Searching My "Lamboy" Branch

In the summer of 2018, I clocked in a lot of hours looking into my Yabucoa side of the family. Discovering the church death record of my 4th great-grandfather Manuel de Santiago fortunately unlocked for me new names of ancestors to search. These searches ultimately took me from Yabucoa to the towns of Humacao and Las Piedras, and what was once a dry well of information became a well filled with new surnames, dates, and ancestors. In this maternal line, I discovered a 7th great-grandfather with the surname "Lamboy" and this is who I want to focus on today. Below you can see how I descend from Feliciano Lamboy via my mother's side of the family.

Feliciano Lamboy - 7th great-grandfather [Personal Photo]

As you can see above, my 6th great-grandmother was the last member of my line to hold Lamboy as a paternal side where afterwards it gets daughtered out, meaning that the descendants of this line changed names based on the fathers, men who were not Lamboy. Here you can see it jumps to Ramos, Santiago (2 generations), Orozco, Dávila, and finally down to me as a Rivera - this is because if most of my ancestors in this line were women.

My 6th great-grandmother Lucrecia Lamboy Rabelo/Rivera was one of many children from her parents Feliciano Lamboy and María Rabelo/Rivera (she jumps from one or the other depending on record and year). In total, Lucrecia was a part of 13 children in total from this couple (so far) and interestingly enough, her mother's death record in 1803 states that Lucrecia along with Bernarda were born before her marriage with Feliciano. Which means two things: 1) Feliciano and María married and recognized their two first daughters thus giving them the surname "Lamboy" or 2) Lucrecia and Bernarda are from another relationship and Feliciano gave them his surname to protect the girls and the family from being social outcasts. Nonetheless, here we are, searching into this line my family - only DNA will tell if we are genetically "Lamboy", and even then being 7 generations far from me dilutes the amount of DNA I would inherit from this branch of my family. 

3 generations of Lamboy [Personal Family Tree]

Why are am I so interested in my Lamboy family you may ask? 

Lamboy - ¿Español?... ¡No!

Every time I come across a new surname in my family that I haven't heard of before, I jump on INE to find out its potential roots. For example, finding the surname "Magraner" in my family and seeing that the surname wasn't too common or popular in Puerto Rico lead me to search the INE and find out the surname is mainly concentrated on the east of Spain and mainly on the islands of Mallorca. 

And so I eagerly typed in the surname, only to discover... 

Lamboy Results... Or lack thereof [INE]

There were ZERO hits! No one (currently) in Spain uses the surname Lamboy (or less than 5 in total), which means that this surname probably isn't Spanish! I'm not too surprised though, the surname doesn't really have a Spanish ring to it and the -mb- combination feels a bit weird. The surname however has another variation on the island - Laboy.

What about Laboy?! 

I decided to type in this surname variation and see what hits I would get... and again, NOTHING! With this one it's also not too surprising since it seems that Laboy probably stems from Lamboy, whether as an orthographic mistake or an intentional doing... I'm not sure. Another branch of my family has the surname "Laboy" also from the southern area of the island but I haven't been able to search that line further yet. 

So this begs the question, who were the Lamboy? Where they one contacted branch of various arrivals? Where were they from? And how did they arrive in Puerto Rico?

Breadcrumbs

Searching for the Lamboy in Humacao, I was able to start putting some information together to see how many branches there might be and if/how they interacted with one another. If there were a ton, then this name was more common than what I thought. If there were a few, then there was likely a familial relationship between them. It seems that my family was in Humacao since the town's inception and so they were some of the first settlers to arrive. Where from? Well let's see what we know!

Working our way backwards up the tree, Marcelina Ramos Lamboy (my 5th great-grandmother) was baptized in 1799 in Humacao and her godparents were Feliciano Lamboy and his daughter María Magdalena. We can assume that this Feliciano Lamboy is her maternal grandfather and María Magdalena her aunt (my 7th great-aunt). Later in 1801, María Magdalena Lamboy appears again at the godmother of Juana Ramos Lamboy, my 6th great-aunt. Lastly, she serves as madrina (godmother) of José Ramón Ramos Lamboy in 1805.

María Magdalena Lamboy would go on to marry Toribio Solís Rodríguez in May 1806, mentioning that her parents were Feliciano Lamboy deceased and María Rivera. That record confirms that María Magdalena was the aunt of all of these children in their baptism.

In Las Piedras we find that the family was here before settling into Humacao's records, finding a baptism in 1788 for Florencio and his padrinos were Juan Lamboy and Isabel de los Reyes.

Since Humacao has an index for most of their baptism records I was able to document all of the Lamboy children born within 1793-1825, similarly I was able to document deaths in the town as well. See below for the excel I created with green marking baptism records and red-orange marking death records.

Lamboy Baptisms in Humacao, Puerto Rico

Lamboy Deaths in Humacao, Puerto Rico

Many of the records point to Feliciano Lamboy and María Rabelo/Rivera though there are other couples as well and one specifically caught my eye: Vicente Lamboy and his wife Bernarda Rabelo. As you can see both have the surname combo of "Lamboy Rabelo" which makes me think that Vicente and Feliciano would be brothers while Bernarda and María were sisters, respectively. Though I have no evidence to tie them together yet I decided to explore this couple and see if they had crossed paths with my 7th great-grandparents. 

Vicente Lamboy & Bernarda Rabelo

To begin, I was able to find their marriage record in Humacao, Puerto Rico - they were married in July 1796. Notice the information about Bernarda that struck me as interesting!

Vicente Lamboy & Bernarda de Rivera - Matrimonio 1796 [FamilySearch]

In the record above you can see that Vicente Lambo[i] (first time I saw Lamboy as "Lamboi", a typo I imagine) was a native of Guayama and the son of Marcos Lamboy and Baltazara Rodríguez while Bernarda was the daughter of María de Rivera. Did you catch what I caught?!

Here you can see that Bernarda appears as "Bernarda de Rivera" while in her children's baptism indexes above she appears as "Bernarda de Rabelo"... where have we seen this before? With my own 7th great-grandmother who sometimes as "María de Rivera" and "María de Rabelo"... leading me to think they are sisters! Equally, in various records Feliciano Lamboy and his daughter Lucrecia for example appear as natives of Guayama and here we see the same thing with Vicente Lamboy. 

From there marriage I have been able to identify four children born in Humacao: 

• Lorenza (1797) 
• Juan Evangelista (1800)
• María del Carmen (1802)
• Nicolasa (1804) 

If we take a look at their godparents we get to learn a bit more about who the family was surrounded by: 

• Padrinos de Lorenza: Feliciano Lamboy & María de Rivera
• Padrinos de Juan Evangelista: Severino Maldonado & María Magdalena Lamboy
• Padrinos de María del Carmen: Miguel Berríos & Estefanía Cordovés/Córdoba
• Padrinos de Nicolasa: Juan Antonio Lamboy & Paulina Rodríguez

From the four children listed above, three have "Lamboy" surnamed godparents and two right away we can identify - the first being Feliciano Lamboy (my 7th great-grandfather) and María Magdalena Lamboy (my 7th great-aunt). 

Lorenza Lamboy Rivera - Bautismo [FamilySearch]

Juan Evangelista Lamboy Ravelo - Bautismo [FamilySearch]

The third record points to a Juan Antonio Lamboy married to a Paulina Rodríguez as the godparents of Nicolasa. I have two Antonio Lamboy brothers for María Magdalena: the first an actual "Juan Antonio" born about 1783 and the second an "Antonio Lamboy" born in 1790. The former option makes the most sense as the latter would have only been 14 years old when Nicolasa was born in 1804.

Nicolasa Lamboy Rivera - Bautismo [FamilySearch]

This Juan Antonio Lamboy (my 7th great-uncle) was born in 1783 was married in 1808 to a "Victoria" mulata libre, though no surname is mentioned their children would go to carry "Lamboy Nazario" or "Lamboy de Matos". Could he have been previously married before 1804 to Paulina Rodríguez? His marriage record doesn't mention him as a widower but we know records often make mistakes. I would have to find a marriage record prior to 1804 to prove him as the same man. 

If this is the case, this would potentially mean that Feliciano Lamboy was a brother to Vicente Lamboy and María Magdalena and Juan Antonio would have been nieces and nephews appearing as godparents for their uncle Vicente. Not further evidence is discovered I can only speculate their relationship. 

Final Clues

A few months ago a kind Puerto Rican genealogist uploaded a list of foreigners in Puerto Rico in the year 1816, though not an all encompassing list, it mentions various towns and people from other countries along with their profession. Below, we see a Vicente Lamboy listed as French and he seems to be a carpenter. Now, could this be the same Vicente Lamboy that appears in Humacao? Possible. 

Extranjeros en Puerto Rico, 1816 [Shared by Puerto Rican Genealogist]

Some records point to Vicente Lamboy as being from Ponce or Guayama, both towns in the south and though not directly neighboring towns to one another, it's important to note that town borders have changed over the years and "Ponce" and "Guayama" as we know them now are much smaller than in the past. This historic map shows us how much bigger the borders of these towns were. 

Map of Puerto Rico [Google Images]

Though Humacao's territory lies on the east, it's possible that Vicente Lamboy moved around a bit and/or was officially registered as a foreigner in Ponce. A Google search in the "Books" section provides us another clue of a "Vicente Lamboy" present in Ponce again. 

Actos de Cabildo de Ponce [Google Books]

What's interesting is that the 1816 Register mentions "French" as the origin, which is interesting to consider because in no other records does Vicente Lamboy mention French. Of course, it is possible that these aren't the same men but considering late 1700s-early 1800s in the Ponce/Guayama area... how many Vicente Lamboys could there actually be? One truly doesn't know until you've exhausted all possible theories. 

Conclusions

My current research now lies in Guayama, trying to find any clues or evidence of Vicente Lamboy or Feliciano Lamboy. Could they have been brothers or even cousins themselves? Though Ponce is still on the table, the church's records online aren't as far back as Guayama and the evidence, for now, overwhelming points more to Guayama versus Ponce. I have been able to find some Lamboy in Guayama but so far none that have matched what I have in my tree, nonetheless, it's good to see that the name is present in the town. 

For now, French seems to be the only possible indication of a place of origin and though "specific" it's quite the opposite. I have seen French refer to Haiti, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Corsica, and finally France itself. So there really isn't a clear indication to where exactly he would have been from. Maybe another more detailed registration for Vicente would hold that information. The current 1815-1845 Registry of Foreign Residents of Puerto Rico online on FamilySearch has no entries for "Lamboy" or "Laboy". Hoping to discover more in the Guayama records!

"L" Registrations for Foreign Residents, 1815-1845 [FamilySearch]

Do you have Lamboy ancestors from Guayama/Ponce?

A Puerto Rican Look at: My X-Chromosome

With Mother's day being this Sunday here in the United States, I decided to take a different and closer look at my DNA - I wanted to see how my X-Chromosome and those of my grandmother, grandfather, and great-grandfather were passed down; all exclusively inherited from my maternal side of the family. Since I am fortunate to have these members tested on 23andMe, I can visually see how this inheritance how trickled down via 4 generations. 

X-Chromosome Inheritance [Personal Photo]

Above you can see how I get my X-DNA through various generations and ultimately down to me. Having used DNAPainter (I've posted about it before) to trace my matches I have been able to trace which segments belong to which ancestors along potential my X-chromosome inheritance ancestors. It is important to note that as a male I have one X-chromosome inherited from my mother BUT from various ancestors including my BOTH maternal grandparents, both great-grandmothers, one great-grandfather, etc. This is demonstrated below:

X-DNA Male Inheritance [The Genetic Genealogist]

This would mean that by understanding which pieces of DNA came from which sets of ancestors I could have a better idea of part of their cultural inheritance passed down to me via my X-chromosome.

My X-Chromosome Inheritance [Personal Photo]

You can see above that mainly my maternal grandmother's DNA is the one I carry while my maternal grandfather's DNA "bookends" my grandmother's genes. Looking at my ancestors that have contributed to my X-Chromosome, I can start to unravel a bit of a story for my ancestors. It's also important to note that various siblings can inherit in similar but different patterns a X-chromosome, so while I may have a smaller amount of my grandfather's DNA my brother's may have inherited different segment start and end points along their X-Chromosome.

Genetic Breakdown

North African & Arabian; Broadly European

These two pieces of DNA here were inherited from my maternal grandfather's ancestors. I'm not sure from which specific ancestors these are from yet but these ancestors were from the areas of Toa Alta and Barranquitas/Morovis in Puerto Rico. The Toa Alta side includes surnames such as Santos and Chéverez while the Barranquitas/Morovis side includes Rivera and Rodríguez - these are the surnames from 7 generations back of my 4th great-grandparents.

Native American

The first Native American chunk seems to come from my maternal grandmother while the second Native American piece of DNA is from my maternal grandfather. Interestingly on the first native segment I have two matches from my dad's side of the family that match me on my X-chromosome. This would mean that somewhere along my 2nd-great-grandmother's line there is a shared ancestor that comes from my great-grandfather, to my grandmother, and to me who is tied to my paternal Rivera side. 

Surnames on the first Native DNA segment include Arvelo, Flores, Sánchez, Vera and were from the area of Quebradillas and San Sebastián in the 1700-1800s. The second DNA segment include the same ancestors from the previous "North African & Arabian; Broadly European" which where ancestors from the areas of Toa Alta and Barranquitas/Morovis. The Toa Alta side includes surnames such as Santos and Chéverez while the Barranquitas/Morovis side includes Rivera and Rodríguez.

Broadly Southern European; Spanish & Portuguese

This whole blue segment basically comes from my grandmother. The beginning broadly Southern European segment I think is tied to my great-grandfather while the Spanish & Portuguese I think is tied to my great-grandmother. Deducing that, that would mean that the Spanish and Portuguese DNA is mainly from my Maunabo and Yabucoa side of the family. Surnames on this side of the family include Burgos, Dávila, Orozco, Ramos, Ruiz, and Santiago. These family branches have been in this area for hundreds of years with some lines stretching back to Las Piedras and Humacao back in the 1700s. It be interesting to try and see if I can find more matches to try and parse down genealogically which of these Spanish & Portuguese segments are attributed to whom. Having recently discovered my Dávila line from Spain it would interested in seeing which of these segments could potentially come from that family. Also, these ancestors were mixed between identifying as "white" and "pardo" so it's interesting that such a big chunk is specific to Europe - it makes me wonder if it's specifically from a certain set of white ancestors. 

Conclusion

Studying my X-Chromosome has only given me a look into certain ancestors along my family tree. The more matches I have on my X, the better I will be at trying to triangulate which ancestors contributed to those segments and understanding their mixes. Of course, autosomal DNA and matching on other non-X-chromosomes is helpful as well but it's interesting to see that certain ancestors carried for example North African DNA to Puerto Rico and potentially those ancestors also contributed North African DNA to other chromosomes in my DNA as well. It's also amazing to see how the colors showcase the diversity of my family as well.

52 Ancestors – #51 Juana Burgos Vásquez (1839-1899)

So FINALLY getting around to finishing up the last two posts of the 52 Ancestry Challenge -- better late than never right!? This post will be about my 4th great grandmother, Juana Burgos Vásquez.

Juana Burgos Vásquez was from the town of Yabucoa, Puerto Rico in the southern part of Puerto Rico.  My family has been in this town for a good number of years and only recently in about the 1950s migrated out and into the San Juan area to look for better opportunities. However, there are still distant cousins that live down in Yabucoa and still own some of the land our ancestors worked on back in the 1800s, which is pretty awesome!

Yabucoa, Puerto Rico [Google]

Juana Burgos, according to the death certificate I found, died on the 14th of April of 1899 in Yabucoa, Puerto Rico. She was a bit of a hard ancestress to track down because records only listed her as "Juana Burgos" and never mentioned a second surname which is important in Puerto Rico especially when there are people with such common names. What I ended up doing was going through the index death records for the town and searched for all the Juana Burgos mentioned on the index and one by one searched them up to see if they could match my 4th great grandmother. Some were too old, some not married, and some too young, but finally I found one in 1899 that could match my 4th great grandmother's years and martial status.

By the year 1899, Juana Burgos would have been 11 years widowed from her husband, Manuel de Santiago. Since it seems that Juana and Manuel only had one daughter, my 3rd great grandmother Dolores, Juan Ortiz Lebrón (probably a neighbor) appeared to announce her death. He was aware of her parents, Eusebio Burgos and Monserrate Vásquez but probably not of Dolores, who already in 1899 was off taking care of her 8 children with her husband Benito Orozco. It is always possible that this death certificate isn't the correct one for my Juana Burgos but with the information I have and knowing that Juana lived in Yabucoa, the odds are high that this is my 4th great grandmother.

There is no mention of race in her death certificate, but through my MtDNA we know that Juana was a carrier of the C1b4 who she passed to Francisca Orozco Santiago (2nd great grandmother), and eventually to my grandmother, mother, and me. I'm guessing based off the future descriptions of her children and grandchildren, that Juana, like them, was of a mixed race background.

Some documents state that Juana's parents were from Las Piedras, which is a town just north of Yabucoa. Even though my ancestors lived in Calabazas (a town bordering Maunabo), you can see that Las Piedras isn't too far off for them to have traveled from. They could have easily made their way down through Jácanas or Tejas and Limones until they reached Calabazas, and stayed for whatever reason.

Yabucoa's Barrios [Google]

I'm hoping to one day head down to Yabucoa, see the town of Calabazas, and hopefully meet some of my cousins who still live there! 

52 Ancestors – #7 Benito Orozco (1843-1923)

My third great grandfather Benito Orozco also lived his life in Yabucoa, Puerto Rico (like my 2nd great grandfather), though his marriage record points to him being born in Las Piedras, Puerto Rico – a town just to the north of Yabucoa.

Las Piedras, Puerto Rico [Wikipedia]

Benito's year of birth is unknown to me, currently I have him listed as being born circa 1843 and it could have been a little after or a little before. What's interesting about Benito as you might have noticed is that he has only one surname listed which is typically uncommon in Puerto Rico. Benito Orozco (sometimes written as Orosco) was born as a native (rather than legitimate) son to Estebanía Orozco who was born around the early 1800s, late 1700s. Benito lived to appear in the 1910 and 1920 census which gave me some insight to his life.

By 1910, Benito had been married 34 years to his wife Dolores de Santiago Burgos, a native of Yabucoa, Puerto Rico. He and his wife were listed as "Mu" for Mulatto and he was working as a farmer on a farm which he owned, he was unable to read or write. He was living with five of his eight children (all still alive in 1910) and my 2nd great grandfather Pedro Dávila Ruiz was living in the same household seeing as he was recently married to his wife Francisca. There is a 15 year old girl named Sista Santiago listed as a "criada" living with the family – I wonder if she has some relation to Dolores' paternal side of the family? Criada could have meant that she was a housemaid or also that she was being raised by Benito and Dolores.

Benito Orosco, 1910 Census [Ancestry]

Interestingly in 1920, not much had changed about Benito's status. He still works on the land he owns in Calabazas, still is unable to read or write and doesn't speak English. He is listed as living with his wife, two children, a daughter-in-law, a boarder and a grandson (who was actually my great-uncle). But one very important thing did change, his surname. Benito had taken on the name "Santana" instead of Orozco. Oddly enough, other family members as well did the same thing. My grandmother told me that her mother used Orozco but some of her sisters used Santana and her cousins and would argue that Santana was the actual name and not Orozco. In reality the surname sort of came out of nowhere, since Benito was born well before the 1910 census and his mother was already deceased by then, we have no record currently pointing to the origin of the surname. 

Benito Santana, 1920 Census [Ancestry]

My theory however is that Benito's father was surnamed "Santana". As was the case with my 2nd great grandfather José Avilés Magraner, José was born only with the surname "Avilés" and later added "Magraner" to the end of his surname for his father. Benito, on the other hand, abandoned Orozco for Santana on the 1920 Census. Three short years later, Benito would pass away on the 18th of April 1923 of old age. His son, Pedro Orozco Santiago, appears to declare his death and lists his father as Benito Orozco, and his grandmother as Estebania Orozco. Similarly, the family continues to go back and forth on the use of Santana and Orozco throughout the following census records and birth/marriage/death records.

Benito had eight children in total with Dolores Santiago and I descend from his only daughter Francisca Orozco. Therefore, I would be unable to take a DNA sample of any of Francisca's children since none will carry the Y-DNA of Benito. However, luckily since there were seven other sons the odds of finding a male descendant of Benito are more increased. I have tried tracing each line and finding male descendants, their Y-DNA will allow to see if our family matches with any Santana surnamed men on the island, hopefully from the same area of Las Piedras/Yabucoa. 

I have been able to map out Benito's male grandchildren, which so far there is a grand total of 22 male descendants of Benito. Many of them in the 1930, 1935 and 140 hadn't produced another generation besides two grandchildren, Ernesto Orozco Álvarez who had his son Luis Orozco de León (however he appears as Luis Santana de León) and Juan Orozco Morales who had Primitivo Orozco Ruiz (also appears as Primitivo Santana Ruiz). As you can see the surname Santana had caught momentum and was being used throughout various lines and generations. Hopefully I'll be able to find a male descendant willing to test and help my search! 

Santana/Orozco Male Descendant Pedigree

I'll list out all the children just in case someone searches for one of them online it will appear! I'll list them both with Santana and Orozco since there is a possibility some might have stayed with Orozco while others switched over to Santana. 

Grandsons of Benito Santana/Orozco (Total: 22):

• Ernesto Orozco Álvarez/ Ernesto Santana Álvarez
• Luis Orozco de León/ Luis Santana de León
• Enudio? Santana Álvarez/ Enudio Santana Álvarez
• Eladio Orozco Morales/ Eladio Santana Morales
• Juan Orozco de Jesús/ Juan Santana de Jesús
• Alfonso Orozco de Jesús/ Alfonso Santana de Jesús
• Enrique Orozco de Jesús/ Enrique Santana de Jesús
• Juan Orozco Morales/ Juan Santana Morales
• Primitivo Orozco Ruiz/ Primitivo Santana Ruiz
• Teofilo Orozco Morales/ Teofilo Santana Morales
• Epifanio Orozco Morales/ Epifanio Santana Morales
• Félix Orozco Morales/ Félix Santana Morales
• Primitivo Orozco Morales/ Primitivo Santana Morales
• Vasilio Orozco Gómez/ Vasilio Santana Gómez
• Pedro Orozco Ruiz/ Pedro Santana Ruiz
• Marciano Orozco Ruiz/ Marciano Santana Ruiz
• Patricio Orozco Ruiz/ Patricio Santana Ruiz
• Bienvenido Orozco Pinto/ Bienvenido Santana Pinto
• Gil Orozco Pinto/ Gil Santana Pinto
• Hipólito Orozco Pinto/ Hipólito Santana Pinto
• Agapito Orozco Pinto/ Agapito Santana Pinto
• Braulio Orozco Delgado/ Braulio Santana Delgado
• Raimundo Orozco Delgado/ Raimundo Santana Delgado
• Román Orozco Delgado/ Román Santana Delgado