52 Ancestors – #44 Alejandro Rivera González (1883-1958)

So I'm not gonna lie -- this is kind of a cheat post! Before the 52 Ancestor challenge was created I had gone about doing my own little series back in 2012 (has time flown by that fast already?), in which I would focus on ancestors' stories via the records I had of them. I started with Alejandro Rivera González and probably added a few more before I officially decided to go and join the 52 Ancestors Challenge bandwagon. So if you want to read some more about Alejandro's life click here  to see what I already knew about him through the records I had. I'll give a quick overview just in case the other post is too long or not worth reading (don't worry, no judging is happening here!). I want to add more to his story which I'll be doing here by closing any ends of the story which I previously didn't have information for and might have now!

Summary: Alejandro Rivera González was born in Toa Alta in 1883 to his parents Manuel de Jesús Rivera Díaz and Laureana González Mojica. Alejandro would marry three times throughout his life, his last wife being my great grandmother Mercedes Ortiz Marrero. In total, Alejandro would father 16 children in total from his three marriages. He was also a short little fellow of 5'4" :) who could read and write and owned land in Toa Alta before moving to the barrio La Perla in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

New Details: 

His first wife's death: With the release of the Puerto Rican Civil Registry on Ancestry.com I have been able to track down certain death certificates extremely quickly or with much more ease than through FamilySearch. Fortunately, I was able to find Brigida Hernández Vélez - Alejandro's first wife's death certificate. Brigida passed away in Toa Baja, Puerto Rico on the 28th of June 1913 to gastroenteritis. This would mean that Alejandro would lose his wife on the 28th of june and his last son Pedro from Brigida on the 16th of July 1913. I imagine this must have been extremely hard on Alejandro, losing his last born child from his first marriage and wife only a month apart.

Alejandro's death: Like the record above, I was FINALLY able to find Alejandro's death certificate by playing around with the settings of the ancestry Puerto Rican Civil Registry search. I was able to find out that Alejandro Rivera González passed away on the 5th of June 1958 in Puerta de Tierra, San Juan, Puerto Rico. For whatever reason, he was incorrectly written down as "Alejandro Rivera Marrero" even though his mother is correctly listed as "Laureana González". I imagine this was a mistake caused in confusion with the surname of my great grandmother and his wife "Mercedes Marrero". It says he worked in "obras públicas" which I really don't know what that means; he worked in that "field" up until 1951. Interestingly, the person who registered the death of my great grandfather was my own grandfather Felipe Rivera Ortiz who was probably still living with the family when his father passed away. His cause of death is registered as "senility", as well as fallo cardiaco "a heart attack", and derrame cerebral "a stroke". He was buried one day later on the 6th of June 1958 and thanks to my cousin I now know exactly where he is buried. I was very happy to have found his death certificate since it puts a close on his life and what happened to him and when/where he died. It's also interesting to put into perspective that my grandfather lost his dad at 22 which must have been hard on him, his dad was much older than a "typical" dad was in those days in Puerto Rico but still I imagine they had a close connection.

I would love to meet descendants of the siblings of Alejandro and maybe compare photos (if any are available) of them to see how they each inherited genes from their ancestors and how they similar/different. It's so interesting to see that my great grandfather was a pretty short man when I myself measure 6'0". Hopefully one day I'll be able to learn more stories about his family, his parents and maybe even what life was like for them back in Toa Alta and maybe find out what brought him to San Juan after living in Toa Alta for so many years. 

52 Ancestors – #43 Blasina Pérez Vásquez (1850-1945)

Playing my favorite game once again -- the catch up game! Since I've been traveling around Spain most of the weekends (which I truly enjoy), I haven't been able to dedicate as much time to these final few posts. And since my finals are coming up, what better way to procrastinate than to write blog post?! Today I'll be focusing on my 3rd great grandmother Blasina Pérez Vásquez.

Flag of Corozal, PR [Google]

Blasina was most likely born in the town of Corozal, Puerto Rico around 1850. Corozal as most of you know by now is a town very close to Toa Alta which shares historical ties with it. Blasina was the daughter of Alejandro Pérez Lozada and Martina Vásquez Fuentes, interestingly Alejandro was born in Corozal in 1812 and Martina in Toa Alta in 1813. Alejandro is one of the few ancestors who I have been able to document (thanks to a cousin!) being actually born in Corozal. A lot of my ancestors that were born in Corozal were born in the 1830s-1850s+ which means that those records aren't accessible online (just yet!).

Corozal, Puerto Rico [Google]

According to the 1910 Census, Blasina and her husband Buenaventura Ortiz Rivera would have been married around the year 1869 and most likely in Corozal seeing as they lived in their entire lives there until their respective deaths. They lived specifically in the barrio of Palos Blancos which is definitely on my list of places I want to visit in Puerto Rico (and boy is that list long!). So far I have been able to document 10 children in total for Buenaventura and Blasina, potentially there are a few more hiding around in the records but so far these are the ones I have documented. Their son, Martin Ortiz Pérez was my 2nd great grandfather.

Seeing that Blasina was born around 1850 and she lived until 1945, we can for sure say that Blasina had a long life (yay longevity genes!). From what he have, she technically passed away somewhere mid 90s but also possibly her late 80s if her birth year was guesstimated wrongly (which is very possible!). From the census records we can learn a bit more about Blasina's life. For example, we know that in 1910 she was listed as 'mulatto' and married for 41 years having given birth to 11 children all who were still alive in 1910 (so it seems I'm missing one child on my list!). She along with Buenaventura were unable to read or write but it seems that Buenaventura owned the farm he worked on which is pretty cool to see; and it says he worked for himself! Similarly in 1920 we see that Blasina is still illiterate and listed as 'mulatto', I don't expect Blasina to suddenly pick up the ability to read and write but it's important to look because you never know!

By the 1930 census, Blasina would have been widowed for 5 years since Buenaventura died in 1925. I'm not sure how inheritance of property works in Puerto Rico but it seems that she was able to claim the land and was listed as the owner of the farm and that she herself worked the land! Amazingly and awesomely, because I don't know how often you see it, my 3rd great grandmother appears in the 1935 Agricultural Schedule with the land she owned! Interestingly, her race is listed as "white" in this record and that the land she owned has been in use since 1915, which there might be a discrepancy seeing has how the land they had was being used since at least 1910. It also states she had 3 cuerdas (a little over 3 acres) the worth of $150, which I imagine back in 1935 was a good amount of land/worth to own! The form unfortunately is a bit blurry so I can't make out all the details on the page too clearly, but it seems that she grew corn on the land amongst other things.

5. Color o raza: "M" for mulatto [FamilySearch]

Interestingly in the 1940, just 5 years before her passing, Blasina was still in possession of the land. Here her race is changed to "col", which in 1940 was used for negro y mixto (black and mixed), which to me means her color was dark enough to be considered non-white by the census taker. Yet interestingly when it came to owning land she was listed as "blanca" (white). Blasina and Buenaventura's race has always been an interesting topic for me. Blasina in her death record is listed as 'm' for mulatto but in Buenaventura's we see a reference to Indio which I have talked about before. I imagine they both had a mestizo/mixed complexion which gave them the identity of indio, mulato, mixto depending on the record and year.

I wonder what happened to the land they owned in Palos Blancos, Corozal, Puerto Rico. Usually when a piece of land is owned and the owner dies, the plot gets divided into the children and they decide whether to keep the plot or sell it. With many children/descendants moving into San Juan, usually the property was sold and with that money they could invest in a home/place to live in San Juan. Between 11 children (and/or their descendants) I imagine they didn't get too much but I also can't be too sure what happened. Many some decided to live on the land and then later moved on? Or one sibling decided to care for the land him or herself? It would be awesome to find the land they lived on (at least the general area) or potentially even records that might point to more information of how they acquired the land, who bought it/passed it on, etc.

I have been in contact with one or two other descendants of Buenaventura and Blasina and it seems that their descendants also moved out of Palos Blancos and into other areas. With the industrialization of the island after the United States acquired the land, more jobs could be found in bigger cities and many families decided to give up their previous lives of agriculture and farming. Nonetheless, it would be nice to visit Palos Blancos and Corozal in general and see if I can find some remnants of their land, the plot, or even some cousins who could lead the way! 

52 Ancestors – #42 Bernarda Marrero

I can't believe that there are only 10 ancestors left to complete this challenge! I've said it many times before, but I've had a great time searching and researching for these ancestors in my tree and through the records. I've been getting behind again with traveling around Spain but I'm going to try and catch up now that it's finally November and December will shortly be here around the corner!! Today's post will be about my 6th great grandmother Bernarda Marrero.

Bernarda would have been born sometime in the mid-late 1700s based on her children's birth years. She was from the beloved town of Toa Alta and probably lived there for most of her life. I'm not sure if she and her husband Antonio de los Santos Rivera would move to Corozal and pass away there but many of their children would move and live there themselves. I do know that Bernarda would live passed the year 1818, however. Between Antonio and Bernarda, I have been able to trace nine children in total so far. She is one of my ancestresses from my maternal side of the family, who surprisingly has roots in Toa Alta which my father's side of the family has lived in for many, many years.

The Marrero also appears a few times in my paternal side of the family, so who knows if Bernarda has some ties to those families being that they lived in the same town in the 1700s, I can't imagine Toa Alta having a ton of inhabitants that weren't related or connected somehow seeing as how Puerto Rico is pretty connected even now a days.

Seeing as Bernarda was born in a time that I don't have records for, she doesn't appear on any census records. Neither do I have a baptism, marriage, or death record. I do have most of her children's baptism records and I can probably try and piece together some more family members through the names of the godparents. Hopefully I can find more records from Toa Alta dating further back in the early 18th century to try and piece together some of the lines I have from that town. 

52 Ancestors – #41 María Paulina Gustavo Lotten (1867-1948)

Yay for writing a new post (and on time!) Today I want to focus on my 3rd great grandmother who I've mentioned multiple times throughout my blog but I wanted to dedicate a section of the 52 Ancestors challenge to her.

My 3rd great grandmother on my maternal side was María Paulina Gustavo Lotten, and boy did it take me a long time to figure out all of that information. Officially, my 3rd great grandmother's should either be A) María Paulina Jean-Charles Lautin or B) María Paulina Gustave Lautin. And I'll explain why!

María Paulina was born on the island of Vieques, a island on the eastern coast of Puerto Rico on the 15th of January 1867, and later baptized on the 14th of February of the same year. Paulina was the daughter of two immigrants who had probably just recently arrived to the island when she was born. Her father was Gustave Jean Charles (also known as Gustavo Juan Carlos/Charles or Juan Carlos Gustavo- know you can see why there are two options for Paulina) and her mother was Julienne Malvina Lautin (also known as Juliana Malvina Lotten). Both were from French islands, Gustave hailing from the island of Guadeloupe and Julienne from the island of Martinique. So far, I've hit a brick wall with searching Gustave's origins on the island of Guadeloupe. I was very fortunate to find Julienne's original town in Martinique, which was Rivière Salée, a section of Trois Bourgs. We know that Gustave was married previously in Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe around the years 1851-1865, when his first wife Françoise Jackson passed away from Cholera. Hopefully I'll be able to find out where Gustave Jean Charles was from, whether it be Guadeloupe or another town!

My 3rd great-grandmother was the first born of seven children, as the family traveled the children were born along the way in different towns. María Paulina and Tomás Octavio were born in Vieques, Areopajita and Valentina were born somewhere between Vieques and Fajardo. Dionisio was born in Fajardo, Alberto Fermin in Salinas, and Martina Isabel in Santa Isabela. As you can see the family did some traveling! Finally the family would settle in the southern coast of Puerto Rico in the Salinas, Guánica, Ponce area. My 3rd great grandmother lived and married in Salinas, but later moved up north to San Juan, PR.

María Paulina married in the town of Salinas in 1896 to Manuel Correa Ortiz, son of Juan Nepomucino Correa Rodríguez and Bibiana Ortiz. Together they would have eight children together, my 2nd great grandfather being the 3rd to last born.

It's important to note that my 3rd great-grandmother probably received her name as a namesake from her mother's deceased sister. Julienne was born in 1844 and later a sister named Pauline was born in 1846, Pauline would later pass away in 1855 at the age of 8. I'm pretty sure this is where she gets her name, as a memory and dedication to her mother's deceased younger sister; both born into slavery and freed together with their mother in 1848.

By the year 1940, María Paulina (who sometimes went by the name 'Octavia') is found living alone in San Juan, Puerto Rico on Calle Progreso. Eight years later, on the 20th of September 1948 Paulina would pass away from cardiac troubles.

I wonder a lot about María Paulina and what kind of life she would have lived. Would she have been raised bilingual by her parents? Could she speak French, Martinican or Guadeloupean Créole and Spanish? Her mother would have been 23 when she was born and probably a recent immigrant to Puerto Rico, had she already begun to learn Spanish when Paulina was born? Did María Paulina know much about her parents' origins and about their past lives in the West Indies? Did she raise her own children by speaking créole to them and telling them stories about her parents?

Unfortunately, any of those stories would be cut short from me when my 2nd great-grandfather died in 1929 leaving my great grandfather without a lot of that information if he had any of it at all. I wish I knew more about this family and their cultural ties to Guadeloupe and Martinique. Did the children dream about visiting these islands themselves and seeing where their parents had spent the beginning years of their lives? Did Julienne or Gustave ever what to return? When I found out about this family and my sudden connection to Martinique and Guadeloupe I was completely surprised, flabbergasted, shocked (positively), and every other adjective there could possibly be. How could this information slipped by my grandfather, had his own father had no idea about their créole roots from the French West Indies??

I so far have met one other descendant from the Gustavo-Lotten clan but I would love to see if there are any other children from my other 3rd great-grandaunts/uncles. Were they raised with stories about the French West Indies and maybe kept some Créole words in the families? Maybe they use the names Paulina, Juliana and Gustavo/Juan Carlos in their families? Maybe they have pictures of those Gustavo-Lotten children/grandchildren of the family?

I would love to meet some more descendants and share the stories of our mutual ancestors if they don't know the stories already! When I found out I was very excited and I definitely want to visit these islands and walk the streets my ancestors walked. And maybe pick up on some French Créole! 

52 Ancestors – #40 Cayetano de los Santos

I can't believe this is Ancestor #40 already!! Boy has time flown by! I am happy to have finally caught up (yet again) and hopefully I'll be able to continue to post on the regularly scheduled Friday like I had done before. Today's ancestor will be Cayetano de los Santos, my 7th great grandfather.

Cayetano de los Santos, who's surname was shortened to Santos, was my 7th great grandfather via my maternal side of the family. Unfortunately, I don't have documents on him or exact dates but I'm glad to have found him and talk about him nonetheless. Cayetano de los Santos was from, you guessed it, Toa Alta, Puerto Rico! Except this time it's interesting because he's from my maternal side of the family. This means that my paternal and maternal side of the family lived in the same town and in the same time frame as one another. It is also very possible that my parents are related to one another through these ancestors, they do share certain surnames with each other from Toa Alta so who knows if they lead back to common mutual ancestors.

Cayetano would have been born sometime in the early 1700s in Toa Alta, there he would marry Gertrudis Rivera Rodríguez and to my knowledge have three children together. It is very possible and likely that they had other children but being that I haven't found anymore in the church records of Toa Alta I can only for sure say that there were three.

Cayetano and Gertrudis' children would eventually make their way into Corozal, from Corozal they'd make their way into Morovis, then Vega Baja, and eventually back up towards San Juan. The family did a loop of sorts throughout the generations. I can't be sure that Cayetano and Gertrudis died in either Toa Alta or Corozal, it is very possible that just the children moved into the next town and the parents stayed behind. Or also, that they all moved into Corozal together and start a new life there. Until I have further records I can't be too sure about where they died.

Interestingly, I have found a document that could potentially point to my parents' families knowing one another in the town of Toa Alta, Puerto Rico. My 3rd great-grandfather had a brother named Ruperto Rivera Román born on the 25th of March 1819, son of Joseph de Rivera and Gertrudis Román. The family came forth on the 10th of April 1819 to baptize their son. In the document below you can see who the godparents were for Ruperto:

Ruperto Rivera Román - Bautismo,  1819 [FamilySearch]

That's right! Ruperto's godparents were a Cayetano de los Santos and Gregoria Rivera! It is very possible that Ruperto's godparents were my 7th great grandparents from my maternal side of the family. That would mean that my 4th great grandparents and my 7th great grandparents knew one another! I know that they are pretty far apart, 4th and 7th generation ancestors, but due to child birth, longevity, etc. and how some generations waited longer to have children and thus creating such a big gap. The years do coincide and so do the town and the names; I wouldn't be surprised at all if these were my Cayetano de los Santos y Gertrudis Rivera. It makes me think… could Gertrudis and Joseph have been brothers and sisters? Maybe she was an aunt or someone close to him, a cousin? They both are surnamed Rivera and living in 18th century Toa Alta it is very possible that they had some type of family connection. 

It's very interesting to consider that both sides of my family knew each other 200-300 years ago in a town I had no idea my parents had ancestors in. I think it's very cool to find such documents like this, makes you think about whether our future is already "set" and how things work in life. For example, the lady that I met who my 4th great grandparents were godparents to one of her great-aunts. Life works in very mysterious ways!! 

52 Ancestors – #39 María Higinia Ruiz Ramos (1859-1921)

Moving a little over towards the East from Patillas, we get to Yabucoa where my next ancestor entry will take place! This post is about my 3rd great grandmother María Higinia Ruiz Ramos.

María Higinia according to records was originally from Maunabo, Puerto Rico which makes sense since these two towns (Yabucoa and Maunabo) are very close to one another in the south-eastern part of Puerto Rico. Equally, her husband was also from Maunabo, PR. María Higinia would have been born around 1859, the daughter of Manuel Ruiz and Dorotea Ramos. Around 1875, Juan Bautista Dávila González and María Higinia Ruiz Ramos would have gotten married in Maunabo, Puerto Rico. Their marriage would produce ten children, which includes my 2nd great grandfather Pedro Dávila Ruiz.

By 1910, Higinia and the family were living in Calabazas, Yabucoa, Puerto Rico- the place where at least three generations of my family would be born/live in. María Higinia appear as 'white', married for 35 years and a owner of land on which she worked on. I'm not sure if this was an error on the part of the census taker since it's only María listed as the head but I wouldn't be surprised if she herself worked the land. She is listed as living with two children, and three grandchildren; she was also unable to read or write.

María Higinia Ruiz Ramos - 1910 Census [Ancestry]

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to locate most of my ancestors from Yabucoa on the 1920 census, this includes María Higinia. I'm not really sure why this is, they were living in Puerto Rico and never traveled outside the island, they even appear on the 1930 census living in the same town and barrio so it's not like they moved somewhere else. Nonetheless, there is a gap there missing of information on who was where and did what in the 1920 Census. 

I do know however that María Higinia Ruiz Ramos passed away on the 24th of September 1921 in Calabazas, Yabucoa, Puerto Rico. It took me a long time to find her death certificate. I had searched multiple times in Yabucoa and Maunabo but I had no idea when or where she died. Her husband on the other hand died in 1933 and was widowed by the time he passed away, so I had a short range of years for her... but still nothing! It wasn't until Ancestry uploaded the Civil Registry that I was able to type in names and play around with the settings that I was able to find a "María Ramos" passing away in Yabucoa. It turns out that this was my 3rd great-grandmother! For whatever reason, her first surname "Ruiz" was dropped on this document, but it does state she was the wife of Juan Bautista Dávila which helped to prove this was her. 

Her cause of death was kind of interesting/shocking to see. It states that at 10 in the morning of the 24th day of September of 1921, María Ramos asphyxiated (underwater). It doesn't, however, state if this was  on accident or on purpose. She would have been around 62 years old, so I can see this happening as a horrible accident but it doesn't state whether it was home or at a nearby river. I don't have anymore details than what is written on the death certificate and I haven't heard any stories of this as well in my family. I don't think my family even knew about this ancestress, let alone the cause of her death. 

María Higinia Ruiz Ramos - Defunción, 1921 [Ancestry] 

This is the third direct ancestor to die from something that was not of natural causes/ or a sickness. It's a bit morbid to find these death certificates and see sometimes the horrible ways someone passed away. For example: my 2nd great-grandfather, José Miranda Santos, who unfortunately hung himself at about the age of 50. It is however important to learn about the birth, lives, and deaths of each of my ancestors - the good, the bad, and the ugly. 

I have pretty deep roots in Maunabo, dating back to the early 1800s/late 1700s so I would love to head down there and see the area; as well as with Yabucoa which is one town over. I really need to head to Puerto Rico and discover these towns and barrios that my families were from… I'm seriously itching to do it in the near future!! Hopefully I'll collect more stories, see the lands they lived & worked on, and even meet some distant cousins!

52 Ancestors – #38 Cruz Rivera Collazo (1860-19??)

Okay, finally moving our way out of Toa Alta (just for a bit, since I have some more Toa Alta ancestors in the near future to write about). On this post I want to focus on my 3rd great grandfather, Cruz Rivera Collazo - another man of much mystery!

I was first introduced to Cruz's name when I came across my great grandfather's birth record in 1920. It mentioned that his maternal grandfather was Cruz Rivera, mestizo, native from Patillas (where he currently lives in 1920) and his wife Luisa Masantini, native of Patillas and deceased (another ancestor of much mystery!).

Cruz Rivera & Luisa Masantini [FamilySearch]

Cruz Rivera, appears on the 1910 census with a daughter named Amalia Rodríguez who I'm pretty sure are my Cruz Rivera and Amalia, since Luisa's surname was also "Rodríguez", this further solidifies that Cruz Rivera Collazo, born about 1860 and living in barrio Guardarraya, Patillas, Puerto Rico is my 3rd great grandfather.

Cruz Rivera Collazo - 1910 Census [Ancestry]

Since his daughter married in 1919 and was living in Salinas, we find Cruz Rivera living in Patillas with his grandson, Felix Santiago y Rivera, son of Amalia but from an unknown father. Both times we see Cruz listed as single, since he never officially married Luisa and unable to read or write.

Cruz Rivera Collazo - 1920 Census [Ancestry]

Unfortunately, that's the last time Cruz officially appears on a record for me. It is possible that he moved to Salinas and lived the rest of his life there, but I haven't been able to find a "Cruz Rivera Collazo" in census records past 1920; I did find a Cruz Rivera living with a cousin surnamed Santiago in Salinas, potentially related to Felix's father. However, I don't have conclusive evidence that it's the same man. I also have no idea what Cruz's parents' names were. Since Amalia was born out of wedlock, I have found a record (which I think is her baptism) that only lists a Luisa Rodríguez but no Cruz Rivera. This was pretty common for children born out of wedlock, to list one of the two parents and sometimes a father would "recognize" their child in the record. We know Cruz is the father from records, yet we don't know who the parents Rivera and Collazo are. I'll have to keep searching for more information and ties to try and figure this out, I haven't even been able to find brothers and sisters for Cruz who might help fill in some gaps.

Here's to hoping that I'll be able to crack this brick wall soon and find out more about my ancestors in Patillas! Patillas is on the southern coast of Puerto Rico and the barrio in which Cruz and Amalia lived in faces out to the Caribbean Sea! I would love to visit Patillas one day! Also Patillas is about 2-3 towns away from Salinas so I wonder how Amalia and my 2nd great grandfather met! Here is a picture of where Patillas geographically is on the map of Puerto Rico as well as its barrios. 

Patillas, Puerto Rico [Google]

Guardarraya, Patillas, Puerto Rico [Google]