My 200th Post- 8 Years of Blogging, 15 Years of Genealogy

July 4th, 2019 marks 8 exact years since I began blogging. It all started when I was 21 years old and home from college over the summer. I was inspired by Cece Moore who runs Your Genetic Genealogist and has become a common name in the genealogist household with all the work she has done with DNA, adoptees, and even working on "Finding Your Roots". In June of 2011, she herself had completed her first year of blogging and so I decided to trace my own family via a blog as well. Who would have thought that 8 years and 200 blog posts later, I'd still be on this journey!

Though I don't have many official followers for my blog (as I haven't dedicated myself full-time to running it/putting it out there), I really started doing this for two reasons:

1) Personal Motives - To keep track of my own progress, hurdles, difficulties, breakthroughs, and as of recently analyzing my DNA in conjunction with my paper trail/genealogical searches. In a sense it would serve as a digital journey for which I could refer to and keep track of my finds and brick walls.

2) Visibility - While initially researching my family, I hadn't found too many blogs that covered a wide range of Puerto Rican topics in regards to genetics and genealogy and I ultimately wanted to be a contributor in order to make Puerto Rican Genealogy more visible. There is a big misconception that genealogical records from Puerto Rico have been burned, lost, or destroyed by hurricanes and people give up without even realizing all of the amazing resources available for Puerto Rican research there are out there.

5 years ago, I posted my Post #100 and I actually really liked the style I wrote in so I think I'm going to mimic it for Post #200! Feel free to read post #100 to compare and contrast now that I have 100 more posts and 5 more years added!

What I've Learned

My first blogpost was titled "What Started it all - Part I", where I write about the typical Puerto Rican love story of a "Spanish man" and a "Taíno woman" who had fallen in love in Lares, Puerto Rico - my 2nd great-grandparents. By the time I had written that post I had about 7 years of genealogical research under my belt but I had only just begun to scratch the surface of research. There were many doubts about my tree and definitely many, many ancestors' names yet to be discovered. When I began at the age of 14 there were no known (to me) family trees out there, none created by my grandparents, uncles/aunts, parents, or cousins. All I knew at the time when I began my tree were 2 out of 2 parents, 4 out of 4 grandparents, 6 out of 8 grandparents, and 7 out of 16 great-grandparents - though it's a little, it's also a lot compared to what some people start out with.

My First Blog Post - July 4th, 2011 [Personal Photo]

I've been very fortunate that since I started my research and blog I have come pretty far with my pedigree, which I am both fortunate and blessed to have. Various of my lines reach the early 1700s with a few reaching the 1600-1500s and very few the late 1400s when they came over from Spain. A few lines stop at the 1800s due to the lack of records for slaves - these being my lines from Martinique and Guadeloupe. However, "Rome wasn't built in a day"! It's been 15 long years of painstaking research where I have put in literally thousands of hours to search for my ancestors. I have been blessed to be able to travel to Puerto Rico to continue my searches various times, as well as traveling to Mallorca to research my ancestors. I have also been able to visit towns in Spain where my ancestors lived/were from before heading to the New World. Recently, I have been able to continue to test various family members with DNA and across various companies to help triangulate and find new information about who we are on a genetic level.

I've linked above and below various posts to the different themes I've discussed over the years! 

Advances in Genetic Testing

There have been many advances in genetic testing since I first started researching my family, to believe when I first tested with 23andme back in 2010 the cost was somewhere near $600 for one single DNA test! Nowadays, genetic DNA testing has become much cheaper and fairly accessible to many, not only here in the US but in various other countries. Here are some of the more recent posts that highlight these advancements throughout the years. 

• Exploring my X-Chromosome
• Establishing an African-American Connection via Chromosome 7
• Deeper analysis of European Ancestry
• Deeper analysis of African Ancestry
• Using DNA Painter Tool to narrow down DNA inheritance

My Favorite Discoveries

Since 2014, there have definitely been some exciting finds! These discoveries are a combination of things: from DNA testing, finding new genealogical documents, to discussing/receiving help from other genealogists. There were a wide range of discoveries made, from very intimate ones to discovering my Dávila line's origin in Spain in the 1700s. Listed below are some of the recent discoveries I've been able to make! 

• How a RAOK (Random Act of Kindness) helped me learn more about my 5th great-grandfather, Jean-Charles Gustave
• Learning via 23andMe that my dad had a half-brother we had no idea about
• Tracing my Dávila line back to Spain via genealogical records
• Finding out I was related to another genealogist I had met in Spain with ties to Sóller, Mallorca

Words of Advice

I would tell myself keep doing what you're doing! I have come a long way since my initial searches and there is still a lot to find out! Researching my family has brought me much closer to Puerto Rico and my identity as a first generation mainland American born citizen. To those of you budding genealogists - it's never too late! Ask family members questions, document what they have to say, and search online to see what you can find. If you're interested in genetic genealogy - test those family members (with permission, of course!) who might be willing to help you learn more about your family's past.

Hopes, Dreams & Aspirations

Reading my post from 2014 it was interesting to see where I was amongst my hopes and dreams for genealogy. There are some I have been able to check off and some that are still on my genealogical "bucket list". For example, being able to travel to Puerto Rico and go around the island to discover the towns, barrios my ancestors lived in, and the churches my ancestors would have married in. I have been fortunate to travel to distinct parts of the island and as of recently meet cousins in Lares, Puerto Rico. I have also been able to travel to Mallorca which was amazing. I still haven't become a professional genealogist, though I'm sure there is still plenty of time and I also haven't been able to travel to Martinique and Guadeloupe yet. I haven't brushed up on my French though hopefully that is in the works and I am still interested in bringing genealogy to my everyday life and profession.

I still dream about connecting Eglantine Lautin to a certain country/tribe in Africa and it would be amazing to have DNA cousins that confirm my ancestors are connected to Martinique and Guadeloupe (I have one potential lead with a cousin but nothing solid yet!). I also want to continue collecting stories and record them to have a digital audio database of stories from my current living family members that I could look back on years from now and listen to. A genealogist's work is never done as you can see!

Here's to 2024 when I complete 20 years of genealogy! Let's see what's in store! 

A Puerto Rican Look at: Y-DNA67 (Avilés/Magraner)

***Si eres descendiente de los Magraner de Sóller, Mallorca, especialmente a través de Damián Magraner Morell o uno de sus hermanos, me gustaría hablar con usted para ver si podemos establecer una conexión genética. Puedes dejar un comentario aquí en este blog para contactarte conmigo. ¡Muchísimas gracias!***

While in Puerto Rico for Spring Break, one of my goals was to test various family members through various companies. Since I don't have easy access to men who carry Avilés and Correa Y-DNA like I do the Rivera line (myself being a carrier of this Y-DNA group) since those members live in Puerto Rico, I decided I would focus on getting a male cousin from my Avilés family and my Correa grandfather to test. I decided to buy two Y-DNA67 exams for them from FTDNA. Recently, they had a DNA day sale and I decided to myself a Y-DNA111 exam to test my Rivera branch as well. So those are boxes I can check off on my genealogical goals for 2019! This blog will focus solely on my Avilés Y-DNA results.

Buying a FTDNA Y-DNA test is not cheap! I would recommend to get these tests if you are an experienced genealogist interested in learning more about your Y-DNA group or an amateur genealogist trying to crack a wall in your direct paternal family. I have been fortunate to test various branches and I have done so for genealogical purposes such as: Establishing whether I have an African or European Guadeloupean Y-DNA group (Charles family), potential Jewish/Arab Y-DNA group (Correa family), Mallorcan connection to the Magraner family (Avilés family), and trying to establish a stronger connection for a relatively uncommon haplogroup (Rivera family). 

Family Tree DNA Home Page [FTDNA]

Background

For anyone that has been following my blog (thank you kindly!), you have probably seen the surnames Avilés and Magraner various times throughout many old posts. My trying to solve this family's mystery dates back to the beginning of my blog in 2011, wondering about my 2nd great-grandfather's origins. I spent time researching and writing about José Avilés Magraner in 2014 for the 52 Ancestors Challenge. I learned the name of my potential 3rd great-grandfather, Damián Magraner Morell, and traveled to Sóller, Mallorca a year later in 2015, his hometown, to learn more about the man who made his way to Río Prieto, Lares, Puerto Rico. The closest I've gotten to confirming this on paper has been José's brother Lorenzo Avilés who mentions Damián Magraner  on his Social Security Application as his father. I stepped on Lares land for the first time in many years in 2017 but didn't make it up to Río Prieto. This year though I did! 

Also, having a DNA match with a fellow genealogist with a grandmother  from Sóller, Mallorca through various family members connected to the Avilés family helped me to help prove that genetically there is something there! 

Collecting DNA

With my grandmother and great-aunts in tow we headed over to Río Prieto by car, my great-aunt wasn't too comfortable driving up the steep and narrow roads so I took charge of getting us there. The ride ended up not being too bad and I got to visit a few members connected to my paternal grandmother and great grandmother, I was introduced to the family as "el nieto de Carmen" (the grandson of Carmen) since they had never met me before and my dad spent his childhood between San Juan and New York and not in the mountain town of Lares. The ride over was amazing and here are some photos of getting to and being in Lares, it was amazing to see the land transform as we made our way up the mountain! 

Driving up the mountain [Personal Photo]

Nature at its best! [Personal Photo]

The view from my cousin's land [Personal Photo]

The "two way road" near my cousin's land [Personal Photo]

Our first stop was the house of my 1st cousin 2x removed. After seeing his land, talking about the effects of Hurricane María, and being gifted many fruits, I gathered up the courage to ask if he was willing to take two DNA tests for me. I was a bit scared he would say "no" for fear of not knowing what the test would do, but he was very willing to help out. I collected his DNA, wrote down some important information, and when we got back to San Juan mailed off the DNA test. 

My reason to test this line was because I wanted to know where in the world it was connected to and whether or not it could prove that my family was related to the Magraner family. The test results came back pretty quickly and so I took a look at them!

Interpreting results

Magraner Haplogroup? [Personal Photo]

Getting a Y-DNA67 gave me basic results, in the sense that R-M269 is a fairly common group and doesn't give too many specifics into the smaller, more recent branches of this Y-DNA branch. My next step would be to upgrade the test to get more detailed results and potentially make more educated results of my connection in R-M269. Under matches, I currently have 2 matches at the Y-DNA67 level but at a genetic distance of 5 and 7, this would mean that our connection is much farther back in history versus having a genetic distance with a smaller number which would mean having a closer relationship in generations. My genetic cousin at the "genetic distance 5" reached out to me and we quickly chatted and noticed our relation was too far to discover at the moment but interestingly noticed that our surnames both had to deal with fruits - Magraner being a surname connected to the pomegranate tree! Lowering my markers to 37 for example gives me more matches but again, at a pretty far distance. The cousins seem to be wide spread across various countries in Europe, I do have some matches from Puerto Rico but they are at Y-DNA12 which is fairly distant as well. As you can see below my Y-DNA67 match has recent roots in the US but he said his family has older roots in southern France.

Y-DNA67 Match [Personal Photo]

My goal is that by hopefully writing about this branch and taking a Y-DNA test I'll be able to confirm my connection to the Magraner family of Sóller, Mallorca. If you descend from this branch, I'd love to chat and see if we can figure out our potential connection!

Conclusion

Though in a sense my results were "inconclusive", there still is hope! Y-DNA usually takes longer from what I know to establish stronger connections because it's such a specific group that is being tested versus for example autosomal DNA. 23andme has given me a bit of a deeper glance into the R-M269 group and hopefully as I upgrade to Y-DNA111, I will have stronger/clearer results and hopefully a Magraner descendant tests as well. This will in turn allow me to make a genetically educated guess about my Avilés family and whether our roots really are in Mallorca. 

Haplogroup R-Z209 [Personal Photo]

Here's to hopefully solving a 128 year mystery in the making! 

Sóller, Mallorca [Google Images]

Testing, Testing...

DNA tests ready to go! [Personal Photo]

Just like that I'm back home from my spring break trip to Puerto Rico! Though it was a quick trip I was able to get a lot of genealogical work done, among one of those tasks was fulfilling my goal to get DNA testing done from various companies (FtDNA, 23andMe, and AncestryDNA) from various relatives. These test are in line with my genealogical New Year's Resolutions of getting my Avilés and Correa line Y-DNA tested and adding more autosomal cousins to the mix of relatives currently tested. Here's the breakdown of the testing I got done while in Puerto Rico.

AncestryDNA

This DNA test was only one and it was an autosomal test for my maternal grandfather. I wanted to add him to AncestryDNA since they also have an African breakdown that I would like to see how he scores in and also to widen the pool of genetic cousins I receive. Though AncestryDNA isn't my first choice for autosomal DNA testing since you don't get the maternal/paternal haplogroup(s) or chromosome segments, I decided to add him anyways. 

23andMe

For this one, I got two autosomal DNA tests done. I brought an extra DNA test just in case I came across another cousin but I decided to test two Avilés cousins from Lares, Puerto Rico since I was already there and could benefit from having two cousins from this line. One test was for my 1st cousin 2x removed, his father was my great-grandmother's full brother, and he's a male descendant from the Magraner line - having him tested will help separate out my DNA from my 2nd great-grandparents in DNA Painter. I also tested my 2nd great-uncle, son of my 2nd great-grandfather and from his second wife. I'm hoping that by testing another generation closer to my 2nd great-grandfather connections to Spain will be stronger. Interestingly enough, my 2nd great-uncle's mother, though not my 2nd great-grandmother is my 2nd cousin, 4x removed - her paternal grandfather is my 5th great-uncle via a line that came from Yauco to Lares, Puerto Rico... that'll be interesting to see how it interferes with the DNA segments we match together!   

FtDNA (Y-DNA 67)

Y-DNA Test [Personal Photo]

This was my first time getting a Y-DNA test done in recent years, I had tested a Gustave/Charles cousin a few years back and so far I don't have any super helpful/relevant matches, besides the fact that it's a European line that matches men from the UK/Ireland/Scotland area. It was, however, the first time I administered a Y-DNA test myself. I tested two men on this trip - my 1st cousin, 2x removed and my maternal grandfather. Some people aren't very interested in haplogroup testing but for me these two tests will help shine some light into two very mysterious lines. My Avilés line which is supposed to be Magraner from Sóller, Mallorca and my Correa line which I'm not sure where it's from and 23andMe says the line is commonly found amongst Arabs/Jews. Hopefully these tests will help better understand those lines in my family. 

Cheek swaps ready to go! [Personal Photo]

Once my DNA results appear for these various tests I'll update with some posts my findings. I'm glad I was able to get this done and excited as well to learn more about my family!

A DNA Connection to Sóller, Mallorca

My journey to discover more about my Mallorcan roots has been a long one! It started with a simple story about an ancestor from Spain (Part I & II), learning about the surname Magraner, going to the archives in Puerto Rico to learn about a man named Damián Magraner and ultimately traveling to Mallorca to learn more about his life. All links above are to old blog posts throughout the years with different forms of research I have completed to learn more about this family branch.

My first time to Mallorca was back in 2015 where I visited Sóller for the first time. Two summers ago I traveled again to Mallorca to complete some more research into this branch. I spent a little over a week in Palma pouring over records from Damián's family in Sóller from the 1800s-1700s. The rest of my time in Mallorca was spent traveling around the island getting to know other towns such as: Fornalutx, Manacor, Pollença, Sineu, and of course Sóller.

Completing research through microfilms [Personal Photo]

Traveling around the island - Fornalutx, Mallorca [Personal Photo]

On Facebook I am a part of a group of people who have ancestry from Sóller and there are ton of people from different parts of the world - but mainly there are a bunch of people from different parts of France whose ancestors from Sóller immigrated over. In asking for advice about research and records, I began chatting with someone who like me had ancestry on the island and like me was a young researcher - his name is Jérôme. Since Jérôme had been living in Madrid at the time and I was completing research over the summer, we decided to meet up for some drinks and chat about Sóller. While in Madrid we chatted about our heritage; his a mix of European countries and mine a mélange of ethnicities found/brought to the New World. He had been interested in DNA testing to help with research and we chatted about that as well. That evening we parted ways but kept in contact about research, Sóller, and the prospects of traveling to Mallorca for more research. 

A few months later, Jérôme had told me that his brother had tested on 23andme and he was excited to receive his results, but little did I know that I would become excited about these results as well! 

Surprisingly, Jérôme's brother matched some of my profiles on 23andme! He matched my father, two of my paternal uncles, and my paternal great-uncle - all of them connected to my paternal grandmother who was a descendant from the Avilés Magraner line. I was shocked to see this connection! Jérôme's family is a mix of Italian, French, and Spanish ancestors but specifically his grandmother was from Sóller, Mallorca! So here was DNA proof that along my paternal grandmother's line there was a definite connection to Sóller, Mallorca confirmed through a match to Jérôme's family.

Comparing his brother to my dad, my paternal uncles, and my great-uncle you can see that all of that DNA shared overlaps on Chromosome 2!

DNA Match on 23andme [Personal Photo]

Jérôme and I chatted about our connection and our surnames, since we share such a small amount of DNA we imagine our connection is far back, probably somewhere in early 1700s. Sóller is a fairly small town (pop. 13,791 in 2016) and a lot of surnames repeat themselves in our family trees so we're fairly sure if we sit down and start tracing our lines to find this ancestor we would find them buried in our older branches.

Since the match is far back, my brothers and I did not inherit this piece of DNA but it seems to have made it all the way down to my dad's generation. I am wondering if I test other cousins who are related to the Avilés Magraner line, will they also have this piece of DNA? 

Interestingly, on AncestryDNA I did match Jérôme's family again and this time it was my paternal great-aunt, sister of my grandmother. If I had to take a wild guess, this set of 8.2 shared centimorgans would be found on Chromosome 2 as they were on 23andme. 

AncestryDNA Match [Personal Photo]

So here we see that the DNA was picked up by two separate companies - both 23andme and AncestryDNA. Again, though it is a small fragment of DNA the fact that four members of my family connect with two separate members of Jérôme's family I think it is much more than just a coincidence or statistical noise.

We were pretty surprised to see that we shared ancestry and the fact that we had decided to meet up in Madrid while our time overlapped and then months later found out that we were related was pretty funny! It's definitely a small world and technology has made it much smaller for genealogists. 

Moving forward my goal is to test other cousins on my paternal side, especially those along the Avilés Magraner line to see who else matches with Jérôme and potentially new matches in Sóller will appear as well. Hoping that one day I am able to establish a connection again with the Magraner line that returned to Mallorca. 

52 Ancestors – #22 Damià Magraner Morell (1846-1910)

Today I want to focus on an ancestor who could potentially be or not be my 3rd great grandfather. The reason I decided to add him to the 52 Ancestors series is because I would like to work out the kinks of this theory. Whether it was possible for him to be the father of my 2nd great grandfather José Avilés Magraner and his brother Lorenzo, or if I'm just pulling straws here trying to make strange connections. Here is what I know about Damià Magraner, his connection to the town of Lares where my family lived, and how he could potentially be my 3rd great grandfather.

Damià is the Catalan spelling for the name Damián giving us some hints as to his origins. From records in Puerto Rico, we can tell that Damià was originally from Sóller, Mallorca - an island of Spain, on its eastern coast. Mallorca is considered one of the Balearic Islands also known as Islas Baleares in Spanish and Illes Balears in Catalan.

Spain & Balearic Islands [Wikipedia]

Mallorca, Balearic Islands [Wikipedia]

Backtracking a bit, there was always a tale in my family about a Spaniard arriving to Puerto Rico during the time of war. He settled in the town of Lares, specifically the barrio of Río Prieto. There he would meet my 3rd great grandmother a "native Taíno woman". He would father my 2nd great grandfather but never officially recognizing him, therefore he would take on his mother's surname of Avilés. José would later attach the name Magraner as his second surname.

After hearing this story, I wanted to search the Magraner family in Lares and try and find José's father. Since José and Lorenzo were born out of wedlock, there was no way to know for sure if the story was correct or not. Even now, the name of Magraner could have been simply a false attachment of who he thought was his father.

While visiting the AGPR (Archivo General de Puerto Rico), I decided to look for records of Lares. There I found a census record from 1897 -- I specifically wanted to find my Avilés family there and also see what Magraner man could potentially be the father of José and Lorenzo. Even though José and Lorenzo had two other sisters and a brother, they were the only two who took on the surname Magraner and mentioned in the census records that their father was from Spain. Their sister María Isabel who was born in between José and Lorenzo also could have been a Magraner daughter but she passed away at the age of 4. Potentially another daughter born named Ysabel about 1899 could have been a Magraner daughter but that time frame is iffy for a few reasons.

I was able to find a Damián Magraner Morey (Morell) living in Río Prieto, Lares, Puerto Rico in 1897 as an owner of land and a home. There were a few other Spaniards listed living with Damián who probably immigrated to work the lands of Puerto Rico and find new opportunities. My 2nd great grandfather and his siblings were born in the years 1891, 1892, 1894, and 1899. Their other brother was born in 1904 and passed away the same year. Damià was said to have immigrated to Puerto Rico circa 1863, meaning that he was living in Lares, Puerto Rico for about 28 years before José was born. I'm not sure however if he migrated back and forth between that time.

Damià Magraner Morey [sic] – 1897 Río Prieto, Lares, Puerto Rico

Damià however wasn't the only Magraner to live on the island and also not the only one from his family. So far I have been able to trace three others brothers arriving to Puerto Rico from Mallorca: Nicolás, Cristóbal, and Gabriel. Two of the three (Nicolás and Cristóbal) also appear to be living in Río Prieto on early census records. If my records are correct, Gabriel Magraner Morell passed away on the 5th of May 1871 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Interestingly, when you search for Damián Magraner Morell you can find a few things on him online. For example, a search on Google Book for Damián Magraner gives you a few hits of landing owning in Lares, Puerto Rico. In a book titled "Congressional Serial Set", there is a mention of Damian Magraner owning land in partnership with Nicolas Magraner, Cristobal Magraner, María Magraner; all from Spanish nationality living in Spain and their property is located in Lares. 

Congressional Serial Set [Google Books]

This book is interesting because it was published in 1918. It seems that the Magraner brothers moved back to Spain during the time of the Spanish American War, which is a bit different from what the story in my family says. Recently while I was speaking to my great-aunt about the Magraner connection she mentioned that her grandfather's father, the unknown Magraner, was said to have been married at the time he had his relationship with my 3rd great grandmother -- who was said to have been a Taíno woman, but likely she was mixed and just had prominent Taíno features. In the 1897 Census record, it does mention that Damian was married. He never appears in any of the census records past the 1897 record I found and we know that Puerto Rico was handed over to the United States in 1898, which means he probably migrated back to Sóller sometime in between 1897-1900 (I say 1900 because I don't have the exact date he migrated back). However, another search for Damian Magraner gives me a result to a Catalan written article about elections during the "second stage of restoration". From my understanding, it seems that Damian was voted as the president of a local party.

Damià Magraner Morell (president) – 1901 [Google]

My guess is that Damià had a strong connection for his homeland of Spain and Mallorca, ultimately pulling him back when the territory of Puerto Rico was handed over in 1898 to the USA. However, it seems that by 1917 he and his siblings were still owning land in Río Prieto. The plantation was named "Hacienda de Café Margarita de Magraner". I had never heard of this place until I began searching for the Magraner family. What interest me, however, is how José and Lorenzo acquired land in 1925. Could parts of the hacienda been broken up and José and Lorenzo received some land? José had 10 cuerdas and Lorenzo 8 cuerdas which they both began using in 1925 and it seems that they had many coffee trees. I don't know however how they really acquired the lands, whether just through hard work or through a will which included them as heirs to plots of land. I don't know when Damià died so I can't be sure of anything.

Why do I believe that Damià is the father of José and Lorenzo? A couple of things match up for me that make it a bit more than coincidence that Damià could be the father. Not only do both José and Lorenzo claim to have a Spanish father, Damià does appear to be living in Río Prieto in 1897. Interestingly, José and Lorenzo both give the name "Damián" to one of their sons. Damián Avilés Vargas was born in 1920 but unfortunately passed away a day later, and Damián Avilés López was born about 1939. Damián definitely isn't too common of a name on the island back in the days and I have rarely come across the name while searching records. Could they have given their sons the name "Damián" in honor of their own father? 

Damián Avilés Vargas – Defunción 1920 [FamilySearch]

Damián Avilés López – 1940 Census [Ancestry]

Unfortunately, I have no records to directly tie Damià and José together. There is always the possibility that another Magraner man fathered my 2nd great grandfather or even that he just took the name on for whatever reason (though this doesn't happen too often from my understanding). I would love to visit Sóller, Mallorca and find out more about Damián and his time in Sóller after returning. Maybe he left behind other descendants in Mallorca that still live there now? Hopefully some time in the near future I'll be able to test a male descendant of the Avilés men from my family to find out more about their Y-DNA, and potentially find a connection a Spanish family/man surnamed Magraner. This however would take a lot of time, research, and of course money. Hopefully, one day I will be able to solve this mystery once and for well -- whether my 3rd great grandfather really was a Spanish man from Mallorca who traveled to Lares, who owned land, and who would eventually migrate back to Mallorca to serve his home country during its time of need. Or if not a Magraner descendant, then a descendant from what man?!

Fun Fact: "Magraner" means pomegranate tree in Catalan!

52 Ancestors – #6 José Avilés Magraner (1891-1990?)

My 2nd great grandfather, José Avilés Magraner, has been to me the quintessential Puerto Rican ancestor. Growing up I had always heard José Avilés was tall, white and had blue eyes. Stories were passed down to me about him that turned out to be typical myths heard in stories passed throughout the generations in Puerto Rico (but with him there might be some truths to it). The same way Americans in the United States have stories about European settlers marrying native "Indians", we too in Puerto Rico have similar stories.

José Avilés Magraner [Personal Family Photo]

In Puerto Rico, many Puerto Ricans are told that so-and-so in their family was from Spain and the story of how they came to Puerto Rico, fell in love with a Taíno woman and stayed on the island and had many children. I have heard and seen this story commonly told not only between my own family members but from other Puerto Ricans that I have met. Of course, it is not their fault that they believe these stories. They have been told these stories sometimes from childhood, and who wants to imagine that their mother/father/grandmother is telling them false stories? But these stories are beginning to irk me because they are wrongly telling Puerto Ricans to believe that their ancestors are only from Spain (I too believed these stories growing up and ate them up thinking they were true). Through research I have learned that Puerto Rico is much more than just a place filled with "Spanish" ancestors.

I was told José Avilés came to Puerto Rico during the Spanish American War where he settled in Lares and met a Taíno woman, fell in love with her and had my great grandmother. This was one of the main stories that propelled me into genealogy, wanting to know the truth and wanting to find out more. Knowing that José Avilés lived in Río Prieto, Lares, Puerto Rico where I still have distant cousins I turned to the census records to find him.

The first census record I found was the 1930 census that listed my 2nd great grandfather with his daughter, my great grandmother Rosalia and her brother Pedro. After some initial confusion I found out that his wife at the time Ramona López was actually his second wife and not my 2nd great grandmother, Dionisia González Padilla, who died from Influenza in 1918.

1930 Census- Río Prieto, Lares, Puerto Rico [Ancestry]

I also noticed that my José Avilés had a weird named attached "Magraner". In Puerto Rico, usually the first surname belongs to the father while the second surname to the mother. Therefore, Avilés would technically be his father's and Magraner his mother's. When I asked my great-aunt about her grandfather and brought up the name "Magraner", she told me that the family was actually supposed to be "Magraner Avilés" and that Magraner was the surname of the father. She also told me that his father was from Spain and had come to Puerto Rico during the time of war. So the story was an intergenerational hodgepodge of information. I just needed to find out what was right and what was wrong.

Finding out about the Civil Registry of Puerto Rico in 2010 I was able to search the Lares records for José's birth record. Would it mention his father with the surname Magraner? Now I could strike out one part of the tale, that José was originally from Spain. I was able to find José Avilés' birth record in Río Prieto, Lares, Puerto Rico, where he was born on the 8th of May 1891 and was reported to be born out of wedlock to a woman named María Inocencia Avilés a native of Lares. Nowhere in the record did it mention she was Taíno (and for good reasons because by the 1800s the Taíno population had been integrated pretty well in Puerto Rican society). No father was listed for José and the according to the record the witnesses were Salvador Ferrer and Clemente Millán. 

What's interesting is that by the 1910 Census I can not find a Magraner male to be the potential father of my 2nd great grandfather. Interestingly, the 1920 Census listed my recently widowed 2nd great grandfather living with his brother Lorenzo Avilés and both listed their father's place of birth lists "Spain". Could they have known their father and known of his identity? 

1920 Census- Río Prieto Lares, Puerto Rico [Ancestry]

With research that I did a couple of summers ago in the AGPR in San Juan, Puerto Rico, so far I have lowered the search down to a man named Damián Magraner Morell originally from Sóller, Mallorca. He appears to be living in Río Prieto, Lares, Puerto Rico at the time of José's birth but then seems to have moved back to Sóller during the time of the Spanish-American war. Could the story in my family have changed, instead of coming to Puerto Rico he left it? Interestingly, in a recent conversation with my great-aunt she mentioned that José's father was a married man at the time of his birth. Damián does appear to be married, my guess to a woman back in Spain, in the record I found of him. Both Damián and Lorenzo in their WWI Registration Cards mention working with a "Ramón Magraner" yet there is no man found either in the 1910 or 1920 census records with that name at all. 

No one apparently knows the name of José's father, but maybe it's buried in someone's memory waiting to be dug up. My 2nd great grandfather and his brother Lorenzo both named a son "Damián", could it simply be a coincidence? I have learned that many-a-times, coincidences do happen in genealogy but sometimes things are done conscientiously by our ancestors. 

I have no real way of telling if Damián is Jose's father, or maybe a brother of his seeing as he was one of four brothers to venture off to Puerto Rico. Hopefully I'll be able to test a Y-DNA male descendant and it will tie and trace back to the Magraner family from Sóller. Or maybe more records from Lares will give me some new clues. Much it still to be learned about my 2nd great grandfather. 

José Avilés Magraner [Personal Family Photo]

A New Year- New Genealogical Resolutions

A New Year Is Here!!

As the new year rang in, I thought about all the things I want accomplished in my life throughout 2013. But I also thought about the genealogical resolutions I would make for this upcoming year. So I decided to come up with some resolutions and wishes (in no particular order) for my genealogical adventure this year! I came up with 13 resolutions +1 for good luck, just in case :)

Resolutions for 2013:

• Discover more about Jean Charles Gustave (Juan Carlos Gustavo), like whether he was from Martinique or Guadeloupe, his parents' names, his background, etc. 
• Extend my branches in Puerto Rico further back. 
• Learn more about my ancestors from Martinique and their lives. 
• Speak to more relatives and collect more stories about my ancestors. 
• Discover more about myself and my family through DNA. 
• Connect with more genetic cousins on 23andme and AncestryDNA.
• Find out more about my 2nd great grandmother Amalia Rivera Rodríguez (Masantini). 
• Find out more about José Avilés and whether his father really was Damià Magraner from Sóller, Mallorca. 
• Look through more Puerto Ricans records at the LDS Family Center. 
• Learn more about my Correa family and their J1/J1e paternal ancestry. 
• Try and figure out my parents' family connection to one another. 
• Find out more about Jewish genetic connections in my family. 
• Read more about the history of Puerto Rico and Spain and their contributing cultures . 
• Discover a new set of ancestors from outside of Puerto Rico. 

Hopefully these resolutions will inspire you to find something new, discover more about yourself or to dig deeper in your family tree and genealogy! There are still 363 days for you to get started :)

PS- Thank you to everyone that has viewed my blog, so far 3000+ views! Hopefully I've helped answer questions or spark interests in your own genealogy! Happy 2013!!

What Started It All- Part II

I started searching for records, stories, and information at about the age of 14/15; at this time I was working for the New York Public Library and thanks to a co-worker I found out that I was able to search for documents, luckily, for free on the ancestry.com website. During those years, though young and naïve, I was able to figure out a lot of things. Thanks to some family members I was able to start my family tree slowly but surely. [Note: From my knowledge, I'm the only person in my family to have started/have a family tree; so for me this is a BIG achievement.] Due to the fact that Puerto Rico was only an American territory until after the Spanish-American War of 1898, the only available records I was aware of at the time were the 1910, 1920, and 1930 Censuses as well as the World War I and World War II Registration Records [These available only of course for male ancestors who fit the age ranges at the time of registration.] So with that information at hand I was only able to extend my tree to about 3 generations and barely 4 generations (which for me were ancestors born about the mid-1800s, and for many who I didn't have actually documents but just estimated dates of birth.)


So up until the end of high school, I wasn't sure that the story that started all this seeking and searching held any truth. Could I actually have a Spaniard for a great great grandfather and a Taíno woman for a great great grandmother? Was I even sure the people I found were MY ancestors? (I actually did have one great great grandmother wrong due to two women living with the same name in the same town- more about that later). I had hit many brick walls and many that I couldn't crack so easily due to no more records available records before 1910 (me being young and naïve I was unaware of church records or Civil Registration records on the island which I would find out about later.) So for a while I stopped searching and settled on the information I had, I was sort of content with what I had but hungry to find more. My main goal was to figure out whether or not my g-g grandfather WAS from Spain and if not to find an ancestor who actually was from Spain- I wanted to find a foreign born ancestor. I had heard about 23&me on a show once but never really payed any attention and didn't know if it was real. It wasn't until my sophomore year of college that I took a real interest in the website and what it was capable of for ancestral and genealogical purposes. I'll post more about it on the next post. 

José Avilés Magraner circa 1977

Pictured above and below is my great-great grandfather José Avilés Magraner, who according to the family story was born in Spain and immigrated to Puerto Rico [documentation of his birth shows me otherwise] but his father might have been from Spain. José was very tall and apparently had blue eyes, he was said to have lived to about 100 in Lares, Puerto Rico. I'm currently waiting for his death certificate from the Demographic Registry in Puerto Rico. (*Cross fingers* that it'll come soon!!)

José Avilés dancing at his granddaughter's wedding

As you can see in the 1920 Census (picture below), my great-great grandfather was living with his brother Lorenzo and at the time he was widowed with three children (my great grandmother being Rosa Avilés). Both have their father listed as born in Spain, even though they were born out of wedlock and received their mother's name Avilés, no father was listed on the birth certificate. There is some uncertainty about whether or not Magraner is really their father's last name. Both Lorenzo and José show up in the 1930 Census listed with the last names "Avilés Magraner" and both appeared circa 1917 according to their WWI Registration Cards working with a "Ramón Magraner" in Rio Prieto, Lares, Puerto Rico (where they were from) who may or may not be a relative; Ramón never appears on any of the Census records. Family in Puerto Rico have said that Magraner is the paternal name but without any real proof I can't be too sure. And the search continues!! 

1920 Census from Lares, Puerto Rico listing my G-G Grandfather

What Started It All- Part I

My great grandparents, my grandmother and her siblings  

This portrait of my great grandparents, Felix Vélez Mercado and Rosalia Avilés González along with my grandmother Carmen Avilés Vélez (seated close to her father) along with her brother Antonio (older boy) and a baby sibling I don't know the name of, was the start of my interest in genealogy.

The picture hung in our apartment where I lived when I was younger and I always remember seeing it in the dining room and asking myself two questions: 1) Who were these people? and 2) How did MY brother end up in this picture? (I was convinced my older brother was the little boy in the picture, hey- I was young at the time!). Along with the picture came a story that also sparked my interest in genealogy.

I was told that my great grandmother (pictured above) was from Spanish and Taíno descendants (if you look at my great grandmother, holding her baby, you can notice her straight black hair and rather small, slanted eyes); this coming from her mother, a "pure" Taíno Indian. [I haven't confirmed this claim, but I have high doubts it is completely true being that around the time her mother was born (abt. 1892), there weren't too many full bloodied natives running around the island- from what I've gathered from research.] I was also told that her father came to Puerto Rico during the "war" (my guess the Spanish-American War) where he fell in love and decided to stay and had my great grandmother. I was completely enthralled by this story, could I really have Spanish blood as close as 4 centuries back and have a full-bloodied Taíno great-great grandmother?!? I was too young at the time to actually begin research, sadly, and wasn't able to ask my grandmother the necessary questions about this picture and her family. But it was up to me to solve this mystery and many more about my family's past.