52 Ancestors – #8 Bernardina Sepúlveda Román (1803-1893)

I've noticed that I haven't focused too much on my ancestresses that are scattered through out my tree, so I'm going to try and make more attempts to properly include them in this 52 Ancestors series. Especially seeing as they too are a part of my ancestry!

My 4th great grandmother Bernardina Sepúlveda Román was born in Mayagüez around 1803 to her parents, Remigio Sepúlveda Montalvo and María de la Cruz Román Irizarry. Bernardina's family had been in Mayagüez for close to 200 years through her paternal line for three generations going back to her great grandfather Juan Lorenzo Sepúlveda who was born about 1685. Parts of Bernardina's family have been traced to families and towns in Spain thanks to the work of various genealogists who have come before me. Despite being born in Mayagüez, Bernardina would marry and eventually pass away in Adjuntas, Puerto Rico. Adjuntas was founded around 1815 and it is possible that Bernardina and her husband were one of the first families to inhabit and help found the town.

We know that in 1829, Bernardina and her husband José María Vélez Pérez were getting married at the church of San Joaquín – they married on the 7th of October.

Parroquia San Joaquín de Adjuntas [Wikipedia]

Bernardina's husband José María was from San Sebastián, Puerto Rico; another town found in the eastern part of Puerto Rico. They could have very likely met in Adjuntas seeing as both of José María's parents died in Adjuntas despite being born in San Sebastián themselves as well. Here is the distance between Mayagüez and Adjuntas, they might have taken a less modern route to get to Adjuntas.

Distance from Mayagüez to Adjuntas [Google Maps]

So far I have that Bernardina's marriage produced 10 children all born in Adjuntas and living in the area of Guaynabo Dulce (which will serve as an important tidbit). Eight of the ten children were daughters and interestingly I descend from one of the two sons; my third great grandfather was named José Severo Vélez Sepúlveda and he was born in 1837 in Adjuntas. I wonder a lot about the social status of these families. Seeing as how Bernardina's family has been on the island of Puerto Rico since the early 1600s I wonder if she was of a higher social caste which was mainly white and well off.

Ward 4- Guaynabo Dulce, Adjuntas, Puerto Rico [Wikipedia]

Bernardina lived well into her eighties and outlived her husband by three years. Her son and my 3rd great grandfather came forth to declare her death. What interests me most about her life isn't about what happened towards the end of it but what happened while she was in her 70s. In 1872, Bernardina Sepúlveda appears as owning 4 slaves on the Registro Central de Esclavos – a year later slavery would be abolished on the island. I was completely shocked by this when I found this out! I couldn't believe that my 4th great grandfather had slaves!! The fact that the slaves were registered in the same barrio where Bernardina lived sealed the deal for me that they were the same women. 

Listed on the registry are four slaves of various ages: The first is Lorenzo (4yrs 2mos.), then Juan (22 ys.), María Tomasa (26 yrs.) and lastly Felipa. (40 yrs.) Felipa is the oldest of the slaves and actually Lorenzo and Juan are listed as two of her children (they seem to be fathered by two different men). Felipa is listed as being 6 feet tall and as a "mulata amarilla", could be she be mixed with Taíno? Only María Tomasa is listed as "negra" while Lorenzo and his brother Juan are listed as "mulato claro". 

Lorenzo, esclavo de Bernardina Sepúlveda [Ancestry]

Juan, esclavo de Bernardina Sepúlveda [Ancestry]

Ma Tomasa, esclavo de Bernardina Sepúlveda [Ancestry]

Felipa, esclavo de Bernardina Sepúlveda [Ancestry]

What would have been their duties? Lorenzo being the youngest and listed as "growing" had no job listed but the rest were listed as "laborers", could they all have worked on land my family owned? Which I imagine wouldn't have been a big plot of land since they had only a few number of slaves? Maybe they had more and little by little gave them their freedom? Some of Bernardina's children were around the same age as María Tomasa, Juan and Felipa; were the children of Bernardina on good terms with the slaves or were they hostile and demanding of them? I wonder a lot about the moral fiber of my family and what type of people they were. Did it ever bother Bernardina that she owned slaves, did her husband agree with it? So far Bernardina is the only ancestor of mine with documented slaves that I have so far, but I imagine there are more out there in my family.

Documents can only teach us so much about our ancestors and their lives. If only we had some diaries or journals to see their thoughts about the times they lived in. We must also read about the history of that period and look at it through a nonjudgmental lens of what the people at the time thought was considered "normal". I'm not justifying slavery and never will, but many fell victims to the institutionalized belief of the system it created and knew no better (luckily there were those who fought the system!). I can neither defend nor justify Bernardina but I can only educate myself about my family's past and learn about the good, the bad and the ugly parts of it. Ultimately, that is genealogy!

Making Ends Meet!

Last week I was pretty fortunate to be able to search through the Adjuntas church records which were microfilmed by the LDS. I knew that some ancestors in my family through my paternal side lived in Adjuntas for a while thanks to the Census records.

Adjuntas, Puerto Rico- a town nestled in the Central Mountain Range
Picture: Wikipedia

I knew that my great grandfather, Felix Vélez Mercado, was born in Utuado in 1905 but his parents somewhere between 1911 and 1914 moved to Adjuntas and some of the birth records of Felix's brothers and sisters pointed to their parents being naturally from Adjuntas, Puerto Rico. Felix's father, Nicodemus/Nicodemo Vélez Ríos and his wife Domitila Mercado Cruz were a bit of a mystery to me. I didn't have any birth records for them and neither any death record. I knew that they married in 1906 in Utuado, Puerto Rico- but besides that I had nothing.

Utuado, Puerto Rico
Picture: Wikipedia

The Adjuntas church records were able to clear up some things about this side of my family! I was fortunate to find a lot of baptismal and death records in the church documents, which would help to prove some lines and extend others. Nicodemus Vélez Ríos was born in Adjuntas in 1878 to his parents José María Vélez Sepúlveda and Ana Ríos González. I knew that his dad, José María Vélez, was a part of a pretty extensive line of Vélez and Sepúlveda family members that dated back to the 1600s in Puerto Rico and even to towns in Spain. Now that I have confirmed that Nicodemus is the son of José María Vélez, I have been able to solidify that line. Thanks to all the research of those that came before me, I was able to extend some of these lines like I mentioned to the early 1600s. Nicodemus is also the grandson of Bernardina Sepúlveda Roman who I wrote about before, who owned a few slaves in Guaynabo Dulce, Adjuntas, Puerto Rico when the slave census was taken in 1872. My Riós González family is still missing a bunch of ancestors and this is due to the fact that this family probably originated in San Sebastián and those records aren't microfilmed with the LDS so to figure out more I'll probably have to visit the church itself.

My Mercado Cruz line on the other hand had eluded me for a long period of time! Most of the records say that Domitila's father, Cayetano Mercado was born Lares and would end up dying there. Cayetano's wife, Cristina Cruz Pérez was also said to have been from Lares but she was still alive in the 1910 census living in Utuado, Puerto Rico with her daughter.

Surprisingly, Domitila had a few sisters who were born in Adjuntas! Finding the baptism records of these sisters allowed me to extend these lines one generation further. Now I know that Cayetano's parents were Francisco Mercado and María Isabel Cajigas and that Cristina's parents were Francisco Cruz and Gabriela Pérez (she is sometimes written with the last name Gerena). The records state that the Mercado Cajigas family was from San Sebastián while the Cruz Pérez family was from Lares. I've tried to find some of these grandparents' death records in their respective towns as well as in Adjuntas but so far no luck.

I was pretty happy to be able to push the Mercado Cruz line one generation further on the paternal side because I had been struggling with that line for so long now. And hopefully I'll be able to find Domitila's birth certificate which I've also had a hard time locating. Hopefully more will be discovered about this family!

It's also interesting to note that San Sebastián and Lares are actually neighboring towns in Puerto Rico demonstrated below:

Lares, Puerto Rico

San Sebastián, Puerto Rico

Series I, Part II: An Ancestor's Story Through Records

The second person I decided to focus on was someone that doesn't have too many documents per se but I'm interested in her life and so I decided to include her here since it is an ancestor I discovered through documents. 

I decided to focus on my 4th great grandmother, Bernardina Sepúlveda Roman, who was born around the beginning of the 19th century in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. She was the daughter of Remigio Sepúlveda and Maria de la Cruz Roman both also from Mayagüez. At one point in her life, probably around her 20s, Bernardina moved to Adjuntas, Puerto Rico where her children would be born. She lived the rest of her in Adjuntas until her death on the 10th of March 1893. Bernardina had married Jose Maria Velez Perez from San Sebastian, Puerto Rico who passed away three years before she did. Their marriage produced a good number of children: Maria Eugenia (1830), Margarita (1834), Ines (1836), Maria de la O. (1836),  Jose Severo (1837), Isidora (1840), Maria Remigia (1841), Maria Leonor (1843), and Maria Monserrate (1845) Vélez Sepúlveda*. Jose Severo was my 3rd great grandfather. 

*Thanks a member on one of the genealogical groups I'm in, she was able to help provide baptismal dates for my 3rd great grandfather and his siblings from the church's records of Adjuntas. 

The most interesting part of Bernardina's life I found by accident and was a shock because I wasn't expecting to run into it. In the latter part of Bernardina's life, she was a slave-owner. There's no way to defend it or deny it or do anything I guess except take it in. Around this time it was common practice to have slaves for domestic or labor purposes. I don't agree with slavery and hate what kind of system and treatment of humans it created but sadly nothing can be done except to educate ourselves of this dark past. 

I found Bernardina as a slave-owner while I was searching the Registro Civil de Esclavos, 1872; a registry for slaves taken a year before the abolition of slavery. I've considered that it might be someone else but it matches all of things I have of her to the "T". The same first name which I haven't seen too often as well as being in the same town, Guaynabo Dulce in Adjuntas, Puerto Rico where all her children were baptized were signs that me that this was my 4th great grandmother. 

At the time of the registry she had only 4 slaves that belonged to her. It's also interesting that she was the one who was noted as the owner rather than her husband who was still alive at the time. Maybe since the number of slaves was small see oversee them while he did something else like tend to overseeing the farm. Just as I did with the Antonetti slaves I'm going to list the names of them here except I'll add the physical descriptions attached to them. 

LORENZO: Natural from Puerto Rico, registered in the barrio of Guaynabo Dulce. Son of Ramon and Felipa. Age: 4 years 2 months. Stature: Growing. Color: Light mulatto. Hair: Black. Eyes: Black.  Nose: Flat. Mouth: Big. 

JUAN: Natural from Puerto Rico, registered in the barrio of Guaynabo Dulce. Son of Geronimo and Felipa. Job: Laborer. Age: 22 years. Stature: Regular. Color: Light mulatto. Hair: Apasado (?). Eyes: Brown (Pardo).  Nose: Regular. Mouth: N/A. 

MARIA TOMASA: Natural from Puerto Rico, registered in the barrio of Guaynabo Dulce. Son of Pedro Jose and Teresa. Job: Laborer. Age: 26 years. Stature: 5 feet 8 inches. Color: Black. Hair: Pasa (?). Eyes: Black.  Nose: Flat. Mouth: Big. 

FELIPA: Natural from Puerto Rico, registered in the barrio of Guaynabo Dulce. Son of Martin and Petrona. Children: 3- Manuel Jesus, Juan and Lorenzo. Age: 40 years. Stature: 6 feet. Color: Yellow mulatto (Mulato Amarillo). Hair: Black Apasado (?). Eyes: Black.  Nose: Short. Mouth: Small. 

As we can see, Bernardina owns Felipa along with two of her children. I wonder if the others named mentioned such as Ramon, Geronimo, Pedro Jose, Teresa, Martin and Petrona were all once slaves of Bernardina before they passed away. I wonder what kind of lives they lead. With only three laborers I can only imagine they didn't have such a big plot of land. Did they live in the same house? How were they treated? Were Juan and Maria Tomasa allowed to interact or play with Bernardina's children who were similar in age as them? Interesting that Felipa is noted as a yellow mulatto, was she part Taíno? Did Puerto Ricans use yellow to describe natives? How were things after slavery was abolished? Did they use the last name Sepúlveda and stay in contact with Bernardina and her family? Was Bernardina and her husband prominent member of Adjuntas' society?

There's obviously a lot of unanswered questions that I can not begin to unravel. Maybe they left behind a will that could lead me to more clues about their lives. Hopefully a trip to Puerto Rico will teach me more about my ancestors and the kind of lives they lived.