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!

The Importance of Other Branches- Part II

I will continue with the Antonetti family except going forward and how they helped me find my elusive great grandfather in the 1930 Census.

Francisco and Luisa never seemed to live together. Neither on the 1910, 1920 1930 Census did they live in the same household, though Francisco Antonetti does recognize in the 1910 Census that he was married. But they did have one child (don't know if there were more) that Luisa Correa lived with in 1920 in Catedral, San Juan, Puerto Rico. His name was Celedonio Sécola Correa and was born on January 20th, 1906 in Salinas, Puerto Rico. I don't know why but his father is written down with the Sécola rather than Antonetti, all the information matches on the document though. My guess is that either: 1) His father was from a family named Sécola or 2) His father decided to change his name himself. Either way this new name must have had some significance to the father or family.

In 1930, Celedonio was married to a Carmen Davila and had one daughter named Ana Maria Sécola Davila born around March 1930. What's interesting is that along with the family is living a Manuel Correa, the name of my great grandfather!!!! He is written down as primo which means cousin; I instantly jumped into my family tree to see if this made sense. Julio Correa Gustavo and Luisa Gustavo were brothers and sisters, Julio had Manuel and Luisa had Celedonio meaning that they ARE cousins!! He is written down as "Col" short for colored (which is correct) and is said to be 8 years old, making him born around 1922 (My great grandfather was born in 1920!) I think and strongly believe this is Manuel my great grandfather. This would also explain how he got from Salinas to San Juan, but I wonder what happened to his parents who I couldn't find in the 1930 Census anywhere!

Pictured below are the two streets Manuel Correa would have lived in in the 1930 Census and 1944 when his son was born. Calle Salvador Brau was where Manuel was written down to have lived with his cousin Celedonio Sécola while Calle Loiza was where Manuel Correa lived with Ernestina when my grandfather was born in 1944. The two streets aren't completely far away from each other and both are in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I hope he didn't have any other cousins named Manuel Correa!

Distance from Calle Salvador Brau and Calle Loiza in San Juan, PR

So this is why searching other lines is important, it can help you find information out about people you've been searching for and might have not had luck finding otherwise. So thanks to the Sécola/Antonetti family I found [and really hope it is him] my great grandfather on the 1930 Census in San Juan, Puerto Rico!

The Importance of Other Branches- Part I

When researching your family, I think it's important to research other branches that have married in. Each of them can carry a unique story that adds to your overall ancestry and can give you more of an insight to how your family and their siblings lived. The family I'm going to focus on today is Luisa Correa Gustavo but more so her husband Francisco Antonetti.

Luisa and Francisco got married on the 5th of June 1902 in Salinas, Puerto Rico. Luisa is the daughter of Manuel Correa Ortiz and Maria Paulina Gustavo, who's family immigrated from Guadeloupe/Martinique. Francisco Antonetti is the illegitimate son of Catalina Antonetti, the father is unknown but might have ties with the family Sécola (more on that in the next post). Their family history is interesting; Catalina in the 1910 Census appears as born in Puerto Rico while her parents were born in Africa. Looking for documents I found a Catalina Antonetti in the 1872 Slave Registry living in Salinas at the age of 16 as a laborer to what I believe says "brothers Antonetti". Therefore Antonetti would not/is not her original family name but from her master. Catalina is the daughter of Fabiana, who was either born in Africa or Puerto Rico and was also a slave to the Antonetti family at the same time Catalina was.

Catalina Antonetti, living in Salinas, Puerto Rico

Going one more generation back, Fabiana "Antonetti" was the daughter of Florina/Flora "Antonetti" who was also a slave at the time her daughter and granddaughter were. My guess is that Flora was originally bought by the Antonetti family, she definitely is reported being from Africa, sadly it doesn't say from where in Africa. Then either intentionally or not, Fabiana and then Catalina were born. Later after slavery ended, Catalina remained with the name Antonetti and remained in Salinas, Puerto Rico. Florina, her grandmother, later died in Talas Viejas, Salinas, Puerto Rico on October 17th 1894, having seen freedom.

Pictured below should be three generations: Catalina, Fabiana and Florina of daughters and mothers all slaves in 1872 to the Antonetti family. Note: Catalina at the time is said to be 16 while her mother is written down as 23. My guess is that the ages were not exact for obvious reasons. At the time of Catalina's death she was written down to be 125 years old which to me is exaggerated.  

Catalina as a slave to the Antonetti family, 1872.

Fabiana as a slave to the Antonetti family, 1872.

Florina as a slave to the Antonetti family, 1872.

The Antonetti family owned a good number of slaves at the time of the registration in 1872. I don't know if they have any relation to Vicente Antoneti who was from Salinas, Puerto Rico as well and was robbed by Roberto Cofresí, a Puerto Rican pirate. I wonder what were the names of the brothers so that I could research them and learn more about this family; Antonetti is said to be a name of Corsican ancestry. I also wonder from where in Africa Florina came from, many Africans were brought over from Western Africa but I wonder what country. The next best documents to look at would be to check if they were baptized in Salinas, Puerto Rico.