. Since I use Ancestry, I keep track via notes on certain events and place links in their profiles when something new comes up. To give you an example, this is my 6th great-grandfather Juan Francisco Correa's page below with links and notes of films I've searched and where I am on these films whilst searching. As you can see the notes get more complicated as the more I search and unfortunately there's a character limit to the boxes so I can't go on forever, but still, it's something that I find extremely helpful and I have posted about it as well in post about being stuck with my Correa branch. As you can see below, I work a lot between both languages (English and Spanish) since I use both fluently and daily.

Notes, Links, and Helpful Comments [Personal Ancestry Pages]

7. Cast a wider net with DNA cousin profiles
DNA has been such a big help for finding and locating certain segments for certain ancestors (thanks DNAPainter!) and even seeing where certain ancestry in my family comes from (I explore African inheritance via various generations in my family via this post). I've been very fortunate to test 2 parents, 2 grandparents, and 1 great-grandfather. In place of my paternal grandparents I've been able to test 1 sister for my paternal grandfather and 2 siblings for my paternal grandmother. My resolution (albeit an expensive one) is to try and add more diverse cousins amongst my tree to help with matching. I've already started this a bit by recently adding a 2nd great-uncle and a 1st cousin, 2x removed via my Magraner-Avilés branch to autosomal testing in 23andMe as well as one of their Y-DNA test to FTDNA. My goal is to continue adding cousins sporadically from different parts of my tree to help fill in gaps of inherited DNA segments on my DNA Painter chromosomes but to also have closer generations to the "source" of certain autosomal ancestry or connections. My biggest lacking side is my paternal grandfather's side since I don't know too many cousins on that side of the tree. Hopefully some will test on their own as well and I'll be able to share and compare with them.

8. Find a maternal mitochondrial descendant of Eglantine Lautin
This one is no easy feat! My goal is to find a descendant that can trace back via their maternal line unbroken all the way back to my 5th great-grandmother Eglantine Lautin, an African-born slave later freed in 1848 who lived in Martinique. The reason being is because I'd like to test their maternal MtDNA (with permission, of course!) to see where in Africa (probably western is my guess) this line will take us. I'm not sure how exact this test can pinpoint either a tribe, region, or country, but I'd like to have an idea of her origins via the maternal haplogroup. In the past I had done some research into possible maternal descendants, but I think this is something I'll need to revisit as well; maybe even get the help from some cousins on this resolution!

9. Try out/learn more Puerto Rican recipes 
This resolution isn't so much related directly (if not indirectly) to genealogy because it deals with inherited memory of culture. A few years back, I began to document in a small book recipes from my family, simple things such as how to make sofrito, how to cook pernil, and how to make arepas with bacalao. A few recipes I can do with my eyes closed like your simple rice, beans, etc. but there are more I want to perfect and others I want to learn. For example, I want to practice more making bacalaítos more from scratch and learn how to make alcapurrias and pasteles. My goal is to learn the recipes and write them down from my own family members, whether that's my mother, grandmother, or even great-aunts, I want to learn how to make Puerto Rican dishes that are traditional and commonly eaten in my family. It's one thing to learn a recipe from a book and another to learn it first hand and in practice with a family member.

10. Try to crack the mystery of the Orozco/Santana branch
This is one of the mysteries that to this day still haunts me - the origin of the surname "Santana" in my Orozco branch. My maternal 3rd great-grandfather Benito Orozco was born out of wedlock but throughout his life and that of his children the surnames go back and forth between Orozco and Santana. To the point where some branches today stuck with the use of Santana while others use Orozco. Recently, I found his baptism record in Las Piedras which confirms he was born as an Orozco but there is no mention of a father or the surname Santana. Equally, the baptism of his son Antonio lists the godparents Blas Orozco and Hermenegilda Santana - coincidence? I need to dedicate some more time to the records of Las Piedras, Humacao, and Yabucoa to see if I can find more to crack the mystery of Benito and his mother Estefanía Orozco, who I have very little information about!

Here's to a productive genealogical 2020!

Reflecting on my Genealogical Goals of 2019

Time sure does fly! It feels like only yesterday I was setting up genealogical goals for 2019, and yet here I am December 31st, 2019 - ready to close out the year! Similarly to last year, I wanted to take some time to reflect on my goals for the year 2019 and see how far I've gotten. If you're interested in my past goals of 2018 - here's the link! Also like last year, I will be answering each goal with "yes", "some" or "no" and explaining where I am with those goals.

Genealogical Goals of 2019

1. Test a male descendant for Y-DNA Avilés - Yes

On a recent trip to Puerto Rico in March, I was fortunate to have visited extended family in Lares, Puerto Rico - the town my Avilés ancestors lived in. Not only did I get a chance to see where my 2nd great-grandfather lived most of his life and some of his lands, but I was also able to meet two men who are direct descendants of my Avilés line. However, this line is said to be "Magraner" and not "Avilés" because my 2nd great-grandfather was born out-of-wedlock, said to be the son of Damián Magraner Morell from Sóller, Mallorca. Their haplogroup falls under one of the most common for European men so no close hits yet. Hoping more will come of these results soon! 

2. Add on my Rivera and Correa lines to FTDNA - Yes

I've recently posted this month about upgrading my Correa line and the current finds the line has... so far there might be some potential Sephardic Jewish origins in this line - hopefully more discoveries to come. I've also added my Rivera line but nothing interesting there so far, currently I have the possibility to upgrade to Big Y-700 for my line and currently considering it though I don't know what will come of it.

3. Continue to learn about my Correa family - No
Besides learning a bit more about my Correa family via DNA, I haven't been able to learn more about my family through records. I've scoured the records in Coamo and San Juan as well as nearby towns but nothing yet. I've also looked at the Carcaño branch and found some other people with the surname in towns near San Juan but I'm also stuck there as well. Hopefully this wall will come crashing down soon!

4. Visit the Archivo Diocesano and AGPR to attain testamentos and dispensas de matrimonio - Yes/Some
Though I was able to find information about my family from both the Archivo Diocesano and the AGPR I placed it under "some" as well because I know that there is probably much, much more to research in both archival places. For example, I was able to find dispensas for cousins marrying in Maunabo that I had no idea about - all related to the Martínez branch of my family that came over from Guayama. This goal is also hard to accomplish within one year because time is limited while I'm in Puerto Rico and there are so many files to search as well.

5. Begin to interview family members - No
I feel like I'm going to beat myself up for not starting this sooner but I need to get on this! My goal is to record older family members talking about their lives and our family and create a digital bank of voices and information before these people are gone. I need to think this goal through next time I am in Puerto Rico!

6. Push all my lines into the 1700s - Some
The generation between my 4th and 5th great-grandparents' would be the branches that be able to reach the 1700s. So far on my paternal side there are many branches that have reached the 1700s, the ones currently stuck at my branches from Corozal and San Sebastián. On my maternal side, my Patillas, Morovis, Vega Baja, and San Sebastián sides of the family haven't been explored into the 1700s - 3/4 of these towns don't have church records online which halts me from exploring deeper into their lineage. I heard Corozal, Morovis, and Vega Baja are becoming available in Puerto Rico via La Sociedad Genealógica de Puerto Rico while San Sebastián hasn't allowed any organization to digitalize their records.

7. Continue reading books about genealogy - Yes
This year I've been fortunate to have read a lot of books but out of the books I've read so far, not many have to do with genealogy. So far I have read: "The Man Who Stole Himself: The Slave Odyssy of Hans Jonathan" by: Gísli Pálsson, a book about a mulatto man from St. Croix who ends up in Iceland via Denmark (worth the read!), "She Has Her Mother's Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity" by: Carl Zimmer, this book was a bit more intense because it dealt a lot with the science of DNA but it was definitely an interesting read. I also read "1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus" by: Charles C. Mann, definitely was an eye-opening book to what life was like in the Americas before the arrival of the Europeans, and "Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love" by: Dani Shapiro, which was a very interesting book about a woman's journey of who her biological father is post-DNA testing. So out of 19 books read so far 4 were related somehow to genealogy which isn't too bad. I also read "The Coming" by: Daniel Black and "My 15 Grandmothers" by: Genie Milgrom but the former was more of a historical fiction narrative of a slave's journey through the Middle Passage while the latter was about researching your Sephardic ancestors and I wasn't able to pull too much information for myself, if I count these books this would be 6 books about genealogy!

8. Take a genealogy course - No
For monetary reasons, I decided to hold back on this goal this year but I'm hoping sometime next year or even 2021 to register myself and take a genealogical course. Though so far the courses I've found are not really geared to the Caribbean/Latin America, I figured it's better to start building myself a genealogical resumé which includes a variety of courses. This will give me some more "seriousness" as I continue to make a name for myself as a genealogist.

9. Get savvier with the use of DNA results - Yes/Some
With the use of DNAPainter I have been able to identify pieces of DNA that I share with African Americans with no known connection to Puerto Rico and recently thanks to MyHeritage and AncestryDNA I was able to find genetic connections to Guadeloupe. I'm hoping that this goal extends itself into the next year and I can find out more about my connection to Guadeloupe. I also say "some" because I would like to learn more about Y-DNA testing and how to read more into my results. For example, I recently upgraded my Correa Y-DNA to Big-Y700 and I would like to be able to read more into the results myself.

10. Build stories around my factual evidence - No
Though I set up this goal, I'm not sure exactly how to go about it. Though Ancestry builds a "LifeStory" for your ancestors' lives, it doesn't necessarily touch upon facts based on your country, for me this would be facts from Puerto Rico. For example, one of my ancestor's story shows a fact about the American Revolution and the Declaration of Independence which doesn't really have to with his life in Puerto Rico, especially since this time it was a part of the Spanish crown. I need to figure out a way to build facts about my ancestors - maybe creating some sort of timeline with important Puerto Rican facts based around towns and the island's history and seeing where my ancestors fall within that timeline.

This year also marked for me my 200th blog post, as well as 8 years of blogging and 15 years of genealogy which is definitely a lot of time dedicated to this obsessive hobby! In a few days I hope to create new goals for 2020 and explain why I want to follow this goals! Stay tuned and Happy New Year! 

A Puerto Rican Look at: Y-DNA111 (Correa)

Like my Avilés/Magraner line, I tested my Correa Y-DNA line while I was in Puerto Rico, this time with my maternal grandfather. Though I originally tested this line at Y-DNA67, I have upgraded the line to Y-DNA111 on FTDNA and with the recent Thanksgiving sales I have finally upgraded the line to Big-Y 700. The results will take a while to upload, especially with what I can only imagine are a bunch of people taking advantage of the sale. So I figured I would write about what I know at this level and see what else comes from the upgrade.

CORREA - SURNAME ORIGINS 

Though I have posted about the Correa surname before (post here and here). I'd figure I cover this quickly again to tie it into the genetic understanding of this line. The Correa surname comes to me via my mother and her father, and from there runs via the paternal line up to the 1700s. This is what the paper trail has shown me at least, remember that there is always the possibility of a NPE (Non-Paternity Event) which are usually not traced on paper. Below you can see me, Luis, at the bottom and my line all the way until my 6th great-grandfather Juan Francisco Correa (I have blurred of people who are still alive).

9 Generations of Correa [Personal Photo]

In an ideal genealogical world, this would mean that my Correa cousins and any other male Correa tied to this line would all descend genetically via their Y-DNA from this same man. Matching other Correa men would help attest to this, but unfortunately so far there haven't been other men in my family or relatives that I know who have tested. Y-DNA testing (and rightfully so due to its cost) is something more serious geneticists/genealogists use to trace lines that either ran dry via paper-trail, experienced traumatic events such as slavery, the holocaust, wars that disconnected them from information, and/or was adopted and not sure of their origins. I personally have not tested all of my Y-DNA possible lines, especially since I would have to find distant males cousins to test for lines that have "daughtered out". So far, I have tested my own Rivera line (since I wanted to know more about it since it's a common surname), my maternal Avilés line (said to be tied to Mallorca via a NPE), the Charles line (arrived to Puerto Rico from Guadeloupe and was previously enslaved), and my Correa line (surname interest/since the paper trail ran out). 

When I mean surname interest, I have always been interested in this name for two reasons. 1) It's not that common of a surname in Puerto Rico, though there is always the mention of Capitán Antonio de los Reyes Correa it's not a surname I often hear when I meet other Puerto Ricans, and 2) I have always heard that the surname is tied to Sephardic Jewish origins in Spain. 

The surname for example appears in Amsterdam via Isabel (Rebecca) Correa, a famous Dutch Sephardic poetess who was born in Portugal.

Isabel (Rebecca) de Correa [Jewish Virtual Library]

It has also appeared amongst those tried for "judaizantes" ("Judaizers") during the time of the Spanish Inquisition. A quick search of Correa + Inquisición gave me various hits. 

Tribunal de la Inquisición en Llerena [PARES]

Tribunal de la Inquisición en Llerena [PARES]

Does this mean that my own Correa family were Jewish as well? Not necessarily but the genetic information is interesting to add. Let's see what my grandfather's genes say about this line!

CORREA - GENETIC ORIGINS

When I got the autosomal and haplogroup results for grandfather on 23andme, I was very interested since it seems that his haplogroup isn't that common amongst men in their database/that have tested. So I wanted to see what it would be like in FTDNA.

FTDNA Landing Page [FTDNA/Personal Photo]

My grandfather's haplogroup is current listed as "J-Z18271", this name is expected to change once I get my Big-Y700 results - expected to arrive sometime in February. Below you can see where this specific SNP (Z18271) has been found in Europe. This specific branch can be found in various parts of the world, but it's interesting to note that it's mainly found amongst Eastern European countries. This is a very different result than expecting to find many "genetic cousins" scattered amongst the Iberian Peninsula and other parts of western Europe.

SNP MAP [FTDNA/Personal Photo]

CORREA - HAPLOGROUP ASSIGNMENT

The main haplogroup my grandfather belongs to is "J" which you can see how it got into Europe below. Further below is an image of my specific haplogroup for my grandfather as well, currently at Y-DNA111.

Migration Map [FTDNA]

Correa Haplogroup [FTDNA/Personal Photo]

This group has its origins mainly in the Middle East amongst the Arab and Jewish populations. This was interesting to me taking into consideration the Sephardic Jewish theory of this surname. Remember that genetics predate current religious, political, geographic divides. It is possible that somehow my Correa family was a part of the Arab/Morsico or Jewish/Sefardí population in Spanish which was later pushed out during the reconquista. It made it's way into Puerto Rico where it has been present for the last 300 years.

Some research places the haplogroup amongst the "Kohanim" or Cohen branch of Jews, which is the "priest" class. If this is the case for my family, this would obviously be very far back and probably not in recent times, though it would be very interesting nonetheless! My family has likely been Christian/Catholic for at least the last 300 years while in Puerto Rico. Since I haven't been able to trace them off the island yet, I am not sure what their history and religious practices were before arriving to Puerto Rico.

J-Z18271 Branch [GenoGenea]

GENETIC MATCHES

Currently, I have one match from the entire database of FTDNA for my Correa Y-DNA111 test, and it's a genetic cousin who shares another line with me, so it was interesting seeing him match me on the Y-DNA level on another completely different line as well. As you can see the surname for his earliest ancestor is not "Correa", if not "Santiago". So somewhere along our lines there was a NPE, we're not sure who's line it comes from but we're thinking it might be his. Currently, this cousin is tested at Y-DNA37 so their haplogroup isn't as specific as mine. The genetic distance is 3 meaning that our relationship is further back in generations, but I'm not sure if this distance "closes" once they upgrade their Y-DNA test.

Y-DNA Match [FTDNA/Personal Photo]

CONCLUSIONS

I'm hoping that upgrading the test will give some more insight into whether it's more likely to be Arab or Jewish in origin. I have been in contact with some of the administrators of the FTDNA project I am a part of via my results in the J haplogroup. They are also interested to see what comes out of this result since I don't match many other people. This is very fascinating for me and definitely something I am learning along the way with. I'm not super well-versed in Y-DNA analysis so learning via my multiple accounts has been pretty helpful! Hoping my results come faster than I expect!

ARE YOU A CORREA FROM PUERTO RICO? 

HAVE YOU TAKEN A Y-DNA TEST? 

How One Death Record Got It Wrong

I wanted to focus this post on an aspect of genealogy I think most newbies tend to oversee, whether due to excitement or blindly trusting what we first see - mistakes on records. When you first start out in genealogy, you tend to take all information on records as genealogical gold. But what happens when a record is wrong? More often than not this is likely to occur (in certain types of documents over others) and there are probably more instances of this happening than we actually know of. These types of 'clerical mistakes', whether on purpose or mistake, are becoming easier to break down with the advent of DNA testing. Today, I wanted to focus on two records, a civil death record and a church death record, essentially the same, but with very different information on them and how one created a brick wall for me while the other broke it down.

One Death, Two Sets of Different Information [Ancestry & FamilySearch]

When I first began my genealogy 15 years ago, one of the easiest sides to research was my maternal grandmother's side of the family from Yabucoa, Puerto Rico. This side was the easiest since I am fortunate enough to have my maternal grandmother still alive. I could ask her questions about her parents, grandparents, cousins, etc. until the genealogical well of information ran dry. Since my grandmother was born in Yabucoa but raised in San Juan, she had limited knowledge past her great grandmother "Pancha", Francisca Orozco Santiago, who passed away two years before my grandmother was born. Fortunately for me, the Puerto Rican Civil Registry records were available on FamilySearch and I was able to pick up on where my grandmother's information left off.

Working my way backwards from my 2nd great-grandmother, I began searching in the Yabucoa civil records. From what I have on my tree, it seems that back in 2011 I uploaded under Francisca's gallery the civil registry birth record for Francisca, which mentions her maternal grandparents as Manuel de Santiago, married, a farm worker, alive, and living in Calabazas, Yabucoa and Juana Balbina Burgos, also alive and residing in Calabazas - these were my 4th great-grandparents. Years later, the Puerto Rican Civil Registry would become available on Ancestry so I could now merge the records to my family members' profiles.

Manuel de Santiago & Juana Balbina Burgos (4th Great-grandparents) [Ancestry]

My grandmother had never known the names of her 2nd great-grandparents and excitedly wrote them down during our phone conversation years back, I told her I'd keep working on the tree to see what else I could find. In the same year of 2011, two months after uploading Francisca Orozco's birth record, I uploaded to my tree Manuel de Santiago's civil death record. This death record, left a lot to be desired and in the next 7 years to come I'd be stuck with no solids leads.

Manuel de Santiago, Defunción 1888 [Ancestry]

What's marked in green above was confirmed information I knew, the name of my 4th great-grandfather was Manuel de Santiago, he was living in Calabazas where he passed in 1888 (our extended family lived/lives in this part of Yabucoa to this day), he was married to Juana Burgos and had a daughter (my 3rd great-grandmother) named Dolores Santiago Burgos. On this record it states that he was the illegitimate son of a Petrona de Santiago who was already deceased. The person who came forward to make Manuel's death known was a Juan Gómez, who according to this record was in charge of the family. Currently in my tree there are two potential Juan Gómez who could be this man that came forward.

For years to come, my tree was stopped at Manuel de Santiago, son of Petrona de Santiago. Back in 2013-2014, I had spent some time visiting the LDS church in New York City to have access to Yabucoa's church records and my searches for Petrona's death, Manuel's baptism, or even his marriage to Juana Burgos were fruitless. When the church records for Yabucoa became available online on FamilySearch my searches went elsewhere in Yabucoa and to other towns now easily accessible. Last summer, however, I decided to locate Manuel's death record in Yabucoa's Parroquia Santos Ángeles Custodios' church records. Little did I know this record would make my brick wall come tumbling down. 

Manuel's death is recorded in the Civil Registry on the 19th March 1888 and mentions he had passed away one day before at 6 in the morning [18th March 1888] due to pneumonia. Having this date in hand, I began to search the Yabucoa church records for a death record for Manuel de Santiago. 

Manuel de Santiago, Defunción de iglesia 1888 [FamilySearch]

The first thing that shocked me was a second surname for Manuel listed as "Ramos". I initially thought, this can't be my Manuel, he doesn't have a second surname on his civil death record. But the closer I looked at the death record, I noticed that everything matched up - Manuel de Santiago, passing away the 18th of March 1888, married to Juana Burgos. Except this time it listed his parents as Claudio Santiago and Marcelina Ramos. My mind began to race, How could there be two different recorded parents on one death? Who then reported his death to the church? Here you can see there is no mention of who came forward to register his death at the church, but was there a way to figure out which record was correct? Of course! If I could located Manuel and Juana's marriage record, I could hopefully once and for all confirm who his parents were. Since he was alive for his wedding and most likely relying the information himself of who his parents were, this would help to confirm which of the two records were correct. So last summer, I spent a lot of time searching the Yabucoa church records painstakingly going through images one-by-one searching for more confirmation of Manuel's parents. And final, at one point early in the summer, I was able to locate their marriage record.

Manuel de Santiago & Juana Burgos, Matrimonio 1853 [FamilySearch]

Manuel de Santiago and Juana Burgos were married on the 17th of September 1853 (166 years ago this month!) and though hard to see on the record, playing around with the brightness you can make out his parents' names - Manuel de Santiago, vecino de Las Piedras, hijo legítimo de Claudio y de Marcelina Ramos. Though I'm not 100% sure it says "Las Piedras", based off the script/handwriting, knowing that it doesn't say "de esta feligresía" (parishioner of this town) like his wife, and that his father was born in Las Piedras himself, I'm fairly sure that it's Las Piedras. 

Here we now had another record to confirm his church death record's parents' names - Claudio Santiago & Marcelina Ramos (my 5th great-grandparents). By finding both his church death record and his marriage record, I was able to find out the names of my 5th great-grandparents and continue to research these lines. Last summer I was able to discover that before arriving to Yabucoa, my family had lived in Las Piedras and Humacao as well as the names of Manuel's 4 grandparents and 4 out of 8 of his great-grandparents - these being my 6th and 7th great-grandparents. I was pretty excited about this new information as it brought some of these branches back to the early 1700s. 

This past July 2019, before heading out to travel for the summer, I was searching the early 1800s baptism records in Yabucoa. Luckily for me, I was able to find Manuel de Santiago Ramos' baptism record! 

Manuel de Santiago Ramos, Bautismo 1822 [FamilySearch]

Baptized on the 1st of July 1822 (I found this record 197 years and 3 days after he would have been baptized!) and born on 19th of June 1822, Manuel was the legitimate son of Claudio de Santiago and Martina Ramos (though listed here as "Martina", I'm confident this was supposed to be recorded as Marcelina). It mentions that his godparents are Juan de Santiago and Luisa Ortis [sic], and based of a baptism I found in Las Piedras for Claudio, these would be his paternal grandparents, my 6th great-grandparents. 

Had I not looked into the Yabucoa church death records it would have probably taken me some more time to realize there was a mistake on his civil death record. Finding this "second" death record allowed me to find his marriage record and ultimately his baptism record. Though I was stuck for about eight years, finding this one church record allowed me to research and find three more generations in the span of one year. This is why it's important to cover of all of your bases when searching for an ancestor and use multiple records to corroborate your findings. Hopefully this post can serve as an inspiration to those of you stuck searching for an ancestor! Keep trying, looking in new places, and using multiple records and sources to aide your search. 

Related to Manuel de Santiago & Juana Burgos? 

Reach out to see where and how much DNA we might share!

A Puerto Rican Look at: Ancestry's "MyTreeTags"

A bit earlier on in the year, around spring/early summer, Ancestry released "MyTreeTags" which can be added to your ancestors in your tree. Hyperlinked above, you will find how to set up the tags and the different types that exist already. Another feature of the tags is that you can create your own "custom tags" which you can make and define to your liking. In this post I want to highlight some of the different ways I've used the MyTreeTags in order to build out specific aspects related to Puerto Rican genealogy. Definitely feel free to play around with the tags and create your own that may fit the specific needs of your tree.

Ancestry's MyTreeTags

When this feature was initially released, I was a bit hesitant in its use. I knew my family pretty well as I work on genealogy basically everyday and so I wondered how it could help me. So I decided to explore some of the pre-designed tags (some pictures below). The tags are broken down to various categories, for example: DNA, Life Experience, Research, and Relationships.

MyTreeTags - Research [Ancestry]

MyTreeTags - DNA [Ancestry]

Right away "actively researching", "brick wall", and "immigrant" stood out to me. These were tags that I could easily attach to some of my ancestors. My Correa ancestors were definitely under the list of actively researching and brick wall while my Guadeloupean, Martinican, and Mallorcan ancestors fell under immigrant. Here's an example of how the tags look on an ancestor's profile, below I've marked my ancestor with two preset tags created by Ancestry.

My 5th Great-grandfather, a brick wall I'm actively researching [Personal Ancestry Tree]

However, these were facts that I knew pretty well - so I thought, how can I make these tags work for me personally? I tried to think of tags that would make sense for my family and aspects that were important when it came to genealogy when suddenly it clicked (hint above). Why don't I create tags that track race and social statuses in Puerto Rico? 

Creating My Own Personal Tags

MyTreeTags - Custom Tags [Ancestry] 

As you can see above I've created the tags: Blanco, Español, Pardo, Slave, Slave Owner, and Twin. Forgive my Spanglish creations, at some point I'll probably switch them all to Spanish as most of my notes on my tree are in Spanish to match documents. The "race" tags reflect what was written on the documents, for example blanco or pardo seem to be the main two I've found so far through my tree. "Negro" hasn't really appeared in my documents besides my ancestors that came from the French islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe but I've categorized them as "slave" since I know both had served as slaves on their respective islands. Below is another example of a custom tag and a preset tag, my 4th great-grandmother Julienne Lautin was an immigrant from Martinique who had previously been enslaved until 1848, she would have been four years old when she received her freedom.

My 4th Great-Grandmother from Martinique [Personal Ancestry Tree]

On the other hand, my 7th great-grandfather Manuel Ruiz had been a slave on the island of Puerto Rico but was listed as 'pardo' on his documents. Linked above is the post about how I traced his enslavement on the island. Below you can see an example of two custom tags on his profile.

Manuel Ruiz, Pardo slave in Puerto Rico [Personal Ancestry Tree]

What's cool about the tags is that you can search in your tree for everyone you've tagged with that specific phrase/word. So for example, if I wanted to see who was enslaved in my family, I could search 'slave' and retrieve a list. Below, you can see a few of my direct ancestors who were slaves at some point of their life. 5 of these 6 ancestors were from outside of Puerto Rico while Manuel Ruiz is currently the only slave I've traced in Puerto Rico. I know there are probably more slave ancestors hidden somewhere in the mid-early 1600s in Puerto Rico but I have yet to identify them.

MyTreeTag - Slave [Personal Ancestry Tree]

Another tag I've created is "Español", this tag is reserved for ancestors who themselves immigrated from Spain to Puerto Rico. Recently, I discovered my 6th great-grandfather Dávila ancestor who came from southern Spain, and thus I tagged him as "Español". Also, my 3rd great grandfather Damián Magraner is also tagged as "Español". 

6th Great-grandfather, Spanish Immigrant [Personal Ancestry Tree]

Finally, another interesting tag I've created is "Slave owner". I don't have many of these in my tree but it is important to know who owned slaves as it influences the narrative and story of my ancestors. One specific ancestor is my 4th great-grandmother who owned slaves in Adjuntas, Puerto Rico. Discovering this information allowed me to better understand her life in the late 1800s in Puerto Rico and how her own mother (my 5th great-grandmother) also owned slaves thus leading me to find her last will and testament. 

4th Great-Grandmother, Slave Owner [Personal Ancestry Tree]

What's next?

As I continue to learn more about my family, my goal is to continue creating tags that will allow me to quickly identify facts about them that might not be obvious from their biographical information. Some of the tags I've recently added include, for example: "twin" and "triplet" as I've had a couple cases of twins and one case of triplets in my family. There are some pre-created tags for DNA such as "common DNA Ancestor", "DNA Match", and "DNA Connection" but I'm not sure if I want to use those yet. We'll see how these keep developing and how I can seamlessly incorporate them into my tree. 

Do you have any special tree tags you've created?