A Puerto Rican look at: AncestryDNA 2.0 (African Portion)

This week something awesome happened- Ancestry.com updated their DNA part of the website and added more ethnicity groups! More importantly, they now break down Africa into various sections which is amazing since this is the first time (to my knowledge) that a company has broken down the Autosomal DNA by African countries.

Part of the website introducing the new AncestryDNA

My original breakdown from AncestryDNA is provided below:

Original AncestryDNA Breakdown

Below is the new breakdown from the updated AncestryDNA:

New AncestryDNA Genetic Breakdown

Like I mentioned what's awesome is that there is a new African ethnicity breakdown which is the first time I've had some genetic hints (from my own DNA) as to where my African ancestors are from. As you can see from the picture above, my African percentage is estimated to be 23% which at 23andme is currently estimated at 16.1% (Standard) and 17.7% (Estimated).  The first country is mentioned as Mali at 12% then the rest (11%) is part of "trace regions". As you can see the Trace Regions include: African Southeastern Bantu, Africa North, Cameroon/Congo, and Senegal. The Africa North part is most likely from southern Spanish ancestors who mixed with the Muslim inhabitants who arrived from northern Africa and lived in Al-Andalus. 

Top African Country- Mali

What was so interesting is that I score 0% in the categories of: Ivory Coast/Ghana, Africa South-Central Hunter-Gatherers, Benin/Togo, and Nigeria. I was surprised since many slaves were brought over from these West African countries. My 1% in Senegal and Cameroon/Congo make sense since they are along the coast. Africa South Eastern Bantu interestingly matches with the Zimbabwean and Angolan 23andme cousin matches I have.

I was very surprised to receive Mali at 12%. With research I've realized that current day Mali was part of the Ghana Empire as well as the Songhai Empire, which were big players during the trans-Saharan trade. It is very possible that my ancestor(s) lived inland and were brought out to the coast and put on ships or already lived in the coast through migration within the Mali empire when borders weren't officially set. 

Mali Empire

Present Day Mali borders

According to AncestryDNA a typical native Malian is in the range of 39% due the various multiple ethnicities that exist in the country. And interestingly I am at 12% which isn't too too far off. 

Me vs. Typical Native Estimates

Having "Mali" listed in my countries is eye opening. Even though I wasn't raised "Afro-centric" I knew that I have slave roots throughout various lines in my family. With the recent discovery of my 5th great grandmother, Eglantine Lautin, being a native African brought to Martinique as a slave I wonder if current day Mali would be her homeland? Or where does this high percentage of Malian ancestry come from, various ancestors? Did they speak Bambara and a part of the Mandé people? Did they mix with the Tualeg/Berber people or were tensions already high between the two groups?

Ethnic Groups of Mali Explained

There is still MUCH to learn. Both about these results, myself and the possibility of other countries/ethnicities not yet listed. I am patiently waiting for the updated 23andme version of their Ancestry Composition to see if there are any trends/patterns. For now I will continue my research on Mali, its people and history!

Hints to the Past?

Things have been pretty slow on my end here! I've been searching through church records in different towns in Puerto Rico trying to locate more ancestors and documentation. Just two days ago I found two sets of maternal 5th great grandparents which is awesome to add to the tree.

But more interestingly, the 23andme feature called "Countries of Ancestry" has given me some new interesting matches. Way back in the beginning I mentioned this feature and some of the interesting matches I've received. For example, my great grandfather tends to get some Irish matches while my dad's side has some Eastern European matches. Recently though, on my mom's side (specifically my maternal grandfather) I've gotten two very interesting matches.

Both are from Africa! Which is why I've titled this post "Hints to the Past"; the question mark, however, shows my uncertainty. The two places I've gotten in my grandfather's matches are Angola and Cape Verde. This was very interesting and a great surprise to me because these are my first matches to a Sub-Saharan area in Africa with their 4 grandparents born there. I've gotten Morocco but that isn't as surprising with my Spanish roots.

Angola and Cape Verde are very surprising for many reasons. We know that slaves were exported out of many parts of Africa, especially the western coast where they were taken to many different countries in the Western Hemisphere (as well as to Europe!). Angola was a Portuguese colony and gained independence in 1975. Cape Verde was also another Portuguese colony and also gained independence in 1975. Cape Verde on the other hand are a set of islands off the coast of Africa but were also important in the Atlantic slave trade because of their geographic location.

Here's a picture of the matches on the chromosomes!

Angolan cousin on Chromosome 7

Cape Verdean cousin on Chromosome 6

What's interesting to me is that these countries could be potential hints or clues to an ancestor's past. What I found the most interesting was that these cousins only matched me on my maternal side and specifically on my maternal grandfather's side who has Martinique ancestors. Could these be distant cousins to my slaves ancestors from Martinique? We know that Eglantine Lautin was from Africa, but whereabouts? If only these cousins were public so I could communicate with them about their families. What worries me though is that they'll be just Portuguese settlers who have stayed- but only time will tell! It would be amazing to find out that I have Angolan and Cape Verdean ancestors through my maternal family whether through Martinique or even through Puerto Rico.

This genetic genealogy adds SO much more interesting stuff that can not be seen through paper trails! Hopefully I'll learn more soon!!

Exploring Maternal Haplogroups

In honor of International Women's day and because I was itching to write about a certain haplogroup, I decided that this was the opportune time for me to write!

So far with 23andme, I have been able to test 7 people in my family including myself and have been able to discover 4 different maternal haplogroups. What's interesting about our haplogroups is that they aren't from just one area- with the migration to Puerto Rico coming from many different areas and for many different reasons, our maternal heritage (just like our paternal heritage) tells many different stories. But the one I want to focus on mainly today is my great grandfather's European haplogroup U5b1b1b. First I'll talk quickly about the others.

My own personal maternal haplogroup came as a nice surprise to me when I first tested in 2009. When I got my results I was able to see that my maternal haplogroup was the indigenous C1b4. This group as you can see below is present in both Asia and the Americas. My guess is that somewhere along my maternal ancestress' line I descend from a Taíno/Arawak woman.

Similarly, another group found on the maternal side of the family that is also connected to Native Americans is called A2. A2 has a higher concentration up in North America near the Bering Strait. However, you can also see that it is evenly common and widespread throughout Central and Southern America. Again, this haplogroup was most likely introduced to my family through a Taíno/Arawak ancestress.

Found on my paternal side of the family is the only African Haplogroup I've discovered so far called L2a1. This haplogroup is found amongst African Americans seeing as how it is commonly found in Sub-Sahara Africa amongst the Bantu-speakers. Since it is so widespread it is difficult to pinpoint exactly where in Africa my ancestress would have originated from. Some speculate that its origin lies somewhere in Central Africa. Due to the Atlantic Slave Trade, many L2a1 carrying women entered areas such as the Caribbean, South America and North America which is why it is so commonly found there. I have not been able to figure out who my original L2a1 African born ancestress was, but hopefully one day I'll be able to know more about this line and haplogroup.

Lastly, my great grandfather is the only one in my family tested so far to carry a European haplogroup yet with an interesting history. His maternal haplogroup is known as U5b1b1b and can be found amongst the Basque and even amongst the Saami population in Northern Scandinavia.

U5b1b1b is part of the branch U5 which "arose among early colonizers of Europe around 40,000 years ago". But what's more interesting about this group is that is seems to have made its way back into Africa via Northern Africa where it can be found amongst people in Morocco and even as far south as Senegal. The big question for me is: Where did my U5b1b1b ancestress come from herself? Did she live in southern Spain before heading off to Puerto Rico? Was she a Moroccan woman who's family found their way to Spain and settled in Al-Andalus? Or was she just a European woman who's husband decided to head to the Caribbean and she agreed to the journey?

So far any of these stories and many others are possible. What's interesting is that my great grandfather does carry, according to Ancestry Composition, North African genes. Pictured below is his Chromosome 4 on "Standard Estimate" and the dark blue on the top is the North African he carries. There is a smaller chunk of it as well on Chromosome 7. Who he receives these genes from is still a mystery to me! Also in Ancestry Finder he receives a match with all 4 grandparents born in Morocco.

Chromosome 4- North African Genes

Chromosome 7- North African Genes

Chromosome 2- Moroccan Match

Hopefully one day I'll be able to name who these women were and talk about the lives they would have lived!

Tracing Eglantine Lautin

Ever since I discovered the document for Julienne Malvina Lautin and her mother Eglantine Lautin (as well as Pauline Lautin) in Rivière Salée, Martinique I can't stop thinking about this family! I was super lucky to find Julienne's and Pauline's birth records in Trois Bourgs despite them being slaves and I also discovered that Eglantine was originally from Africa.

A couple of days ago, after finishing "Texaco" I began to read "Women and Slavery in the French Antilles, 1635-1848" by Bernard Moitt. Despite the fact that this was actually the last book in the sequence of books I purchased, I decided to bump this one up the list because I wanted to learn more about Eglantine's life as a woman on Martinique with the job of a cultivatrice or farmer. The book has been very informative with both statistical information and descriptive information of what their lives would have been like. For example, many field slaves began their work at 5AM and didn't finish until 11PM depending on the cycle of the crops they were tending to. I could never imagine working those hours, especially with very minimal rest in between and the constant stress on my body from lifting, digging, etc. The book is definitely putting a new perspective to what women went through in the French Antilles during slavery and also providing a nice factual background to "Texaco" as well.

The reason I named this post "Tracing Eglantine Lautin" is because I want to do just that; I'll explain:

With the recent advances of DNA tests, we can see where a person's ancestral line originated from through Y-DNA (males only) and mtDNA (both females and males) exams. Since Eglantine was a woman she passed down her Mitochondrial DNA to her female and males descendants, yet since many of her male descendants are deceased by now it is only the females who continue to pass down that line of mtDNA. For example my 3rd great grandmother, María Paulina Gustavo Lotten, would have had Eglantine's mtDNA seeing as how that's her grandmother. Julio Correa Rivera, my great grandfather also had Eglantine's mtDNA; yet because Julio married Amalia and had children with her, they in turn inherited Amalia's mtDNA rather than Eglantine's. So by tracing Eglantine's female descendants I would be able to find what maternal haplogroup Eglantine belonged to. Why is that important you ask? Well, because we know that Eglantine was from Africa, by having the mtDNA tested we would be able to see which haplogroup she belonged to from Africa and potentially even be able to pinpoint a certain part or even ethnic group which she would have belonged to.

Since I trace colateral lines when I do genealogy, it was easy to just check my tree and find who was a female descendant of Eglantine Lautin. I'll post them here so hopefully through the graces and cosmic wonders of genealogy I'll be able to find one of them still alive or even their daughters who would be willing to help me out!

By way of María Luisa Alvarado Correa (daughter of my 2nd great grand-aunt, Senovia Correa Gustavo) and her husband Marcelino Santana:

• Carmen Francisca Santana Alvarado
• Born: 8 March 1929, Rio Jueyes, Salinas Puerto Rico
• Ana F. Santana Alvarado
• Born abt 1930, Salinas, Puerto Rico
• Raquel Santana Alvarado 
• Born abt 1935, Salinas, Puerto Rico

By way of Francisca Correa Gustavo (my 2nd great grand-aunt, sister of Senovia) and her husband Juan Bautista Velasquez Negron:

• Inocencia Velasquez Correa
• Born: 14 September 1921, Jobos, Guayama, Puerto Rico

This one is a long shot since I don't know anything more recent, but still none the less a female descendant of Eglantine

By way of Marie Boudré Lautin (my 4th great grand-aunt, daughter of Eglantine herself) and the child's father Gaëtan Cellia:

• Lucie Cellia Boudré/ Lucie Boudré (she was born out of wedlock):
• Born 1 June 1873, Rivière Salée, Saint Esprit, Fort de France, Martinique

Equally, the only potential Y-DNA carrier of the potential father (who appears as Pedro in Puerto Rican records) to Julienne Malvina, that is if they share the same father would be: 

By way of Jean Lautin (my 4th great grand-uncle, son of Eglantine herself) and his wife Cunégonde Mérida:

• Jean Gualbert Lautin Mérida
• Born 12 July 1890, Petit Paradis, Saint Esprit, Fort de France, Martinique

Hopefully I can discover more about the Lautin family through a genetic aspect, which I think would be very cool to learn their stories through genes!

Antonetti Slaves in Salinas, Puerto Rico

So being home all day bored leads you to a lot of genealogy. So a couple of days ago, I decided to write down all the slaves the Antonetti family owned according to the 1872 Central Registry of Slaves which can be found on ancestry.com. And boy did they have a good number of slaves; 97 to be exact that were registered! It seems that these brothers might have owned some type of sugar or coffee farm/plantation which was were these slaves were keep, probably a prominent family in the area. I decided to jot down the names, where they were from, their parents' names if they were mentioned, their age, a guesstimate for the year they would have been born, their profession (which was mainly just laborer), the names of their children if they had any and their martial status (which most were single), and lastly the page they were found on.

Just a few side-notes:

• You'll notice that some are highlighted yellow and that's because they were found on the 1910 Census still alive. 
• The list will probably keep evolving and changing in some type of way. Whether that be including more concrete dates or names, I'll probably go back to add more details about who these slaves were. 
• Some names appear with an "@" followed by another word. My theory is that these might be other names the slaves went by. From the looks of it, some had other names they were known by. I could easily be wrong, so if someone knows what it stands for please do tell!
• The list is not ordered alphabetically but by who their parents were. This way the children appear together as best as they could so that I can start developing a pattern of who was who's offspring and what not. 
• Some names might be followed by a (?), this means that the name wasn't really clear and so I took a stab at what it most resembled. 

Here's the list!