A Year in Review: 2012

Since I wrote about my 2013 New Year Resolutions I decided to review 2012 and all of the genealogical achievements, discoveries and even unanswered questions that came with that year. That way I'll have a summed up version of all the posts of that year and can aspire to learn even more about myself, my family and their journey from all parts of the world to make me who I am today.

2012

April

• Talked about the cousin I was able to meet through my blog. 
• The release of the 1940 Census!!
• Discussed the Y-DNA results I got from GeneTree.
• Got to see for the first time the 1940 Census after its release and found some ancestors.
• Posted about being able to visit the grave of my great grandparents (Alejandro Rivera González and Mercedes Ortiz Marrero) as well as some great-aunts. 
• Talked about some potential slave owning ancestors in my family- Juan de Dios Marrero and his wife Rosa de Rivera from Corozal, Puerto Rico).
• Delved into the topic of race and its perception after receiving my grandfather's 23andme results. 

May

• Discussed the 'evolution' the surnames Gustave and Lotten went through in Puerto Rico. 
• Posted various times about the Finding Your Roots series and its guests. 
• Began my first series of "An Ancestor's Story Through Records". 

August

• Discussed the possibility of "Manolo Correa Rivera" being my great grandfather Manuel Correa Rivera in the 1940 Census. 
• Talked about 23andme's new ability to break down cousins by maternal and paternal sides. 
• Did some research on the surname Masantini and its potential connection to Tuscany, Italy. 

September

• Analyzed my results from DNA Tribes. 
• Categorized and discussed the Antonetti family slaves from Salinas, Puerto Rico. 
• Posted the second part of my "An Ancestor's Story Through Records" series. 
• Talked about my chat via telephone with one of my great uncles. 

October

• Looked at AncestryDNA through the lens of a Puerto Rican. 

November

• Discovered a sister to my Gustave Lotten ancestor who was born in Santa Isabel, Puerto Rico- would lead to many new discoveries!
• Probably the best moment in my genealogical year-- discovered documents for a Julienne Malvina Lautin, Eglantine Lautin and Pauline Lautin in Martinique which pretty much coincide with Julianna Balbina Lotten ancestor in Puerto Rico. Learned a lot about Martinique, those ancestors, and what those documents helped show. 
• Discussed my future plans about learning more about Martinique and my ancestors. 

December

• Talked about another Gustave Lotten ancestor I was able to find except this time I was able to find a picture of him, his wife and children due to their applications for a passport being ancestry.com. Couldn't believe my luck and considered myself lucky many-a-times. 
• Analyzed my Ancestry Composition results through the lens of a Puerto Rican. 
• Discussed my previously unknown connection to the Ashkenazi Jewish population. 
• Explored my slave roots in Martinique a bit more and how I was able to find Julienne Malvina's birth record. 
• Explored my slave roots some more but this time focused on the family which owned the Lautin women in Martinique. 
• Talked a bit about the topic of genetic memory and its correlation to my Martiniquan ancestors. 
• Lastly, discussed the book Texaco and what I learned from novel. 

In total, I posted 30 times last year which I think is pretty high! Its nice going back and seeing what I felt while discovering those documents and the process I underwent to find what I was looking for. I'm excited for this year to start rolling and for me to start my discoveries!!

More pieces to the puzzle?

With the official indexed release of the 1940 Census, I've been searching endlessly for my ancestors hidden within these documents. Only one of my grandparents was born by 1940 and so I've only be able to locate all my great grandparents and some great great parents- those that were still alive. The 1940 Census doesn't bring that much light into my family but it does help add some distant cousins and push some branches out collaterally. But there is my great grandfather, Manuel Correa Rivera, who was very elusive to me until about sometime last year and so there is still a lot to learn about him.

According to the 1930 Census, and if all my information is correct, Manuel was living with his cousin Celedonio Secola and his wife and daughter in San Juan, Puerto Rico. By 1940, Celedonio has returned to Salinas, Puerto Rico and is living there with his mother as well as 'single' which is interesting. Both report that by 1935 they were still living in San Juan.

Now, looking for Manuel was a bit difficult. I tried searching with various things such as name, location, age, sex, etc. Finally I found a "Manolo" Correa Rivera living in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico who I'm pretty sure is my great grandfather. A lot of the information matches with what I know or have about him.

His race was 'colored', he was born about 1920, it says his residence in 1935 was Ponce which is interesting because in my grandfather's birth certificate he mentions Ponce and so does my grandfather whenever I talk to him about his father. So maybe he lived there for a while and considers that home? I have to look into that more! What kind of sealed the deal for me was that his profession was a chauffeur to the family he lived with. Now, how many Manuel Correa Riveras can be living in San Juan, Puerto Rico born abt 1920 of color with the profession of chauffeur? To me, there are too many coincidences for it NOT to be him!

Manuel Correa Rivera living with Luis Sanchez Vahamonde in San Juan, 1940. 

I just really hope that this is the same person I've been trying to track down for about a little over a year now! Too many pieces fit together into this puzzle for it not to be him, even despite having the name "Manolo" which after I looked up is a nickname for Manuel so easily the family could have referred to him as Manolo. So far this is the only person that matches the search and so I hope that everything is correct!

If only there was someone who knew either my great grandfather or even Luis Sanchez Vahamonde which whom Manuel lived with! I guess I have to keep searching for the remaining pieces of this puzzle!

Success with the 1940 Census

Okay, so at first I wasn't too happy about the 1940 Census. It wasn't really available on ancestry.com because they're downloading it now instead of it being available right away since they only got the records at midnight, which is totally understandable. I just want it to see now that next to Puerto Rico it says "in progress". But the NARA website does have the records up but since there are so many people searching the website lags and can be very slow at times.

I decided to look up my family that lived in La Perla in San Juan, Puerto Rico during the 1930 Census. My great grandparents moved there from Toa Alta, Puerto Rico and are actually buried next to the La Perla in the cemetery near El Morro (more on that later since I finally got to find them!). After about searching through some 30 odds records I found my great grandparents living with 5 of their children, including my grandfather. This is the first census he appears on at the age of 3 (and actually my only grandparent on the 1940 Census!).

Here is the snapshot of them living in La Perla also written as "Mercado":

My great grandparents in the 1940 Census

I would say wait it out a bit and try at odd hours of the day to see if you can find your ancestors on the 1940 Census. A lot of people are trying to find people so there is a lot of hype and clogging up the website. But never fear; search and you'll be able to find them. I'm so happy I was able to find someone in my family already and hopefully I'll be able to find some more people soon!!

1940 Census!! ONE MORE DAY!!

So I originally wanted to post about this census a long time ago, but with school I never have the time to do  it. Since there is only 1 day left before the 1940 Census is released, I think it's about time I dedicate a post to it!

Tomorrow at midnight the 1940 Census will be released to the public, finally, after 72 years! There has been a countdown clock on Ancestry.com which finally has reached 1 day, and trust me, a lot of people (including myself) are super excited about this census record. 

One Day 'til 1940!!

This record will allow me to see my paternal great grandfather along with a good number of great grandparents who were alive during that time. Hopefully, the census will help me to figure out who was still alive around 1940 and who died between 1930 and 1940. Also to add some new recent branches to my tree. The 1940 Census is a really important document, especially I would say for Puerto Ricans since this is the fourth census record that we've been a part of since Puerto Rico became a US territory. Hopefully this will increase the general public's interest in genealogy and ancestry since they might have known people who were born or alive in 1940. And hopefully some new cousins will join the genealogy bandwagon!

Can't wait until tomorrow! I  just hope the website doesn't crash or slow down too much from the amount of people trying to log on and search for their families. Fingers crossed that the Puerto Rican towns will be put up just as fast as the American ones!