Testing, Testing...

DNA tests ready to go! [Personal Photo]

Just like that I'm back home from my spring break trip to Puerto Rico! Though it was a quick trip I was able to get a lot of genealogical work done, among one of those tasks was fulfilling my goal to get DNA testing done from various companies (FtDNA, 23andMe, and AncestryDNA) from various relatives. These test are in line with my genealogical New Year's Resolutions of getting my Avilés and Correa line Y-DNA tested and adding more autosomal cousins to the mix of relatives currently tested. Here's the breakdown of the testing I got done while in Puerto Rico.

AncestryDNA

This DNA test was only one and it was an autosomal test for my maternal grandfather. I wanted to add him to AncestryDNA since they also have an African breakdown that I would like to see how he scores in and also to widen the pool of genetic cousins I receive. Though AncestryDNA isn't my first choice for autosomal DNA testing since you don't get the maternal/paternal haplogroup(s) or chromosome segments, I decided to add him anyways. 

23andMe

For this one, I got two autosomal DNA tests done. I brought an extra DNA test just in case I came across another cousin but I decided to test two Avilés cousins from Lares, Puerto Rico since I was already there and could benefit from having two cousins from this line. One test was for my 1st cousin 2x removed, his father was my great-grandmother's full brother, and he's a male descendant from the Magraner line - having him tested will help separate out my DNA from my 2nd great-grandparents in DNA Painter. I also tested my 2nd great-uncle, son of my 2nd great-grandfather and from his second wife. I'm hoping that by testing another generation closer to my 2nd great-grandfather connections to Spain will be stronger. Interestingly enough, my 2nd great-uncle's mother, though not my 2nd great-grandmother is my 2nd cousin, 4x removed - her paternal grandfather is my 5th great-uncle via a line that came from Yauco to Lares, Puerto Rico... that'll be interesting to see how it interferes with the DNA segments we match together!   

FtDNA (Y-DNA 67)

Y-DNA Test [Personal Photo]

This was my first time getting a Y-DNA test done in recent years, I had tested a Gustave/Charles cousin a few years back and so far I don't have any super helpful/relevant matches, besides the fact that it's a European line that matches men from the UK/Ireland/Scotland area. It was, however, the first time I administered a Y-DNA test myself. I tested two men on this trip - my 1st cousin, 2x removed and my maternal grandfather. Some people aren't very interested in haplogroup testing but for me these two tests will help shine some light into two very mysterious lines. My Avilés line which is supposed to be Magraner from Sóller, Mallorca and my Correa line which I'm not sure where it's from and 23andMe says the line is commonly found amongst Arabs/Jews. Hopefully these tests will help better understand those lines in my family. 

Cheek swaps ready to go! [Personal Photo]

Once my DNA results appear for these various tests I'll update with some posts my findings. I'm glad I was able to get this done and excited as well to learn more about my family!

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. 

A Puerto Rican Look at: Generational 23andMe African Ancestry

This blog post will be an updated report on my African ancestry from 23andMe. Last month I had posted about some of my new European Ancestry reports from 23andMe while last year I wrote about my generational African mixes from AncestryDNA (which I'll have to update at some point as well!). Since 23andme has updated their African scores for most (I think at this point all of their past clients as well) I figured now would be a good time to go over these new results and what they look like now.

My Results

Before 23andMe upgraded their results to their current configuration, most of my African results were only listed as "West African", this ancestry tied to my sides of the family that were enslaved in Puerto Rico and my one branch which was from Martinique and Guadeloupe from my maternal side. So when I saw that 23andMe had updated their results to be more specific, I was excited to see what they were and compare them to my AncestryDNA ones. My current Ancestry Composition is listed as being updated "February 8, 2019" which isn't a full month since they've been up - it's also important to note that these results are not set in stone. As more genotypes from around the world are included and updated, there will be more diversity most amongst their samples and the more likely it is to become clearer. Below is a screenshot of my results:

23andMe African Results - Luis Rivera [23andMe]

As you can see there are few categories of African DNA for me, these mainly being: Senegambian & Guinean; Congolese; Nigeria; Ghanian, Liberian & Sierra Leonean; as well as some "broad" categories. For the rest of the blog, I am going to concentrate on percentages assigned to current day countries* and not to those under the "broad" African categories. Also, from my results I have attached my Ancestry Timeline (screenshot below) as well as the Sub-Saharan African genes highlighted across my chromosomes.

*Though these genes are tried to current day African borders and countries, it is fairly likely that some of this DNA poured over from other nearby countries before the modernized African countries as we know them were created post-colonization. This is important to note seeing as how tribes were not necessarily restricted to these modern borders.

Ancestry Timeline - Luis Rivera [23andMe]

From there results, there are a couple of takeaways. To begin with though my Nigerian DNA is listed at 3.1% my Ancestor Timeline shows that this ancestor was probably born between 1840-1900, the only other ancestry at that similar generational spot is "Spanish/Portuguese", which I attribute to my 3rd great-grandfather who came from Mallorca. Also, notice that the other African groups are listed at the early-mid 1700s-1840.

Highlighted Sub-Saharan African DNA - Luis Rivera [23andMe]

In my DNA above, notice that many of the segments are short, meaning that they were probably introduced into my family early on while other segments are a bit longer meaning that they aren't that far back in history. Some of the longer stretches are Chromosome 2 (Senegambian & Guinean), Chromosome 11 (Nigerian), and though Chromosome 14 seems to be a long stretch of DNA it's more of a chopped up mix of various regions and countries. You may also note that I have not included my X-chromosome in the photo above, this is because no West African DNA was transmitted to me through this chromosome, there is a piece of North African DNA but I am focusing on my West African results in this post seeing as how the North African piece can be most likely tied to Southern Spanish Moorish influence or even from the Canary Islands. 

Since I have tested both of my parents, you can see that each of my parents gave me different pieces of African DNA, most of it coming from my mother's side of the family. Notice that "Senegambian & Guinean" and "Ghanian, Liberian & Sierra Leonean" is fairly equal on both sides of my family, while "Congolese" and "Nigerian" mainly comes from my mother's side of the family. 

African DNA Parental Inheritance - Luis Rivera [23andMe]

Referencing FonteFelipe's blog (linked directly to Puerto Rican AncestryDNA results) has been very helpful when it came to breaking down my AncestryDNA results. Not only did it allow me to learn more about my breakdown but it gave me some historical insight to the results as well. These were some of the main points I took away which I posted on my blog that were helpful for me when it came to understanding my DNA results:

• 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 gene-flow 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) 

A couple of things to notice in-regards to the differences between 23andMe and AncestryDNA:

• On 23andMe Mali isn't a high contributor to DNA as it was on AncestryDNA, this has also since changed on AncestryDNA with my own Mali scores drastically dropping from what they were before. I also have not seen a specific "Mali" category on 23andMe. 
• Senegal on 23andme is roped into the region of "Senegambia and Guinea" which I would argue still creates a "founder effect" in Puerto Rico which we will see as I compare various family members. This would mean these genes were probably introduced on the earlier side of Puerto Rican history. 

Intending to organize my ancestry into similar categories of Upper and Lower Guinea as well as Central African, some of the 23andMe categories fit nicely while others not so easily. For simplicity's sake, I am going to group my regions as such:

• Upper Guinea: Senegambian & Guinean
• Lower Guinea: Ghanaian, Liberian & Sierra Leonean; Nigeria  
• Central Africa: Congolese

Linked above are FonteFelipe's description of each region with information and maps included!

Family Results

Taking various family members and placing their results into a table on Excel allowed me to compare between them their results and find trends amongst them as well. Below is a chart I created using various family member's results. Note: I used my great-aunt and great-uncle, both siblings of my paternal grandmother, to give me an idea of what my grandmother's results might look like if she were alive. I also grouped the family members that belonged to each side either under my father or mother, hopefully making it easier to see how each of these members contributed to my parents and ultimately to me.

African Results [23andMe]

It is important to note that this is not the total for my family's African results, for example "Broadly West African" was not included into this table and might be added later on when it is associated more clearly as these other groups are. Equally, North African is missing from the chart as well. There are a couple of things that stand out to me right away: 

• The first being the "Upper Guinea" column, as FonteFelipe had mentioned there seems to be a founder effect occurring in Puerto Rico via this category and I think that trend still stands here on 23andMe, you can see that each of my family members for the most part hover between 3-8% range and each of my family members has received a similar amount. 
• The second column of "Ghanian, Liberian, & Sierra Leonean" seems to be fairly small across many of my family members. The highest on my paternal side is my paternal great-aunt on my Rivera side with 1.3% while my mother's results are at 2.9%, my maternal grandmother at 3.0% and my maternal grandfather at 6.8%. Since my maternal great-grandfather only has 0.8% it is likely that my great-grandmother contributed more to my grandmother under this category. 
• The third column of "Nigerian" is very interesting, as you can see many of my family members receive rather low scores. However, myself, my mother, and my maternal grandfather are amongst the highest received percentages. It seems that via my maternal grandfather my connection to Nigeria is rather strong, which I'll talk about more down below. Similarly, my grandmother via her father seems to have some Nigerian DNA there but not as strong as my maternal grandfather. 
• The fourth column refers to Congolese DNA which I seem to inherit mainly from mother's side, specifically my maternal grandmother. Though my maternal grandfather scores 4% himself. 
• Lastly, the 5th column is Sudanese which is interesting seeing as how it's Eastern Africa but my mother and her grandmother receive a small percentage of 0.2% and 0.1% - I don't see it as something super important but I figured I'd add it seeing as how two people in my family inherited in different generations. 

Nigerian DNA

Amongst my three brothers, the difference were inherited is basically zero (only a 0.4% difference really) of the Nigerian DNA. You can also see other African scores as well between us. My little brother received the most African DNA at 18.7% while I come in second place at 17.5% and older brother at third with 16.8%. 

Nigerian DNA [23andMe]

As you can see, we've each inherited about ~3% of Nigerian DNA, this number goes up to 12.2% with my maternal grandfather. This unusually high percentage in his DNA makes me question where it's from. I imagine that not all of it came from one specific ancestor, especially after seeing that others in my family have inherited Nigerian DNA who are not connected to him, but it does raise the question of who specifically? My grandfather's ancestry timeline says that this Nigerian DNA came about in the years 1820-1880, this would mean that somewhere in his 2nd-3rd great-grandparents someone carried Nigerian DNA and a good amount of it. My grandfather does have long stretches of Nigerian DNA, his entire Chromosome 8 on one side is entirely Nigerian.

Grandfather's Nigerian DNA [23andMe]

There is no perfect science to how much an ancestor will give you but there is an average per each generation. At 12.5%, that would be a great-grandparent's DNA, and I know that I have no Nigerian ancestor that close. However, there is the case of my grandfather's great-grandmother María Paulina Gustave Lautin born in Puerto Rico in the year 1867, could most of this Nigerian DNA come from her parents? Both of Paulina's parents were born slaves on Martinique and Guadeloupe so having recent Nigerian DNA from them is very possible. Paulina's own grandmother (Eglantine Lautin) was born in Africa around the year 1821, fitting into the DNA timeline provided by 23andMe.

Conclusions

For now, I can't be too sure if I am on the right track in terms of finding out if my Nigerian DNA is mainly from my Gustave-Lautin line. I would have to test some cousins from this line to see what their Nigerian score is and see if I can add a brother of my grandfather to see what his score is as well. I also understand that these results feel like they are ever changing, so who knows what they'll look like in a year or beyond. For now, I'm taking my results with a grain of salt but it's interesting to see how each of my family members has inherited different amounts and how those get passed on to different generations and even to people within one generation.

A next step would be to identify on DNAPainter where I can attribute these Nigerian segments along my DNA and find potentially cousins that also fall under those areas in order to find out our Most Recent Common Ancestor (MRCA).

I am also excited for the day my DNA will be tied to certain individuals in the "old world" and hopefully provide me a glance to where my ancestors were from in Africa before the slave trade.

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! 

Genealogical Goals of 2019 (Part II)

Continuing from my previous, genealogical goals of 2019 (Part I), here are the second set of goals for this new year!

6. Push all my lines into the 1700s
This one is a bit harder and will take some time, depending on the availability of records. I have been pretty fortunate to push many of my lines back to the early 1800s, though of course this is also thanks to a lot of dedicated hours and hard work on my behalf. A next step however would be to push my lines to the early 1700s and this type of work comes with its limitations. For example, lines that are products of illegitimate marriages and slaves are less than likely going to reach the 1700s, 1) because there was no listed father and with no clue to who he was I could search forever and 2) slaves were  sometimes not given surnames or clues to their origins. For these cases DNA is my next best bet, but again that also comes with limitations. The endogamy on the island plays a hard role in figuring out who matches me where, so it's not like I could test cousins on those lines that are not related to other lines in my family, because so far it almost seems like everyone is related!

Going down my tree, I can definitely identify lines in the 1700s for example: Rivera, Román, Díaz, Mojica (Múxica), Marrero, Vélez, Pérez, Sepúlveda, Román, Magraner, Morell, Padilla, Santana just to give you a quick insight into surnames (these only paternal) I've pushed back to the early 1700s. Yet there are other names such as Mercado, Cajigas, Cruz, Gerena, Ortiz, Vázquez (again, all paternal) that I can not push back due to lack of records currently available. On my mother's side it's also a mix, some lines are pushed back to the 1700s and some still wavering in the 1800s waiting to be discovered. For example, San Sebastián is currently a big block in my research since none of their records are readily available online like how other towns for Puerto Rico are. Hoping though that as more records become available, this task will be much easier. 

7. Continue reading books about genealogy 
This one is pretty straight forward, continue reading books that have to do with genealogy. Recently, I have been able to incorporate reading into my general everyday life again and so hopefully it'll stick and I'll be able to cycle through some genealogy books as well. There are some books I have on my shelf waiting for me to pick them up and read them and some on my Amazon wishlist waiting for me to buy them. A lot of these texts though can be historically factually heavy and thus makes me want to put them down pretty fast because it's too much to digest in one sitting. Hoping I get through some for the year though!

8. Take a genealogy course 
I have wanted to complete this goal for some time now but there are two things that always stop me: Time and Money. I think taking a genealogical course, especially if it offers some type of certification, would be an amazing "genealogy resumé" builder, but I also fear that taking the course won't help me much. Though there are some courses that are geared to the more general approach to genealogy, I have also seen some targeted to mainly North American research - which for someone who does basically all of their research in Puerto Rico, the course won't be very helpful. Boston University does offer an interesting course for genealogy which I think would be helpful but the course has a hefty price tag. Also, I always miss the deadline to actually sign up for the course which bums me out and then I totally forget. I think at some point, maybe in the fall, I would like to try and register for the course and actually take it. Taking it in the summer is difficult since I'm usually traveling or away from most of my genealogy books. I think it's definitely worth the investment especially if I want to later on get an actual certification as a professional genealogists.

9. Get savvier with the use of DNA results
I've always been hesitant to learn from my DNA in-depth because it can be a lot to take in. With testing other family members and tools such as DNA Painter, my goal is to hopefully continue learning more about my ancestors through DNA. Whether it's autosomal, haplogroups, mtDNA or YDNA, I'm hoping that I can take apart my results and what they hide. It's not easy with endogamy but bit by bit I can learn more about myself and my ancestors.

10. Build stories around my factual evidence
What I mean by this is that I want to learn more about what went on in the day-to-day on the island while my ancestors were living there. I know some key dates such as when slavery ended and the Spanish-American war occurred but for example, when were some of the major hurricanes to hit the island? The rebellions that occurred besides El Grito de Lares? What did the different societal classes look like? What other events pushed my ancestors from Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Spain to come to the New World as well. I think some of this information will come from reading more books but I'll have to check around the internet as well and see what else I can learn.

Here's to hoping that I can stick to my goals and before I know it, it'll be 2020 and I'll be reflecting on these goals as well. Make sure to set some genealogical goals for yourself as well! 

Genealogical Goals of 2019 (Part I)

With the new year off to a start, I'd figure I set my new genealogical goals for this year. Similarly to last year, I'll write out 10 genealogical goals I have in mind and what I would like to accomplish through each one. Since I've delved deeper into why and how I want to get these accomplished, I decided to break them up into two posts so I don't ramble on forever. Here are my first five goals:

1. Test a male descendent for Y-DNA Avilés
This one is a goal from last year that I haven't gotten to accomplish yet. There's a few possibilities or candidates here for gathering a Y-DNA Avilés cousin - most of them though to seem to be in Lares, Puerto Rico where my branches have lived for about 128+ years. My goal would be to add them via 23andme, this way I: A) also have some autosomal DNA to compare to other people such as my own family members and help to establish hopefully more connections to Mallorcan cousins and B) Find out which group my "Avilés" should be "Magraner" cousins carry as a haplogroup. I know that I should also add them to FtDNA where many people test for Y-DNA but right now I'll have to think that over. Especially if money is tight, and since I have a goal with adding DNA to FtDNA anyways, as you can see below.

2. Add on my Rivera and Correa lines to FtDNA
This one I'm surprised actually I haven't done it before. My goal here would be to add my own direct paternal line to FtDNA as well as my mother's line. Both of these lines have been in Puerto Rico since the early 1700s and I haven't been able to trace out of Puerto Rico. One, my own, points to origins in Europe (most likely Spain and that region) while the Correa family is tied to either Arab/Jewish populations (I would guess though also most likely from Spain but leading back to the times of the Inquisition or earlier). I know my haplogroup thanks to 23andme however I haven't been able to connect with other Rivera men who descend from the same branch as me. I transferred over some basic results from a now defunct Y-DNA company over to FtDNA but at the low SNPs I have, I can't really deduce anything or find connections. So my goal would be to go up in SNPs and go for a "higher resolution" of my own haplogroup while also adding my Correa family. It would be interesting to see who I match with and learn more about the exact line I descend from. I'm not sure if I should just wait for a possible sale in April or just get started on this as soon as possible.

3. Continue to learn about my Correa family
This one continues from last year as well, before the year was out I reflected on how I was stuck searching for the Correa family. As any genealogists knows, it's never fun to be at a standstill when it comes to unraveling family mysteries and discovering new lines, but sometimes I think it's necessary. It allows us to focus on other branches, learn new tactics for discovering ancestors, and ultimately lead us back to these lines as more seasoned genealogists. For example, since I haven't been able to discover anything on my Correa family yet I've begun exploring a Carcaño family that lived in San Juan during the time my own María Eugenia Carcaño would have been predicted to have been born/lived there. I'm not sure if I'm barking up the wrong tree or actually on a lead, but having this experience will allow me to rule out future families/connections I might try to establish later on. However, of course, I'm hoping that this family's origin is brought to light sooner rather that later.

4. Visit the Archivo Diocesano and AGPR to attain testamentos and dispensas de matrimonio 
These two places I have actually visited before, and digging through my past posts I was surprised by how time flies. The archivo diocesano I visited back in the summer of 2013, which proved to be helpful in learning more about the marriage of my 3rd great-grandparents Valentín González and Feliciana Mojica. The Archivo General de Puerto Rico (AGPR) I visited back in the summer of 2011, the same year I decided to start my blog. Back in 2011 I was 21 and still pretty new to the whole "researching outside of the census" game, I knew there were other records out there but it was the first time I was interacting with state records in person. Since then, I've traveled to Mallorca, used more microfilms, and have learned from other searches into countries such as Sweden, Czech Republic (Czechia), etc.

My goal this time around is to search for some wills that my family left behind on my paternal grandmother's side of the family, this family back in the 1800s had owned slaves and most likely property so I'm interested in learning about what they left behind and glancing into their lives at the time. I'm not sure if their wills are in good condition or even if they are readily available to search but I'm hoping I can get to see them while I'm there in March. Meanwhile at the archivo diocesano my hope is to find the marriage dispensation for my 4th great-grandmother who in her second marriage in 1860 apparently married a cousin and received permission from the church to do so. This is hopefully a post to come in the near future!

5. Begin to interview family members
This goal is pretty straight forward, I want to start recording some of the voices of my living family members not only to have information recorded for future references but to also save their voices. This is one of the things I wish I would have done when my great-grandfather was around before he passed, who was born in 1922. Unfortunately, since he lived in Puerto Rico and I in the United States, we didn't get to see him often and by the time I was older, wiser, and able to travel alone he was already getting sick and didn't talk much. However, there are a good number of his children still alive, my grandmother included, who can help fill in some of those gaps of information and talk about their own lives and his. There are also great-grandmothers I never got a chance to meet that also live on through the memories and stories of their children. I have a sheet with guiding questions for these types of interviews that I'll have to translate into Spanish and I scour the internet for some more questions as well. This is a goal that I feel like is never too early to start anyways, the better their memories, the clearer the stories will be as well!

Make sure to check out my second set of genealogical goals (linked here!)

A Puerto Rican Look at: 23andMe European Ancestry Reports

Updated 23andMe Ancestry Reports - Spanish & Portuguese DNA [Personal Photo]

Recently, after having a conversation with a friend about the new update to 23andme, he had figured out there were some new updated reports specifically to some of the populations - in this case the European Ancestry Reports. He realized that his Spanish & Portuguese report had indicated some new information about regions in Spain where his family was from. So I logged into my accounts to see the regions and it was very interesting! So in this post I will talk about the European update that I saw on my Ancestry Reports and how over generations it looks for my family from Puerto Rico. I have yet to really see other Puerto Rican results outside of my family members so I'm interesting in hearing from others of their reports.

How can I find my reports? 

When you log into your 23andMe account under the Ancestry tab you will see on the second line: "All Ancestry Reports". Click on this to access your reports.

All Ancestry Reports [Personal Photo - 23andMe]

You should be able to see your reports like below. These are updated results for 23andMe which I'll have to analyze deeper at another time, especially now that my African results have been broken down into more specific categories. For example, if you can click on "Spanish and Portuguese", in my case, I'll be able to see more in-depth results. This will vary depending in your ancestry and where your family is from. Despite having higher percentages of African results with certain members of my family, the results currently do not go anymore in-depth.

Ancestry Composition Reports [Personal Photo - 23andMe]

Below, you can see what my personal results look like, as you can read this isn't a perfected science... yet. The results will change since it's currently based on what people have reported their ancestry to be from. It states that "in the last 200 years, your ancestors may have lived in the following locations". 200 years ago was 1819, and a great majority of my ancestors were already living in Puerto Rico, besides my Mallorcan line which was introduced later in mid-1800s. However, you can see here that three regions are highlighted for me, these being: Andalucía, Canary Islands, and Cataluña. At first glance, my reaction was "this isn't surprising", knowing Caribbean/Puerto Rican history you know that most of the peoples that came to populate this region were from the southern parts of Spain and the Canary Islands. The pull to Cataluña I imagine is from my Mallorcan ancestor, especially since I imagine the people that went into the Balearic Islands were probably mostly from the regions of Valencia and Cataluña. My strongest region based off the colors seems to be Andalucía - again not too surprising. I've also traced some family lines to this region so my paper trail helps to confirm that as well. 

Spanish & Portuguese Report [Personal Photo - 23andMe]

European Reports Analysis

Taking these reports of Spanish & Portuguese I was able to compile the different regions my family are related to based off these ancestry reports. It's interesting seeing the similarities and differences between my family members, also seeing that some of my family members got results for Portugal was interesting as well. I compiled them into a chart showing the different family members, their percentages, the Spanish regions, Portuguese regions, and for one family member Italian regions.

Compiled European Ancestry Reports [Personal Photo]  

You can see that I start with myself, move into my parents' generations, and later the generation of my grandparents/great-aunts & one great-grandfather. I've placed their last names next to their generational name mostly for my sake to remember who exactly it was that showed these results. As you can see there are a lot of overlaps between regions mainly Andalucía and the Canary Islands. You can also see Galicia, Extremadura, Cataluña, Valencia, Madrid, and the Basque country amongst other regions in my family. Cataluña and Valencia as I theorize are regions that pull towards the Balearic Islands due to my ancestor in Sóller, Mallorca. Looking at the regions of one of my uncle's they hit the nail on the head with actually mentioning "Balearic Islands" as one of his region. Some of the regions mentioned, I have been able to find genealogical and paper trail evidence of family presence there. However, I don't have all of my lines traced back to Europe so I'm not sure where else my Spanish ancestors are from and this could definitely take time. 

With the Portuguese ancestry, only three family members show Portugal: two of my great-aunts and my maternal grandfather. My Rivera great-aunt shows Azores and Madeira which are regions I have found before amongst my matches in 23andMe, as does my Vélez great-aunt and Correa great-grandfather. Interestingly though, my Vélez great-aunt also shows Braga while my Correa grandfather shows Setubal and Brangança district. 

Braga is towards the north of Portugal which could be connected to Galicia and ancestors that lived in that area. 

Braga, Portugal [23andMe]

This next town (Setúbal) is closer to the south of Portugal and even had a Al-Andalusian Arabic name earlier on in its history. Could be tied to southern Spanish ancestors though this town is closer to the ocean on the left than closer to the Spanish border on the right.

Setubal, Portugal [23andMe]

This last region is more northern than Braga and closer to the Spanish border. Just like Braga, it could be tied to Galician ancestors. There's definitely more research I would have to do into these Portuguese regions!

Bragança, Portugal [23andMe]

Interestingly, my Vélez great-aunt shows two Italian regions, though she only has 2.5% of Italian DNA. It shows her tied to the regions of Lazio and Calabria in Italy which is interesting to see since I have no known Italian genealogy so far. Her Italian ancestry says to have been introduced into the family around 1710 and 1800 and anywhere from her 3rd to 6th great-grandparents. 

Lazio & Calabria, Italy [23andMe]

My Vélez great-uncle, brother to my great-aunt (both siblings of my grandmother) also shows Italian ancestry. His percentage is at 5.5% which is higher than my aunt and shows three regions, two of which they both share. The third region is Sicily which for my Vélez great-uncle shows up at region #1. Truly, I'm not sure how this ancestry has been introduced to my family. Whether through Mallorca, a Corsican ancestor that came to Puerto Rico, or another way. I've only been able to research a few branches to the early 1700s so there's definitely somewhere else they could be hidden along my pedigree. I also wonder however if other Puerto Ricans have this similar ancestry in their gene pool. 

Sicily, Lazio & Calabria, Italy [23andMe]

Conclusion

There is still much to learn from these new ancestry reports, some of them make a lot of sense like the various regions in Spain but I'm not sure how Portugal and Italy fall into play with my ancestry yet. My hope is that in a near future the regions will be more informative as well as the African regions being added to better distinguish the different tribes and countries. This is especially important for those of us with slave ancestry who might have no idea where in West Africa their ancestry is tied to. My goal is to analyze the recent updates for my African results as well... stay tuned! 

Senegambian & Guinean Ancestry [23andMe]