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! 

Genetic Connections to Guadeloupe

Connecting to DNA Cousins from Guadeloupe [Google Maps] 

DNA testing is something I initiated about 10 years ago, and I was fortunate to have stumbled upon it when I did. With testing, I have been able to make great discoveries - some of them thanks to the DNA itself and others to the people I have met and interacted with along the way. If you have been following my blog (Thank you & ¡Gracias!), then you know a few years back (8 actually to be exact!) I begun to unravel a previously unknown discovery in my family about a connection to the islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe via my maternal grandfather's side of the family. At the time I knew very little about this branch but thanks to digging through documents and connecting with French Caribbean genealogists throughout these recent years, I was able to discover much more about this side of my family.

My research up until now has revealed two distinct sides in my 3rd great-grandmother's family, one side (her father's) comes from Guadeloupe while the other (her mother's) comes from Martinique. 

María Paulina Charles Lautin - 3rd Great-grandmother [Personal Photo]

Unfortunately, there is not much information past María Paulina's grandparents. It seems that on the Jean-Charles side, the family might have been mixed-creole seeing as how her parents were enslaved themselves, yet a Y-DNA test points to European origins for the "Charles" line. It is important to note that this side of the family received their freedom from slavery before 1848, unlike most of the enslaved peoples did in the French owned Caribbean islands at the time, this allowed María Paulina's paternal Guadeloupean grandparents a chance to marry before they passed away. Meanwhile, the "Lautin" side is probably all African in origin. Julienne was born a slave (noted as "negresse" on her birth certificate in 1844) and Eglantine herself was brought over from Africa. Unfortunately, we have no idea who the father of Julienne was. We only have a potential clue - in Puerto Rico the father's surname was written down as "Pedro" and searching the records in Martinique has allowed me to identify a family with the surname "Pitroo" who worked on the slave plantation as the Lautin clan; there might be a possible connection to that family and only time and DNA will tell.

Charles-Lautin Family Tree [Personal Photo]

One of my genetic goals was to potentially one day find a cousin who descends via their maternal line all the way down to Eglantine Lautin, this would allow for a MtDNA test to potentially identify a region in Africa she would have originally been from. I have been able to find a genetic cousin via AncestryDNA but they haven't logged into their account for over a year so I haven't heard back from them. The question now became were there segments in my DNA linking me back to potential cousins in Guadeloupe and Martinique? If not, would my grandfather's DNA contain segments? Luckily I have been able to test myself and my maternal grandfather on 23andMe and AncestryDNA along with our Y-DNA line on FtDNA. Thanks to the suggestion of David (a French Caribbean genealogist), I migrated my grandfather's DNA to MyHeritage - which seems to be more popular in France. 

After breaking up my DNA in DNA Painter into segmented colors of who gave me what, you can clearly see all the yellow segments below belonging to my grandfather. 

DNA Painter [Personal Photo]

This DNA in turn comes from his parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, etc. meaning that though those segments cover much of my maternal DNA, I would have inherited genetic material from one out of eight 2nd great-grandparents on that side of the family with ties to Martinique and Guadeloupe. And since it is far back, the odds of me receiving many segments is low as well, but having my grandfather tested means there are more odds of him having more segments as well. Recently in my DNA, I have been able to identify two matches on AncestryDNA and one match on MyHeritage with clear connections to the island of Guadeloupe. 

AncestryDNA

My first match shares DNA with my grandfather but not myself or my mother. Though they share 3 segments across 49cm it's possible that my grandfather was the last generation to inherit these segments. In their "shared matches" list they only share three matches, which is very uncommon for Puerto Rican matches to share such low and limited cousins, so I can probably rule out the fact that this cousin as remotely Puerto Rican. This cousin does however have on their shared matches a cousin who is Puerto Rican but connected to my grandfather via his Correa family which is tied to Martinique and Guadeloupe via María Paulina Charles. The first match I have no idea how they are connected and the third match is a cousin with is mixed Guadeloupean and I think African American. Since AncestryDNA does not share where they match on their DNA, I have no idea how to "chart" this for my grandfather on DNA Painter. The cousin I think is not on Gedmatch either, and I have reached out but no return message so far. 

Guadeloupean Cousin [Personal AncestryDNA]

This 2nd cousin shares DNA across 3 segments as well with my grandfather but this time at 38cm, my guess is that these 3 segments are probably the exact same ones as the first cousin from above. However with this cousin, my mother and myself are said to share DNA with as well. Unfortunately, I have no way of knowing where on my DNA these segments are located.

Cousin with Guadeloupean Ancestry [Personal AncestryDNA]

MyHeritage

This was my grandfather's first official Guadeloupean cousin to first appear for him which was very exciting, since it helped to solidify all the research I had done in the past 8 years. As you can see below I was able to find this cousin by filtering his DNA matches by geographic origins and selecting "France". The segment is listed as only one shared segment but also at 38.3cm like one of my grandfather's AncestryDNA matches. You can also see that based on our trees we both have "Guadeloupe" as an ancestral place for our families based on the trees we have built. I have gotten a chance to chat with this cousin and our families both have ancestry from Les Saintes, which are a set of smaller islands belonging to Guadeloupe! It is possible that there are more matches amongst my grandfather's DNA matches who have a connection somehow to Guadeloupe but so far this is the only one I have been able to find on MyHeritage. 

Guadeloupean Cousin [Personal MyHeritage]

Luckily, on MyHeritage you can see where in your DNA you share the segments. For my grandfather and this match, the segment is located on chromosome 11. 

Shared Guadeloupean DNA [Personal MyHeritage]

My own personal chromosome 11 is inherited mainly in the same spot from my grandfather as the Guadeloupean match comes from but doesn't mean that I would necessarily share that same piece of DNA with that cousin, in order to better know I would probably have to transfer my own DNA into MyHeritage and see if I match this cousin as well.

My Chromosome 11 divided into Grandparent Inheritance [DNA Painter]

Interestingly enough, the region my grandfather shares with this cousin on Chromosome 11 is European on one side and African on the other and specifically the DNA on that side is registered as Nigerian. In a previous post, I took a look at inherited African DNA and I analyzed a bit the fact that Nigerian DNA was much higher on my grandfather's side of the family and potentially connected to María Paulina Lautin. If I had to put some money on it, I wouldn't be surprised if their shared DNA was on the Nigerian side via a slave(s) brought over to Guadeloupe. I'll have to read up on the African influx of slaves to Guadeloupe and see if any studies have been completed on which regions these slaves specifically hailed from.

My grandfather's Chromosome 11 [Personal 23andme]

Why no genetic connections with Martinique? 

I'm not sure why I originally expected genetic connections from Martinique over Guadeloupe. Maybe because I discovered the former side first versus the latter, I expected that my genetic connections would happen in the same order. But taking a closer look it kind of makes sense why I might not have Martinican connections right away, we know that Eglantine was from Africa and Julienne's father probably was as well. Out of Eglantine's five children (one of them being my own 4th great-grandmother), only three (two siblings) went on to have children and who knows if they were were full or half siblings (I'm guessing half over full). 

Next Steps

Nonetheless, this is exciting stuff! The next step would be to try and figure out how we're all related! It doesn't seem like we have any surnames overlapping with each other, but at the same time, knowing that my 5th great-grandparents from Guadeloupe were slaves means that they didn't carry surnames in the traditional sense we have come to know. My 5th great-grandmother only went by "Marie Lucie" and used no surname on documents while my 5th great-grandfather was known as "Jean-Charles Chaleau" and the children passed on both "Chaleau" and "Jean-Charles" as surnames depending on the time period. 

Recently, a document was discovered on Terre-de-Bas (merci beaucoup David!) which mentions Jean-Charles as an uncle in a death record in the year 1853, which would mean he would be related to one her parents. As you can see, there is still much to be discovered and I'm hoping that our DNA will reveal more about our connections. This is also why it is important to explore various companies of DNA and search within your matches! 

Nº 1 Françoise - Décès 1853 [ANOM]

I also can't wait to visit Guadeloupe one day!

Terre de Bas, Guadeloupe [Guadeloupe Le Guide]

Chromosome 7 - An African American Connection

Chromosome 7 - Myself [Personal Photo]

With the continued use of DNA Painter, I have been able to see (in a sense) my results through a more magnified lens. Being able to break down genetic cousins via a comparison to my other tested family members has allowed me to better parse down a bit from which branch of my tree they come from. To learn more about DNA Painter you can read my previous post. As I continued to add cousins to my DNA Painter, I noticed that on Chromosome 7, I matched up with a few cousins via my mother's side of the family that had no known connection to Puerto Rico. Intrigued I decided to continue exploring this specific segment and set of cousins, two of which were African American.

European Ancestry - Spanish & Portuguese [Personal Photo]

Above you can see the highlighted segments in my Chromosome 7 that are attached for example specifically to Spanish and Portuguese DNA. My focus however are to the smaller segments that are cut up and distributed more unevenly across Chromosome 7 - amongst those pieces of DNA you can see Native American, Congolese, Senegambian & Guinean, and Ashkenazi Jewish. Knowing where these segments lay and where your cousins fall amongst them may be helpful to better understanding the genetic diversity of your ancestor from which you descend. Keep in mind that this doesn't mean that ancestor was 100% Native American, for example, but carried those genes in that chromosome which allows you to match with other cousins.

Mixed Ancestry - Indigenous, African, and Jewish [Personal Photo]

Simple Generational DNA

Remember that just because you match with someone on a certain segment of DNA doesn't mean that all of your siblings for example will match them as well. Each sibling may receive a range of combinations that might be similar or a bit different to your own. In a "simple generational" comparison, looking at my brothers and myself on Chromosome 7, you can see there is a difference in inheritance on that section. Below you can see exactly what I mean:

Chromosome 7 - Myself  [Personal Photo]

Chromosome 7 - Older Brother [Personal Photo]

Chromosome 7 - Younger Brother [Personal Photo]

My older brother for example received a Congolese + Senegambian/Guinean segment towards the end of his Chromosome 7, we both share the Congolese bit while my little brother seems to have received a mix of Native American and Senegambian/Guinean but no Congolese DNA in that segment. Notice however that he does share the Ashkenazi DNA segment with me while my older brother does not. DNA is crazy, huh?!

To strengthen my theory here a bit more, I searched both of my brothers' DNA relatives on 23andme. My younger brother does not share the African American cousins while my older brother does share them on his relative list. Analyzing this on a deeper level would probably show us that my younger brother received a different segment from a different maternal ancestor compared to my older brother and I who received this same bit from the same maternal ancestor.

Complex Generational DNA

Looking backwards a few generations, you can see where these segments come from. I knew going in that these African American cousins matched me via my mother, I have been fortunate enough to have tested my mom along with her parents which allowed me to easily make this distinction. The question now was: Would my mother, and one of her parents also have Congolese DNA on this segment? See below to see where the Congolese DNA segment can be found: 

PARENTS' GENERATION

Chromosome 7 - Mother [Personal Photo]

Chromosome 7 - Maternal Uncle [Personal Photo]

GRANDPARENTS' GENERATION

Chromosome 7 - Maternal Grandmother [Personal Photo]

Chromosome 7 - Maternal Grandfather [Personal Photo]

GREAT-GRANDPARENTS' GENERATION

Chromosome 7 - Maternal Great-Grandfather [Personal Photo]

As you can see, my mother and one of her brother's inherited the Congolese DNA (there's another sibling but currently he is not tested). At the next level you can see that this piece of DNA was inherited from their mother (my maternal grandmother) and not their father (my maternal grandfather). At the 3rd generation you can see that my maternal great-grandfather did not have this Congolese DNA, which would mean that they inherited it from my great-grandmother. Testing my grandmother's siblings would probably give me a better idea as to who inherited which DNA from my great-grandmother amongst them. 

DNA Painter

Using my DNA matches from 23andme I began to set out which cousins I received from my maternal grandfather and maternal grandmother - here on out just referred to as "grandmother/grandfather" seeing as how this is all on my maternal side. From there I was able to see who matched my great-grandfather and any cousins who might match anywhere in between. Below you can see that the yellow bit inherited is from my grandfather while the rest of the chromosome is from my grandmother. The light green denotes my great-grandfather while the darker green my grandmother, these dark green segments I imagine are from my great-grandmother. The beige color is for a cousin who matches me with 2nd great-grandparents via my Meléndez-Sánchez great-grandfather while the purple segments are cousins I match via my Dávila-Orozco great-grandmother. As more cousins match me on these sections with a paper-trail the better I will be at figuring out from which great-grandparents and further this DNA came from.

DNA Painter- Chromosome 7 [Personal Photo]

Chromosome 7 - Luis Rivera [Personal Photo]

Looking at where the Congolese DNA is, you can sort of see that it falls where the dark green chunk of DNA my grandmother passed onto me in Chromosome 7. Expanding the matches, you can see where various of these cousins fall. 

Expanded DNA Matches - Chromosome 7 [Personal Photo]

Above you can see that the 2 African American matches fall in the square of matches inherited via my grandmother. In that same box are 3 more segments on top, these being Puerto Rican cousins. Usually when matches fall under one another, it means that they probably share DNA and are related to you via a same ancestor as they are to those cousins as well. The question now was: Could these African American matches also share DNA with those Puerto Rican matches on Chromosome 7? Would they also match each other? It was time to test out my question!

Taking the cousin who shares 15cm with me, I compared that cousin to my Puerto Rican cousins and to my other African American cousin match within that shared segment. Below you can see that YES! they do share DNA with one another, both the African American cousins and to the Puerto Rican cousins. This mostly likely means that somehow on my grandmother's side of the family we all descend from a shared ancestor(s). With the ranges being between 11-16cm, this would mean that the relationship would be rather far back. DNA Painter estimates that at those CM the match lies at a ~60% chance of being anywhere between a 4C2R (4th cousins 2x removed) to as distant as 8C (8th cousins) - there are other scenarios such as 3C3R, 6C2R, or 7C1R. We would have to triangulate using everyone's results and family trees to be able to start to figure out and narrow down from where exactly we match. 

Chromosome 7 Comparisons [Personal Photo]

Taking a look at Chromosome 7 for my Puerto Rican cousins, you can see that they also inherited the Congolese DNA in that area as well.

Puerto Rican Cousin #1 [23andme]

Puerto Rican Cousin #2 [23andme]

African American Cousins

These two cousins have roots in the South and towards the mid-West respectively which makes it a bit harder to say exactly where they might match me since they don't overlap in similar states. However, these are probably recent states of residence and going further back might show an overlap in family both being from a certain state in the south, for example.  A look at their Chromosome 7 shows one cousin with "Broadly West African" and another with Congolese DNA in that general area. It is possible that they might have other cousins themselves tested who can help narrow down which side of the family I would match them on. 

African American Cousin #1 [23andme]

African American Cousin #2 [23andme]

You can also see that there is no European DNA in those areas for both cousins which would mean that our match is likely through an either mixed ancestor or ancestor directly from Africa. It is kind of amazing to see that amongst these 10 people, 9 of us have a classified Congolese DNA piece there. 

Many slave ships made their way first to the Caribbean and later made their way to either North or South America. It is very possible that along one of those routes a slave or various slaves were left in Puerto Rico and another, genetically related either as a parent, sibling, cousin, etc., was brought to the south in the United States. Take a look at "The African-American Migration Story" from PBS to learn more about the journey from Africa to the Americas. There are many sources that talk about the transportation of slaves to the New World, the various journeys taken, and the various stops the slave ships made. 

"Lehrbuch der Weltgeschichte oder Die Geschichte der Menschheit", William Rednbacher, 1890 [Wikipedia]

Further Research

I was both surprised and not surprised when I came across these DNA segments. For starters, I knew there were slaves in my family which was not surprising, but to be able to narrow it down to a Congolese segment inherited through various family members and traced back to my grandmother and shared by two African Americans was surprising. It's interesting to see how much can be discovered with the advent of genetic genealogy - these types of discoveries were only considered dreams back in the days. I'm lucky to live in a time where this type of genealogical work can be completed. 

My next step would be to try and figure out how we are related, though this task is quiet a big one. I have reached out to these cousins and have already started conversations with one, who equally was surprised to see our match. It might be easier to see how these two cousins are related and see how I am related to the other Puerto Rican cousins and then go from there. Though seeing as how these matches are through an ancestor from Africa, it is possible that we might not, at least for now, know exactly how we are related. 

The fact that we have been able to get this far has been nothing short of amazing!

A Look at my 5th Great-Grandmother's Testament

Currently I am in Puerto Rico for Spring Break, and instead of laying down at the beach soaking in the sun, I have been visiting various genealogical places in order to get research done that I can only do while on the island. One of the places I visited was the Archivo General de Puerto Rico (AGPR) in search of my 5th great-grandmother's testament (amongst others). This post is in fact two fold, today March 22nd is the day Puerto Rico celebrates its abolition of slavery. Though I want to bring to light the possibility of finding records such as wills & testaments while here in Puerto Rico, it is also important to highlight the information found in them - in my case, the fact that my ancestor(s) had owned slaves in the 1800s. This fact has been something I have been aware of for a while now but seeing these names listed in her will was both saddening and raw. I think it's important to acknowledge the role our ancestors played in the past, whether good or bad, and to acknowledge the benefits we have reaped from them and learn from their actions.

Gazeta de Puerto Rico, 03 May 1873

Visiting the Archivo General de Puerto Rico

There was a lot of worry that after Hurricane María, many genealogical places would be closed or have received irreversible damage. Luckily, the AGPR is open and running and even offers visiting hours on Saturday. With a simple email of the information of my ancestors (their names, year they made their testament, and name of the notary) they were able to find two protocolo boxes. Unfortunately, other ancestors' testaments were not available for viewing - some because their records might have never made it to the AGPR or because they never came before a notary and just made their testament amongst witnesses. Luckily, María de la Cruz Román, my 5th great-grandmother, did leave behind a will in front of a notary and they were able to find the box. So I headed to the archive to find out more about her life and the worldly possessions of my 5th great-grandmother.

María de la Cruz Román - Defunción 1854 [FamilySearch]

Going into this search, I knew that Bernardina Sepúlveda Román, my 4th great-grandmother, had owned slaves right before their freedom in 1873 but I wasn't sure if they were inherited from María de la Cruz Román (her mother) or purchased separately. Taking a look at my 5th great grandmother's testament provided me with some more clues and information. 

Viewing her Testament

Notary Records, AGPR [Personal Photo]

Notary Records, AGPR [Personal Photo]

Getting to see the testament was very cool, the documents were very old and fragile but in fairly good shape and very easy to read. I was lucky the notary had an index of all of his transactions of the range of years I was searching, such as: transferring of power, selling land, testaments, freedom records, etc. I was easily able to find María de la Cruz Román's record, as well as while sifting through I was also able to find other documents that I'll focus on in another post. My 5th great-grandmother's testament was 5 pages long which started with fairly religious jargon about her soul, forgiving her sins, and believing in God and the Trinity, etc, etc. She left behind money to pray for her in the church (30 masses of San Gregorio) and to pay her debt mainly to her son (Juan Lorenzo Sepúlveda) and to a neighbor (Juan Soto, originally from Lares) residing in Adjuntas. In her will she left behind 450 cuerdas (acres) of land which she states has planted coffee, plantain, fruit trees, pastures and "montes" (which depending on how you use it could be wooded area, hills or mountains). She listed having 8 cows (5 with their offspring), 1 bull, 1 calf, 2 horses, 2 mares, 2 cows, and 1 sow. Interestingly enough, she left behind 18 cuerdas of land in Limón, Mayagüez. I find this interesting since she was originally from San Sebastián while her husband was the one from Mayagüez. It is possible that when he passed in 1829, he passed this land onto his wife who then passed it to her son Juan Lorenzo Sepúlveda Román. Unfortunately his testament was made in front of witnesses so it is likely to have never been officially recorded and sent to the AGPR. 

What shocked me, but I expected, was a list of slaves she left behind, which on her will she lists as "siervos" - known as serfs or servants in English. They are given no value, nor age, or relationship between them but only listed by first name. Listed are: (1) Pedro José, (2) Teresa, (3) Severino, (4) Belén, (5) Francisca, (6) Tomasa, (7) Miguel, (8) María del Rosario, (9) Juana Bautista, (10) Petrona, (11) María Antonia, (12) Blasina, and (13) Manuela. In total, 13 slaves are listed in her will. There is nothing in her will about who they are going to, whether they received freedom, or what the plan is after she passes away. She made her will in 1852 and passed two years later in 1854, freedom from slavery didn't come until 1873. So what happened to these slaves? 

I have only been able to track a few so far (some of those who passed before María de la Cruz's will, which means they aren't included in the total 13 at the time of her will) and those that had children which Bernardina Sepúlveda inherited. Before 1852, María de la Cruz would have 7 slaves pass away (so far this is the number I have, which is possible to raise as I continue to search Adjuntas church records). These are those who passed: 

• 1829, Rafael 40 years old, married with María
• 1833, Ignacia, 35 years old, married with Ramón
• 1834, Saturnino, son of Pedro José and Teresa
• 1835, Juan Xavier, son of Ramón and Ignacia
• 1836, Marcos, son of Martín and Petrona
• 1836, María Cipriana, daughter of Pedro José and Teresa
• 1836, Juana Cipriana, daughter of Pedro José and Teresa

Here, you can see that some of the slaves from María de la Cruz's will got married and had children within their group. With these deaths it brings the current total to 20 total slaves. 

The next time slaves appear are in the slave registry of 1872, just one year shy of abolition. These appear listed as Bernardina Sepúlveda's slaves. In total she was 4 slaves: (1) Felipa, daughter of Martín and Petrona; (2) María Tomasa, daughter of Pedro José and Teresa; (3) Juan, son of Gerónimo and Felipa; and (4) Lorenzo, son of Ramón and Felipa. Here we can see some of María de la Cruz's slaves' children belonging to Bernardina. This would make me think that Bernardina inherited some of the 13 slaves and they had children which she continued to own up until abolition in 1873. 

My goal is to try and track down what happened to the slaves María de la Cruz Román listed in her will. Did some of them receive freedom? Did they go to her children or were sold to other families? Part of this mystery could be solved with notary records but finding them could be like a needle in a haystack and take much more time in the AGPR that I unfortunately do not have. Interestingly, two slaves left a "deposit" of money to María de la Cruz Román which after her death is said should be paid back to them with 5% annual interest starting the 19 of August 1848. Was this a deposit for freedom? For insurance of freedom for their children? I don't think it's the latter since one of them was Pedro José and Bernardina owned one of his daughters. 

With the abolition of slavery being today it's an interesting day for me. As someone who descends from both slaves and slave owners, it is hard to understand what this day means for me. Interestingly enough, my slave ancestors were freed before 1873 - those that came from the French islands were freed in 1848 and early where my Puerto Rican slave ancestors seemed to have received freedom in the 1700s, for example like my recently discovered Manuel Ruiz, pardo slave ancestor. Overall, it is a great day to celebrate that equality was somewhat given (though as we know not fully) to slaves and at the same time it stings to know that some of my ancestors took part in a dark part of history. Yet, we need to face our past, as Germans put it - Vergangenheitsbewältigung ("struggle to overcome the 'negatives of' the past" or "working through the past"), in order to better understand the society we currently live in and the struggles people face each day in order to make a better tomorrow. 

Manuel Ruiz - A Pardo Slave in the 1700s

In line with my goals for the new year, I've been taking a look at my lines trying to push them back in the 1700s. Many of my Coamo lines have been pushed back to 1700s but I always like to take another look at them and see if I'm missing any children or to find new hints. Taking a look at the catalogue of indexed baptisms in Coamo created by another Puerto Rican genealogist, I noticed that in two years there is a Manuel (esclavo de María Ruiz) and Victoriana Sánchez listed. In my tree, I have a Manuel Ruiz and Victoriana Sánchez (my 7 great-grandparents) so immediately I was intrigued. So I began to search more into the possibility of them being my ancestors seeing as how both names matched up. So in this post I will break down the information I currently have on Manuel Ruiz and run through the documentation that these two men are one and the same.

Who was Manuel Ruiz?

Before finding this new information, I knew that one of my 7th great-grandfathers was named Manuel Ruiz. He lived what it seems most of his life in Coamo, Puerto Rico where he both married and passed away.

Coamo, Puerto Rico [Google Maps]

Manuel Ruiz would have married around the 1750s and 1760s based off the years of baptism from his children. He married a woman named Victoriana Sánchez (sometimes she just went by Victoria and in one occasion her last name was written down as "Matos"). Victoriana Sánchez fairly young, died around the age of 37 on the 15th of October 1775. No parents were listed for Victoriana and she had left no testament or will since she was poor. Later in 1784, almost 10 years after his first wife's death, Manuel Ruiz would marry for the second time to a woman named Lucia Morales.

From his first marriage, so far I have been able to count about 10 children: Francisco (1758), Manuel, José (1761), María (1763), Lucas (1765), Francisca (1768), Gregorio, Juan Manuel (1770), Josefa, and María de Gracia (1773) - my 6th great-grandmother. Those children who have no birth year listed after their names means that so far I have no baptism record in Coamo for them though I may have found a death or marriage record. Manuel would pass away in October 1795 in Coamo and left no will for lack of worldly possessions. 

Recently, I discovered sons Francisco and José by chance. I noticed that a Manuel, slave of María Ruiz was registering his children's births in 1758 and 1761 and that his wife was listed as Victoriana Sánchez. What are the odds that there were two men with the same wife's name in 1700s Coamo? I would guess the odds were slim. So I decided to take a look at the records. 

Tracing Manuel Ruiz through records

Originally, my earliest child for Manuel Ruiz and Victoriana Sánchez was María, born in 1763. Below, you can see underlined the name of Manuel Ruiz and Victoriana Sánchez. As you can see there is no mention of either of them being slaves, pardos libres, or white. 

María Ruiz, hija de Manuel Ruiz y Victoriana Sánchez [FamilySearch]

As I had mentioned above, there were various children from this couple that I had no idea when they were born exactly. One of them was Francisco Ruiz, who married in 1783 to a slave named Angela de Santiago. I found it interesting that Francisco Ruiz would marry a slave seeing as how in the 1700s, social class and status was probably a big deal. Thinking nothing of it, I tucked it away in the back of my head and keep researching for other siblings.

Francisco Ruiz y Angela de Santiago, eslava [FamilySearch]

Seeing as how they married in 1783, I would guess that Francisco Ruiz was born somewhere in the 1750-1760s. Usually when I find a marriage but no baptism, I take away 18 years from the marriage date to get a guesstimate of when the person was born. In this case, Francisco was potentially born in 1765 (this is definitely not an exact science, but it helps to give me an idea of where to search next for baptisms). I was very surprised when I found a "Francisco, legitimate son of Manuel, slave of María Ruiz, and Victoria Sánchez, parda libre" being registered for a baptism in 1758. 

Francisco, hijo de Manuel Ruiz y Victoria Sánchez [FamilySearch]

I was initial surprised to see this! Mainly because it went against one of my theories about the pardos libres in Puerto Rico. I had always thought that a pardo libre was someone who had never been a slave and was marked that way to signify their free status in society. Here we can see that Manuel Ruiz, who I am guessing was the same man, was originally a slave before receiving freedom. Though no race is mentioned in these current records, later on in his second marriage to Lucia Morales there are multiple times that he is mentioned as "pardo libre" (this term could possibly be akin to the term "mulato"): 1786 (baptism of his son Antonio), 1787 (baptism of his son José), and 1790 (baptism of his daughter Petrona).

If memory serves me correctly, Puerto Rico like the United States based the status of a slave on their mother. In this case, since Victoriana Sánchez was a parda libre herself, all of her children would have been born free despite Manuel Ruiz having slave status. Manuel Ruiz and Victoriana Sánchez had another child while he was still a slave, born in 1761 by the name of José Ruiz Sánchez.  I would imagine Manuel was freed between 1762-1763, since when María was born there was no mention of him being a slave.

José, hijo de Manuel, esclavo y Victoria Sánchez  [FamilySearch]

After finding these records, I was intrigued by Manuel's status of slave to pardo libre and continued to dig around. And this is where things got interesting!

Manuel Ruiz A.K.A. Manuel Torres?

Manuel Ruiz and his wife also served as godparents a few times for other children in Coamo. Here in 1767 for example, we see Manuel Ruiz coming forth with Victoria Sánchez to be the godparents to a boy named Manuel, son of Francisca (slave of María Ruiz) - to me this helps solidify that Manuel (slave of María Ruiz) and my ancestor are the same man. 

Padrinos: Manuel Ruiz y Victoria Sánchez [FamilySearch]

Now seeing that María Ruiz had another slave named Francisca Ruiz, I decided to look into her and see if she could potentially be a sister or of some other relation to Manuel Ruiz. I found another baptism for Francisca's son in 1762, a son named Martín was being baptized - 5 years earlier than this one above. This time the godparents were Manuel Torres and Victoria Sánchez. I did a double take, I thought my ancestor was Ruiz and not Torres? Martín Ruiz was registered as free though his mother was still a slave herself.

Martín, el que se bautizó libre [FamilySearch]

What's interesting here is the year 1762, the middle year between José Ruiz's birth and María Ruiz's birth when my ancestor went from enslaved to free. Could María Ruiz having passed away in 1762, given Martín freedom knowing she was at the end of her life and ultimately freed Manuel Ruiz upon her death? I was able to find a María de las Nieves Ruiz passing away in December 1762, who was married to Juan Manuel Feliz, no testament was left upon her death though. I'm not sure if I'm connecting threads that are supposed to be separate, but the odds here seem to be high that these are one and the same man. Could it have been that Manuel originally was the slave of a Torres and then transferred over to a Ruiz? Would that explain the back and forth of Ruiz and Torres? One more document helped to make things even more interesting.

Defunción - María de las Nieves Ruiz [FamilySearch]

As I had mentioned, there were some children of Manuel Ruiz and Victoriana Sánchez in which I only had a marriage for... another one of those was Francisca Ruiz Sánchez. Francisca would marry in July 1785 to man named Francisco de Borja Piñero, illegitimate son of Bernardina, deceased. 

Francisca Ruiz, hija de Manuel y Victoriana Sánchez [FamilySearch] 

Taking Francisca's marriage year and subtracting 18, I got 1767. I had found no Francisca being born to Manuel Ruiz and Victoriana Sánchez in that year, but could she have been born a "Torres"? BINGO! I was able to find a Francisca, born to a Manuel Torres and Victoriana Sánchez! 

Francisca, hija de Manuel Torres y Victoriana Sánchez [FamilySearch]

Remember that by 1767, Manuel would have been free already so the use of "Torres" is interesting. There is always the possibility that this was another man but seeing as how Victoriana/Victoria Sánchez was the wife and that is constant throughout all of these records helps to plead a stronger case for it being my 7th great-grandfather.

It seems like María Ruiz and another slave owner had a close connection seeing as how their slaves married and then based off his last name I think creates a bigger tie - his name was Manuel Torres. In 1756 a slave named "Vicente" was born to Andrés, slave of María Ruiz and María, slave of Manuel Torres. Later, a set of twins were born in 1759 to Andrés, slave of Manuel Torres, and María, slave of Manuel Torres. It seems that Andrés would have been transferred over from María Ruiz to Manuel Torres now that these two slaves were married. The twins, Tiburcia and Valeria, had two separate godparents. Tiburcia's godparents were Felipe Torres and Anastasia Torres while Valeria's were Manuel Torres and Victoriana Sánchez, and here Manuel is a Torres again, could he have been named in honor of his first original master? 

Andrés, esclavo de María Ruiz y María, esclava de Manuel Torres [FamilySearch]

As you can see there is still some searching to do. Could Manuel Torres or María Ruiz have left wills in Coamo detailing their slaves and what to be done now that they had died? What was Manuel's life like as a slave in the 1700s? Would his life been any different to other slaves since he was pardo? Did pardo slaves have a certain mix to them,  for example white father, slave mother? No records point to parents for Manuel Ruiz and the baptisms from the 1730s in Coamo seem to be missing, so for right now there is no more to learn about his background. 

I'll definitely have to keep my eyes out now for pardos libres who potentially were slaves before they received their freedom status! 

A Puerto Rican Look at : A Generational Exploration of African Ancestry

Recently, I bought a few AncestryDNA test during their Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale. With those tests I was able to add 3 new members of my family to the site: my father, my mother, and my maternal grandmother. I still have one more test left and I'm hoping to test my maternal grandfather, but I'd have to travel to Puerto Rico to personally test him myself. After a few weeks of waiting for their results to process, I finally received them. Wanting to extract the most information as possible from their results, I decided to do some research ahead of time to have a better idea and understanding of what I was looking at.

Thanks to FonteFelipe's blog on Tracing African Roots I was able to specifically read about "Puerto Rican Results". Amongst his other posts, there are many that are directly tied to Caribbean and Diaspora African DNA results. There is definitely a lot of information there and much to explore about population genetics and the various tribes and countries involved in the Transatlantic slave trade. Since one of my New Year goals this year to learn more about my African roots, FonteFelipe's blog amongst some of the books I have in mind to purchase will definitely help me reach that goal.

My Results

Here is a quick look at my own personal AncestryDNA results taken about 1-2 years ago:

AncestryDNA [Personal Photo]

As you can see, my regions in Africa range from: Mali, African Southeastern Bantu, Africa North, Cameroon/Congo, and Senegal. I was rather surprised when I saw that I had 12% Mali as it is a fairly high number and a big chunk of my African DNA.

Based off what I know about my family, I know that there is mixed ancestry amongst many of my lines in Puerto Rico across various towns, but I have yet been able to pinpoint any slave ancestors inside of the island itself throughout my years of research, and I have traced many lines to the early 1800s late-1700s which will be important later on when discussing African DNA inheritance. The 'People of Color' mixes in my research so far range from "trigueño", "mulato", "pardo", and the occasional "negro" for my ancestors from Salinas. My research shows that those ancestors from Salinas, the Gustave and Lautin lines, came to Puerto Rico respectively from Guadeloupe and Martinique. These lines do carry African genes as both of these 4th great grandparents were slaves themselves on those islands. I'm hoping that by getting my grandfather tested and having both my mother's and grandmother's DNA I'll be able to have a better grasp into the possible regions of Africa (most likely in the western region) that my Guadeloupean and Martinican ancestors' African DNA point back to. 

One important thing to point out is that I am not going to talk much about the "Africa North" segments of my ancestry. The main reason being because most of these genetic leftovers in my and my family's DNA probably point more towards a Southern Spanish influence. There is the possibility of a genetic geneflow from northern African countries down into the Western area of Africa but for now, knowing what we know about Moorish Spain and my ancestors' presence in Andalucía and the Canary Islands we'll stick to the former theory. 

Some Prior Research

In FonteFelipe's blog post about Puerto Rico, he goes into depth using various Puerto Rican AncestryDNA results and textual sources on the Transatlantic slave trade to begin breaking down and analyzing their various results. Using his blog as a jumping point, I was able to look at my family's results through a different lens and begin to better understand slave trading patterns of the Caribbean and Puerto Rico. Here are some main points I learned from his post and I hope I am not oversimplifying and/or overstating some of the points (if so, let me know!): 

• It seems that on average, Senegal, N. Africa, and Mali were high and/or main ancestral contributions to the DNA gene pool for African DNA in Puerto Ricans. 
• Senegal and Mali specifically create an "Upper Guinea" Founder effect in Puerto Rico, where the genes were entered into the families' genetic pool early on and kept passing down through the various generations. 
• South-central Hunter-Gatherers can be from an ancient geneflow from the Pygmy/San people into the Bantu areas. 
• These higher Senegal and SE Bantu results can be from the 1500-1600s, again causing a Founder Effect. 
• "Mali" in the AncestryDNA categories is a hard category to fit into a box. From the colonial period, "Mali" DNA can be from Guinea Conakry and Sierra Leone. Some of the slaves from the region were known as "Bambara" and others as "Zape" (these mainly the Temne from Sierra Leone) and there was definitely a presence of these peoples throughout the slave trade in Puerto Rico. 
• There are three main regions that FonteFelipe works with when looking at the African DNA break down in AncestryDNA, these are: 
• A) Upper Guinea: Senegal, Mali 
• B) Lower Guinea: Ghana/Ivory Coast, Benin/Togo, Nigeria
• C) Central Africa: Cameroon/Congo, SE Bantu, Pygmy/San (South-Central Hunter-Gatherers) 

To have an idea of the regions and the various countries involved* in the Transatlantic slave trade, see below.
*When I say "involved", please take into consideration this does not mean that these countries willingly and purposefully took part. Remember that there are many elements at play such as: colonial powers, brute force, unequal trading, false beliefs, etc.

Having this knowledge in hand I went forward to look into my own family's African results. 

West African Countries/Regions [Wikipedia]

Generational Puerto Rican African DNA Results

In this snapshot of my family's African DNA there are four members shown: Myself, my father, my mother, and my maternal grandmother. I was born in the US and the rest of these members in Puerto Rico, however we are all "Puerto Rican" through Ancestry. I have talked extensively about my family in this blog but TL;DR - my family's results are quiet mixed: European (mainly an influence from Spain and potential countries such as France); Native (Taíno from Borinquen with a potential smidge of Carib/other), Jewish/North African (most likely a remainder of the Sephardic Jews of Spain and the Arab influence in southern Spain), and an west African mix most likely all introduced via slavery. Dividing these last results into the 3 categories mentioned above of "Upper Guinea", "Lower Guinea", and "Central Africa" this is how our results fair: 

African AncestryDNA [Personal Photo]

As you can see our African DNA is sprinkled into each of the three regions but mainly distributes itself into Upper Guinea first and then Lower Guinea, which goes along with what is mentioned in the blog. Interestingly enough I do not inherit any "Lower Guinea" DNA but my dad has only 2% Ghana/Ivory Coast while my mother and maternal grandmother have DNA from each of those regions.

Something important to mention is the odd disproportion of Mali DNA in my genes vs that of my parents. I inherited 12% while my parents only show 2% and 1% and my maternal grandmother herself at 2%. This makes me question my 12%, could there have been an error in that calculation? When you click on "Mali" for my ancestry my range is given as 4%-18%, could there have been an oversight there? I wonder how much of that "12% Mali" might be genetically attributed to other countries nearby. Nonetheless, the presence of the Senegal and Mali like mentioned in the blog might be a result of the Founder Effect of slaves brought onto the island early on. As I've mentioned in this blog and on this post, most of my family has been on the island since the early 1700s and some branches reach the 1600s, so whichever ancestors carry African DNA have yet to be identified as "esclavo" (slave) or even "negro libre" (free black - a term used for descendants of free black persons) in documents. More digging into the church records over time will hopefully begin to divide my ancestors further into more accurate categories. 

Mali Results [Personal Photo]

Looking at the other results, you can see where certain parts of my African DNA are inherited from. For example: it seems that my mother passed on segments of her Cameroon/Congo and SE Bantu genes to me. Something important to also consider is that lower numbers such as 1%, 2%, or 3% may be found in the "trace regions" of the DNA, which means that this might not mean direct ancestry from that country if not a mix already present in Africa before arriving to the New World.

Looking at the results, this makes it interesting to look at my parents' ancestry and their potential slave narratives in their family trees. For example, my father only has about 11% of African DNA on Ancestry (a bit higher than in 23andme). 7% of his 11% is found in the Upper Guinea region and 2% in Ghana/Ivory Coast. (The 1% of Pygmy/San again might be an ancient geneflow influence). Most of my father's families can be found in the mountains of Puerto Rican in areas such as Lares, Adjuntas, Utuado, and Yauco while his paternal branch mainly hovers around Toa Alta and Corozal. This Upper Guinea DNA was probably introduce early on and integrated fairly quickly into the branches of my paternal tree. Both sides of my paternal branches from my grandmother and grandfather carry African DNA so probably various groups from Senegal, Mali, and Ghana/Ivory Coast were introduced to various branches which ultimately gave my dad his 7%. It's also important to note that my father carries an African maternal haplogroup as well, which so far I have traced on paper to the early 1700s in Yauco, Puerto Rico to a woman named "Ana del Espíritu Santo".

Looking towards my mother's side I can make some guesses as to what my maternal grandfather might have contributed. It seems she definitely received some Ghana/Ivory Coast from him and some SE Bantu. No doubt there are probably influences from Senegal and Mali in her DNA from him as well. I'm itching to get him tested because he is my highest African DNA family member. My mother on AncestryDNA has about 35% African DNA and based off his 23andme results I wouldn't be surprised if his AncestryDNA results bring him into the 40% range!

Conclusions/Take Aways

With this type of research, it's very difficult to really come to conclusions! Ultimately, it's important to see how my African DNA is distributed amongst my parents and what that means for me as their child. Having read FonteFelipe's blog (which I definitely need to go back and read much more of!) there are interesting patterns that are important to take into consideration when thinking of my African DNA and the history behind it. There's a segment in his blog where FonteFelipe talks about Puerto Ricans whose results fall under "African>25%" and "African<35%" and how the "African<35%" seem to have a closer chronological input of African DNA in their genetic pool. This seems to hold true with my own family as my mother who is 36% and her father surely over 35% as well have a genetic African influence from Martinique and Guadeloupe that was introduced into the family in 1895 with the birth of my 2nd great grandfather, Julio Correa Gustavo (50% Puerto Rican, 25% Martinican, 25% Guadeloupean). Meanwhile, my father falls into the "African<25%" groups and his African input seems to be chronologically much older.

There is still much to learn about, research about, and inquire about in my family tree. I hope that as time continues, the African DNA on both 23andme and AncestryDNA become much clearer as it is an important piece for those of us who do not know where our African ancestors come from. Luckily, I think a better picture has begun to be painted in regards to my family's African ancestry with the help of genetic testing and with the help of texts such as books and blogs and primary sources such as the Civil Registry and Puerto Rican church records, thus allowing me to be able to put together a more cohesive picture and story of our past. Excited for what the future holds when it comes to African DNA!