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?

Genealogical Resolutions for 2020!

With the new year comes change and excitement for what's to come! For me, not only do I focus on life goals and resolutions for the entering year but I also try to create some resolutions based around genealogy. I spend quite a bit of time (read: a lot) doing genealogy on the day to day, as it is a very important aspect of my life. Creating genealogical resolutions is something I started a few year back in 2018 and followed through recently in 2019 (broken into Part I and Part II).

At the end of the year I also reflect on those resolutions/goals and see where I am with them. Here are the reflections for the last two years:

• 2018 Reflection
• 2019 Reflection

So I figured, why not keep up with this new habit and see what goals I'd like to set for 2020! Here are my genealogical resolutions for the year! 

GENEALOGICAL RESOLUTIONS FOR 2020!

1. Take a Genealogy Course
This is a carry-over resolution from last year and I'll bring it into 2020 because it's something I really want to do. Currently I've been looking at the Boston University genealogical courses, however if you know of one aimed at Latin American/Caribbean genealogy drop a comment! I'd love to take a course crafted for the type of genealogy I'm mainly focused on. Though I'm not sure I'll be able to take a course this year, I'll see if I can register myself in the fall for the winter or spring semester 2021, at the latest!

2. Learn/Practice/Better my French
I wanted to commence this resolution this year, but honestly as a teacher the year always get the better of me, like, how is it already January 2020? I'm not sure how much time I'll have this summer but hopefully I can set some time aside for doing some French work. I still have textbooks/books from high school and college, so I should definitely be able to do some self-studying for now, and of course there's Duolingo, music, and movies as well!

3. Get more serious about my platform
This is something I've been thinking about for some time now. I've been researching for about 15 years and writing on my blog ever since 2011, and I want to take it to a next step. Whether that's getting a (.com) for myself, branding myself better, or putting my name out there, I want to have a more steady publishing stream and reading crowd for my blog. The only drawback is that this isn't a full-time job, so sometimes genealogy or blogging will take the back-burner while I focus on my day job. We'll see what steps I take in this direction, even if they're baby steps, I hope it's some!

4. Revisit my lines from Toa Alta, Puerto Rico
It's been about 9-10 years since I've searched this branch in intensity. I remember vividly when I was in college, specifically the summer of 2009, FamilySearch had released some of Puerto Rico's church records online, and Toa Alta was one of the first towns to go up. I remember furiously searching the church books and finding as many ancestors and connections as possible; however, I was also naïve to some extent. I didn't pay attention much to godparents and the roles they played in documents and in the lives of my ancestors. So I want to go back and research more calmly these documents again and see what I can find. Especially since recently I made a breakthrough on my Rivera-Román line in nearby Guaynabo and now I have some more generations and names to work with that might be found in Toa Alta.

5. Catalog/Keep track searched FamilySearch Films
This resolution is tied to my goal above. I find that sometimes I read, re-read, and sometimes even forget what films I've searched or which specific books and what ancestors I looked for in that specific time. I usually take notes on pieces of paper as I go, which then end up getting forgotten about or lost somewhere amongst other pages/loose papers. So my resolution is to create a digital database (probably Excel/Google Sheets) where I can keep track of the searches I've done. This would include writing down the film number, the church books, which pages I've seen, and what ancestors I've searched for. The further I go back in time with research the more I'm noticing that a lot of towns like Guayama, Coamo, San Juan etc. are getting repeated across multiple family lines, so to hopefully simplify this I want to track this more neatly and more accurately.

6. Continue note-taking throughout my tree
Similarly to resolution #5, this is something I want to better and is slightly different than the resolution above. I want to continue keeping track of certain clues, potential family members, and events in my ancestor's pages. Since I use Ancestry, I keep track via notes on certain events and place links in their profiles when something new comes up. To give you an example, this is my 6th great-grandfather Juan Francisco Correa's page below with links and notes of films I've searched and where I am on these films whilst searching. As you can see the notes get more complicated as the more I search and unfortunately there's a character limit to the boxes so I can't go on forever, but still, it's something that I find extremely helpful and I have posted about it as well in post about being stuck with my Correa branch. As you can see below, I work a lot between both languages (English and Spanish) since I use both fluently and daily.

Notes, Links, and Helpful Comments [Personal Ancestry Pages]

7. Cast a wider net with DNA cousin profiles
DNA has been such a big help for finding and locating certain segments for certain ancestors (thanks DNAPainter!) and even seeing where certain ancestry in my family comes from (I explore African inheritance via various generations in my family via this post). I've been very fortunate to test 2 parents, 2 grandparents, and 1 great-grandfather. In place of my paternal grandparents I've been able to test 1 sister for my paternal grandfather and 2 siblings for my paternal grandmother. My resolution (albeit an expensive one) is to try and add more diverse cousins amongst my tree to help with matching. I've already started this a bit by recently adding a 2nd great-uncle and a 1st cousin, 2x removed via my Magraner-Avilés branch to autosomal testing in 23andMe as well as one of their Y-DNA test to FTDNA. My goal is to continue adding cousins sporadically from different parts of my tree to help fill in gaps of inherited DNA segments on my DNA Painter chromosomes but to also have closer generations to the "source" of certain autosomal ancestry or connections. My biggest lacking side is my paternal grandfather's side since I don't know too many cousins on that side of the tree. Hopefully some will test on their own as well and I'll be able to share and compare with them.

8. Find a maternal mitochondrial descendant of Eglantine Lautin
This one is no easy feat! My goal is to find a descendant that can trace back via their maternal line unbroken all the way back to my 5th great-grandmother Eglantine Lautin, an African-born slave later freed in 1848 who lived in Martinique. The reason being is because I'd like to test their maternal MtDNA (with permission, of course!) to see where in Africa (probably western is my guess) this line will take us. I'm not sure how exact this test can pinpoint either a tribe, region, or country, but I'd like to have an idea of her origins via the maternal haplogroup. In the past I had done some research into possible maternal descendants, but I think this is something I'll need to revisit as well; maybe even get the help from some cousins on this resolution!

9. Try out/learn more Puerto Rican recipes 
This resolution isn't so much related directly (if not indirectly) to genealogy because it deals with inherited memory of culture. A few years back, I began to document in a small book recipes from my family, simple things such as how to make sofrito, how to cook pernil, and how to make arepas with bacalao. A few recipes I can do with my eyes closed like your simple rice, beans, etc. but there are more I want to perfect and others I want to learn. For example, I want to practice more making bacalaítos more from scratch and learn how to make alcapurrias and pasteles. My goal is to learn the recipes and write them down from my own family members, whether that's my mother, grandmother, or even great-aunts, I want to learn how to make Puerto Rican dishes that are traditional and commonly eaten in my family. It's one thing to learn a recipe from a book and another to learn it first hand and in practice with a family member.

10. Try to crack the mystery of the Orozco/Santana branch
This is one of the mysteries that to this day still haunts me - the origin of the surname "Santana" in my Orozco branch. My maternal 3rd great-grandfather Benito Orozco was born out of wedlock but throughout his life and that of his children the surnames go back and forth between Orozco and Santana. To the point where some branches today stuck with the use of Santana while others use Orozco. Recently, I found his baptism record in Las Piedras which confirms he was born as an Orozco but there is no mention of a father or the surname Santana. Equally, the baptism of his son Antonio lists the godparents Blas Orozco and Hermenegilda Santana - coincidence? I need to dedicate some more time to the records of Las Piedras, Humacao, and Yabucoa to see if I can find more to crack the mystery of Benito and his mother Estefanía Orozco, who I have very little information about!

Here's to a productive genealogical 2020!

Reflecting on my Genealogical Goals of 2019

Time sure does fly! It feels like only yesterday I was setting up genealogical goals for 2019, and yet here I am December 31st, 2019 - ready to close out the year! Similarly to last year, I wanted to take some time to reflect on my goals for the year 2019 and see how far I've gotten. If you're interested in my past goals of 2018 - here's the link! Also like last year, I will be answering each goal with "yes", "some" or "no" and explaining where I am with those goals.

Genealogical Goals of 2019

1. Test a male descendant for Y-DNA Avilés - Yes

On a recent trip to Puerto Rico in March, I was fortunate to have visited extended family in Lares, Puerto Rico - the town my Avilés ancestors lived in. Not only did I get a chance to see where my 2nd great-grandfather lived most of his life and some of his lands, but I was also able to meet two men who are direct descendants of my Avilés line. However, this line is said to be "Magraner" and not "Avilés" because my 2nd great-grandfather was born out-of-wedlock, said to be the son of Damián Magraner Morell from Sóller, Mallorca. Their haplogroup falls under one of the most common for European men so no close hits yet. Hoping more will come of these results soon! 

2. Add on my Rivera and Correa lines to FTDNA - Yes

I've recently posted this month about upgrading my Correa line and the current finds the line has... so far there might be some potential Sephardic Jewish origins in this line - hopefully more discoveries to come. I've also added my Rivera line but nothing interesting there so far, currently I have the possibility to upgrade to Big Y-700 for my line and currently considering it though I don't know what will come of it.

3. Continue to learn about my Correa family - No
Besides learning a bit more about my Correa family via DNA, I haven't been able to learn more about my family through records. I've scoured the records in Coamo and San Juan as well as nearby towns but nothing yet. I've also looked at the Carcaño branch and found some other people with the surname in towns near San Juan but I'm also stuck there as well. Hopefully this wall will come crashing down soon!

4. Visit the Archivo Diocesano and AGPR to attain testamentos and dispensas de matrimonio - Yes/Some
Though I was able to find information about my family from both the Archivo Diocesano and the AGPR I placed it under "some" as well because I know that there is probably much, much more to research in both archival places. For example, I was able to find dispensas for cousins marrying in Maunabo that I had no idea about - all related to the Martínez branch of my family that came over from Guayama. This goal is also hard to accomplish within one year because time is limited while I'm in Puerto Rico and there are so many files to search as well.

5. Begin to interview family members - No
I feel like I'm going to beat myself up for not starting this sooner but I need to get on this! My goal is to record older family members talking about their lives and our family and create a digital bank of voices and information before these people are gone. I need to think this goal through next time I am in Puerto Rico!

6. Push all my lines into the 1700s - Some
The generation between my 4th and 5th great-grandparents' would be the branches that be able to reach the 1700s. So far on my paternal side there are many branches that have reached the 1700s, the ones currently stuck at my branches from Corozal and San Sebastián. On my maternal side, my Patillas, Morovis, Vega Baja, and San Sebastián sides of the family haven't been explored into the 1700s - 3/4 of these towns don't have church records online which halts me from exploring deeper into their lineage. I heard Corozal, Morovis, and Vega Baja are becoming available in Puerto Rico via La Sociedad Genealógica de Puerto Rico while San Sebastián hasn't allowed any organization to digitalize their records.

7. Continue reading books about genealogy - Yes
This year I've been fortunate to have read a lot of books but out of the books I've read so far, not many have to do with genealogy. So far I have read: "The Man Who Stole Himself: The Slave Odyssy of Hans Jonathan" by: Gísli Pálsson, a book about a mulatto man from St. Croix who ends up in Iceland via Denmark (worth the read!), "She Has Her Mother's Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity" by: Carl Zimmer, this book was a bit more intense because it dealt a lot with the science of DNA but it was definitely an interesting read. I also read "1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus" by: Charles C. Mann, definitely was an eye-opening book to what life was like in the Americas before the arrival of the Europeans, and "Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love" by: Dani Shapiro, which was a very interesting book about a woman's journey of who her biological father is post-DNA testing. So out of 19 books read so far 4 were related somehow to genealogy which isn't too bad. I also read "The Coming" by: Daniel Black and "My 15 Grandmothers" by: Genie Milgrom but the former was more of a historical fiction narrative of a slave's journey through the Middle Passage while the latter was about researching your Sephardic ancestors and I wasn't able to pull too much information for myself, if I count these books this would be 6 books about genealogy!

8. Take a genealogy course - No
For monetary reasons, I decided to hold back on this goal this year but I'm hoping sometime next year or even 2021 to register myself and take a genealogical course. Though so far the courses I've found are not really geared to the Caribbean/Latin America, I figured it's better to start building myself a genealogical resumé which includes a variety of courses. This will give me some more "seriousness" as I continue to make a name for myself as a genealogist.

9. Get savvier with the use of DNA results - Yes/Some
With the use of DNAPainter I have been able to identify pieces of DNA that I share with African Americans with no known connection to Puerto Rico and recently thanks to MyHeritage and AncestryDNA I was able to find genetic connections to Guadeloupe. I'm hoping that this goal extends itself into the next year and I can find out more about my connection to Guadeloupe. I also say "some" because I would like to learn more about Y-DNA testing and how to read more into my results. For example, I recently upgraded my Correa Y-DNA to Big-Y700 and I would like to be able to read more into the results myself.

10. Build stories around my factual evidence - No
Though I set up this goal, I'm not sure exactly how to go about it. Though Ancestry builds a "LifeStory" for your ancestors' lives, it doesn't necessarily touch upon facts based on your country, for me this would be facts from Puerto Rico. For example, one of my ancestor's story shows a fact about the American Revolution and the Declaration of Independence which doesn't really have to with his life in Puerto Rico, especially since this time it was a part of the Spanish crown. I need to figure out a way to build facts about my ancestors - maybe creating some sort of timeline with important Puerto Rican facts based around towns and the island's history and seeing where my ancestors fall within that timeline.

This year also marked for me my 200th blog post, as well as 8 years of blogging and 15 years of genealogy which is definitely a lot of time dedicated to this obsessive hobby! In a few days I hope to create new goals for 2020 and explain why I want to follow this goals! Stay tuned and Happy New Year! 

A Puerto Rican Look at: Y-DNA111 (Correa)

Like my Avilés/Magraner line, I tested my Correa Y-DNA line while I was in Puerto Rico, this time with my maternal grandfather. Though I originally tested this line at Y-DNA67, I have upgraded the line to Y-DNA111 on FTDNA and with the recent Thanksgiving sales I have finally upgraded the line to Big-Y 700. The results will take a while to upload, especially with what I can only imagine are a bunch of people taking advantage of the sale. So I figured I would write about what I know at this level and see what else comes from the upgrade.

CORREA - SURNAME ORIGINS 

Though I have posted about the Correa surname before (post here and here). I'd figure I cover this quickly again to tie it into the genetic understanding of this line. The Correa surname comes to me via my mother and her father, and from there runs via the paternal line up to the 1700s. This is what the paper trail has shown me at least, remember that there is always the possibility of a NPE (Non-Paternity Event) which are usually not traced on paper. Below you can see me, Luis, at the bottom and my line all the way until my 6th great-grandfather Juan Francisco Correa (I have blurred of people who are still alive).

9 Generations of Correa [Personal Photo]

In an ideal genealogical world, this would mean that my Correa cousins and any other male Correa tied to this line would all descend genetically via their Y-DNA from this same man. Matching other Correa men would help attest to this, but unfortunately so far there haven't been other men in my family or relatives that I know who have tested. Y-DNA testing (and rightfully so due to its cost) is something more serious geneticists/genealogists use to trace lines that either ran dry via paper-trail, experienced traumatic events such as slavery, the holocaust, wars that disconnected them from information, and/or was adopted and not sure of their origins. I personally have not tested all of my Y-DNA possible lines, especially since I would have to find distant males cousins to test for lines that have "daughtered out". So far, I have tested my own Rivera line (since I wanted to know more about it since it's a common surname), my maternal Avilés line (said to be tied to Mallorca via a NPE), the Charles line (arrived to Puerto Rico from Guadeloupe and was previously enslaved), and my Correa line (surname interest/since the paper trail ran out). 

When I mean surname interest, I have always been interested in this name for two reasons. 1) It's not that common of a surname in Puerto Rico, though there is always the mention of Capitán Antonio de los Reyes Correa it's not a surname I often hear when I meet other Puerto Ricans, and 2) I have always heard that the surname is tied to Sephardic Jewish origins in Spain. 

The surname for example appears in Amsterdam via Isabel (Rebecca) Correa, a famous Dutch Sephardic poetess who was born in Portugal.

Isabel (Rebecca) de Correa [Jewish Virtual Library]

It has also appeared amongst those tried for "judaizantes" ("Judaizers") during the time of the Spanish Inquisition. A quick search of Correa + Inquisición gave me various hits. 

Tribunal de la Inquisición en Llerena [PARES]

Tribunal de la Inquisición en Llerena [PARES]

Does this mean that my own Correa family were Jewish as well? Not necessarily but the genetic information is interesting to add. Let's see what my grandfather's genes say about this line!

CORREA - GENETIC ORIGINS

When I got the autosomal and haplogroup results for grandfather on 23andme, I was very interested since it seems that his haplogroup isn't that common amongst men in their database/that have tested. So I wanted to see what it would be like in FTDNA.

FTDNA Landing Page [FTDNA/Personal Photo]

My grandfather's haplogroup is current listed as "J-Z18271", this name is expected to change once I get my Big-Y700 results - expected to arrive sometime in February. Below you can see where this specific SNP (Z18271) has been found in Europe. This specific branch can be found in various parts of the world, but it's interesting to note that it's mainly found amongst Eastern European countries. This is a very different result than expecting to find many "genetic cousins" scattered amongst the Iberian Peninsula and other parts of western Europe.

SNP MAP [FTDNA/Personal Photo]

CORREA - HAPLOGROUP ASSIGNMENT

The main haplogroup my grandfather belongs to is "J" which you can see how it got into Europe below. Further below is an image of my specific haplogroup for my grandfather as well, currently at Y-DNA111.

Migration Map [FTDNA]

Correa Haplogroup [FTDNA/Personal Photo]

This group has its origins mainly in the Middle East amongst the Arab and Jewish populations. This was interesting to me taking into consideration the Sephardic Jewish theory of this surname. Remember that genetics predate current religious, political, geographic divides. It is possible that somehow my Correa family was a part of the Arab/Morsico or Jewish/Sefardí population in Spanish which was later pushed out during the reconquista. It made it's way into Puerto Rico where it has been present for the last 300 years.

Some research places the haplogroup amongst the "Kohanim" or Cohen branch of Jews, which is the "priest" class. If this is the case for my family, this would obviously be very far back and probably not in recent times, though it would be very interesting nonetheless! My family has likely been Christian/Catholic for at least the last 300 years while in Puerto Rico. Since I haven't been able to trace them off the island yet, I am not sure what their history and religious practices were before arriving to Puerto Rico.

J-Z18271 Branch [GenoGenea]

GENETIC MATCHES

Currently, I have one match from the entire database of FTDNA for my Correa Y-DNA111 test, and it's a genetic cousin who shares another line with me, so it was interesting seeing him match me on the Y-DNA level on another completely different line as well. As you can see the surname for his earliest ancestor is not "Correa", if not "Santiago". So somewhere along our lines there was a NPE, we're not sure who's line it comes from but we're thinking it might be his. Currently, this cousin is tested at Y-DNA37 so their haplogroup isn't as specific as mine. The genetic distance is 3 meaning that our relationship is further back in generations, but I'm not sure if this distance "closes" once they upgrade their Y-DNA test.

Y-DNA Match [FTDNA/Personal Photo]

CONCLUSIONS

I'm hoping that upgrading the test will give some more insight into whether it's more likely to be Arab or Jewish in origin. I have been in contact with some of the administrators of the FTDNA project I am a part of via my results in the J haplogroup. They are also interested to see what comes out of this result since I don't match many other people. This is very fascinating for me and definitely something I am learning along the way with. I'm not super well-versed in Y-DNA analysis so learning via my multiple accounts has been pretty helpful! Hoping my results come faster than I expect!

ARE YOU A CORREA FROM PUERTO RICO? 

HAVE YOU TAKEN A Y-DNA TEST? 

The Strange Case of the Carcaño Branch

About 7 years ago, I had discovered the names of my 5th great-grandparents and those of their parents in their marriage record in the year 1819. José de León Correa Carcaño, son of Juan Francisco Correa and María Eugenia Carcaño, said to be natives of San Juan and María de la Cruz Rodríguez Ruiz, daughter of Sebastián Rodríguez and María de Gracia Ruiz, natives of Coamo.

Out of these four lines - Correa, Carcaño, Rodríguez, and Ruiz, I have only been able to discover more information about only a few. Here are some links to previous posts on my blog about these lines.

Correa- Summarizing my research about my family, though I am currently stuck.
Rodríguez- Writing about my 6th Great-Grandfather during the 52 Ancestor Challenge.
Manuel Ruiz- Discovering that my 7th Great-Grandfather was a pardo slave in Coamo.

The Carcaño line (as well as the Correa line) has been extremely difficult to trace. So I wanted to focus a bit on what I know on the Carcaño and some theories in hopes of being able to discover more about my 6th great-grandmother.

CARCAÑO AS A SURNAME

Besides seeing the surname Carcaño in the marriage record of my 5th great-grandparents, it has not been a surname I often see in my genealogical searches. So first, I wanted to research the surname itself outside of Puerto Rico. I wanted to know how popular the surname might be in Spain. I have mentioned the use of the INE before (Intituto Nacional Estadística) and it is one of the main ways I check how or where a surname could have arrived to Puerto Rico from within Spain. Searching "Carcaño" didn't give me many hits, as you can see below the surname is used only by 100+ people and limited to a few regions in Spain. You can see that Cádiz and Alicante seem to be the "highest" concentration of Carcaño surnamed people in Spain and it makes a few appearances in Madrid and Barcelona. Since the surname is so limited, I would imagine these separate family branches are tied to each whether distantly or more closely related.

The version "Carcano" shows only about 20 people in Madrid using this variation, by the way! 

Carcaño Surname Map [INE]

CARCAÑO... ¿GENOVÉS?

My searching on the internet brought me to an article from Torrevieja that mentions a family reunion of the Carcaño branch bringing together about 150 family members. It also states that the family came to Spain from Genova, Italy around 1810 probably fleeing the siege of Napoleon, the first registered Carcaño in Torrevieja occurred in 1820.

Carcaño Family Reunion [DiarioInformación]

This would lead me to believe that the Carcaño family entered through Alicante (the region where Torrevieja is located) and from there the family spread to other regions. Could this mean that the surname has its origins in Italian rather than Spanish? It would explain why it isn't as commonly found in Spain and why it's harder to find in Puerto Rico as well.

CARCAÑOS IN SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO

My search for María Eugenia Carcaño took me to the San Juan church records in the early 1700s. So far, I have yet to find a marriage record for María Eugenia Carcaño and her husband Juan Francisco Correa, but I did run into another Carcaño branch which was interesting to find. Since I have no idea how, if at all, this branch is tied to me I decided to build out a tree and see what I could find on them. Even if they aren't related to me I hope that my research benefits another Carcaño family.

The first Carcaño branch I found was a marriage record for a Manuela Carcaño to a Juan Ferregut in the San Juan church records in the year 1777. Below you can see a snippet of the wedding record, stating that Juan Ferregut was from Pa[r]ma (Palma), Mallorca, the legitimate son of Guillermo Ferregut and Catalina Villa and Manuela Carcaño, a resident of this city [San Juan], the daughter of Josef Carcaño and Manuela Polanco, she deceased.

Manuela Carcaño, San Juan, Marriage, 1777 [FamilySearch]

Since José de León Correa was said to have been born in the 1790s in San Juan, I figured that Manuela could easily be a sister to María Eugenia, as their ages were probably in the same ballpark range. So I wanted to discover more about José Carcaño and Manuela Polanco, who were they and could they have been my 7th great-grandparents? 

I was able to find that Manuela was baptized as Manuela de los Reyes, daughter of José Carcaño and Manuela Polanco, parda in January 1764. Manuela was baptized in the book of blancos but as you can see her mother was listed as parda. This was important to note for me because my María Eugenia Carcaño is listed with her husband to be pardos libres in the records of Coamo. This type of evidence becomes important when trying to track family members across various towns and different race books of church baptisms and marriages. 

Manuela Carcaño, San Juan, Baptism, 1764 [FamilySearch]

Something extremely odd here is the math! If Manuela would have been born in 1764 and married in 1777, this would mean that she was only 13 years old when she married! Her marriage record does not mention her actual age or her needing permission from her father to get married. I have also yet to find another baptism for another Manuela Carcaño, so it is possible that the age was fudged either on the baptism or marriage. I'm not sure how common it was for girls to marry this young in the 1700s, I do however have a case of one of my 2nd great-grandmothers marrying at the age of 15 (based off her baptism and marriage records) in 1906, so it's very possible that was common amongst certain families for status reasons.

Having Manuela's baptism in 1764 gave me a starting point to check for marriage records for José Carcaño and Manuela Polanco... ultimately anytime before that year. Lucky for me, they would have married a year before that in 1763 in San Juan! 

José Carcaño + Manuela Polanco, San Juan, Marriage, 1763 [FamilySearch]

José Carcaño was said to be a native of Genova, from the Spanish kingdom, the son of De[c]iderio and Francisca Carcaño, Manuela Polanco was a native of this city [San Juan] and the daughter of Alonso Polanco and María del Rosario, she was deceased. It's interesting to see that José Carcaño is also tied to the community of Carcaños in Genova! It seems that for a while the Republic of Genoa aligned itself with the Spanish Empire to help in the decline it was experiencing, which is probably why in Puerto Rico it was mentioned as a part of the Spanish Kingdom.

José's wife, Manuela Polanco would pass away in May 1768 in San Juan and left behind a will. Before passing she had given birth to a girl named Isidora that same month who unfortunately passed two months later in July 1768. I'm not sure if that will would still be available in San Juan, if so, it might contain a clue to who were Manuela's children and whether a María Eugenia was one of them. 

José would go on to remarry in Bayamón in 1776 to a María del Carmen García Manzano. It is also possible that María Eugenia could have been one of the first daughters to this couple, except this is where the trail runs cold. 

I have no further information about José Carcaño and where he passed away, whether in San Juan or Bayamón. 

CARCAÑOS IN RÍO PIEDRAS, PUERTO RICO

While on a visit to San Juan last March I visited the Archivo Diocesano in San Juan to look for marriage dispensations. In talking to Elyse who runs the archivo, I asked about other documents in San Juan and the surrounding area for the 1700s. She showed me a couple of indexed books of San Juan and Río Piedras, in them I searched for any people surnamed Correa or Carcaño. 

In one of the entries, I came across a Nicolás Carcaño, illegitimate son of Eugenia Carcaño. I was surprised to see the name, I jotted it down and when I got home I did some more searching. Could this be my 6th great-grandmother?!

Nicolás Carcaño, native son of Eugenia married in October 1790 in Río Piedras to a María Joaquina, native daughter of María Tomasa. It lists them as morenos libres in the record, which again is interesting to note, as you saw above for Manuela Carcaño, she was baptized in the white books but had a parda mother. 

Nicolás Carcaño, Río Piedras, Marriage, 1790 [FamilySearch]

Nicolás would have been born in the 1770s, though a bit older than José de León, this wouldn't be completely impossible for him to be a brother. The interesting thing here though is that no father is listed for Nicolás meaning he would have been a "Carcaño" and not a "Correa Carcaño". Still, I figured it was worth an investigation.

Searching for death records of Eugenia Carcaño in Río Piedras I came across various death records for Nicolás' children: Lucas (1798), Gabriela (1798), Cipriana (1799), and María (1800), all passing away as párvulos (infants) - all children born shortly after their marriage but unfortunately who didn't live long into adulthood. Continuing my search higher in the years, I was able to find a death record for an Eugenia Carcaño. 

Eugenia Carcaño, Río Piedras, Death, 1803 [FamilySearch]

Here you can see a Eugenia Carcaño, resident of Río Piedras, married to "José", black, slave of José María Ruiz, she died in April of 1803. Though I was hopeful at first, a few things don't match with my 6th great-grandmother. The husband's name for example was different and neither Juan Francisco Correa or Eugenia Carcaño showed up as enslaved or moreno libre in Coamo. Could she have remarried? Possible. Could she have been moreno libre in Río Piedras and her son listed as pardo libre in Coamo. Also possible.

But there is another piece of evidence that might help us explain why she might not be my Eugenia Carcaño. When José de León Correa, her son, marries in 1809, it does not list her as "deceased". Other marriage records in that year show spouse's parents as difunto/a but Eugenia and Juan Francisco are not listed as that. Which would lead us to believe that she was still alive past 1803. Could this be an error? Possibly. But I'm hoping that José de León knew the status of the life of his parents' when he married and thus giving us hope that Eugenia Carcaño is still out there in the records... yet to be discovered. 

CARCAÑOS IN LOÍZA, PUERTO RICO

My final search was in Loíza, Puerto Rico, and there I was able to find a few more Carcaños. None of them matched the names I have in Coamo but it was interesting to find the surname there and see where they were placed in the different racial categories. Here are some examples below: 

José Carcaño, moreno libro, 1793 [FamilySearch]

Paula Carcaño, Pardo Libre, 1794 [FamilySearch]

First Twin of José Carcaño, Moreno Libre, 1795 [FamilySearch]

Second Twin of José Carcaño, Moreno Libre, 1795 [FamilySearch]

Felipa Carcaño, Parda Libre, 1795 [FamilySearch]

CONCLUSIONS

Honestly, I'm not sure that I have any, the only thing I have found is that in Puerto Rico there existed white, pardo, and moreno Carcaños across San Juan, Río Piedras, and Loíza. One branch came from Italy and might have ties to a current branch living in Torrevieja, Alicante, Spain with similar roots in Genova. A death record in 1803 for an Eugenia Carcaño was found in Río Piedras, but based off José de León's marriage record she doesn't match since my 6th great-grandmother wasn't said to be deceased when he married in 1809. 

I'm not sure, however, if there was ever a Carcaño slave owner. All the Carcaños I seem to find are all moreno libre/pardo libre and I have yet to find an esclavo de ______ Carcaño. I am not sure what this says about the white Carcaños as well. But at some point the morenos libres would have been freed from a white Carcaño owner or chose that surname (for whatever reason). 

I am hopeful that one day I'll be able to fully unravel this Carcaño mystery. Luckily for me, the surname is still pretty rare, meaning that when I come across it my eyes catch it automatically, unlike coming across more common surnames such as Martínez, Rivera, etc. I'll have to extend my search to other towns nearby and continue to track down the Carcaño branch located in San Juan and see where that trail ends. The question also still begs: where the heck is my Correa branch as well?!

Are you a Carcaño from Puerto Rico? 

Any ties to Juan Francisco Correa & María Eugenia Carcaño? 

Genetic Connections to Guadeloupe

Connecting to DNA Cousins from Guadeloupe [Google Maps] 

DNA testing is something I initiated about 10 years ago, and I was fortunate to have stumbled upon it when I did. With testing, I have been able to make great discoveries - some of them thanks to the DNA itself and others to the people I have met and interacted with along the way. If you have been following my blog (Thank you & ¡Gracias!), then you know a few years back (8 actually to be exact!) I begun to unravel a previously unknown discovery in my family about a connection to the islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe via my maternal grandfather's side of the family. At the time I knew very little about this branch but thanks to digging through documents and connecting with French Caribbean genealogists throughout these recent years, I was able to discover much more about this side of my family.

My research up until now has revealed two distinct sides in my 3rd great-grandmother's family, one side (her father's) comes from Guadeloupe while the other (her mother's) comes from Martinique. 

María Paulina Charles Lautin - 3rd Great-grandmother [Personal Photo]

Unfortunately, there is not much information past María Paulina's grandparents. It seems that on the Jean-Charles side, the family might have been mixed-creole seeing as how her parents were enslaved themselves, yet a Y-DNA test points to European origins for the "Charles" line. It is important to note that this side of the family received their freedom from slavery before 1848, unlike most of the enslaved peoples did in the French owned Caribbean islands at the time, this allowed María Paulina's paternal Guadeloupean grandparents a chance to marry before they passed away. Meanwhile, the "Lautin" side is probably all African in origin. Julienne was born a slave (noted as "negresse" on her birth certificate in 1844) and Eglantine herself was brought over from Africa. Unfortunately, we have no idea who the father of Julienne was. We only have a potential clue - in Puerto Rico the father's surname was written down as "Pedro" and searching the records in Martinique has allowed me to identify a family with the surname "Pitroo" who worked on the slave plantation as the Lautin clan; there might be a possible connection to that family and only time and DNA will tell.

Charles-Lautin Family Tree [Personal Photo]

One of my genetic goals was to potentially one day find a cousin who descends via their maternal line all the way down to Eglantine Lautin, this would allow for a MtDNA test to potentially identify a region in Africa she would have originally been from. I have been able to find a genetic cousin via AncestryDNA but they haven't logged into their account for over a year so I haven't heard back from them. The question now became were there segments in my DNA linking me back to potential cousins in Guadeloupe and Martinique? If not, would my grandfather's DNA contain segments? Luckily I have been able to test myself and my maternal grandfather on 23andMe and AncestryDNA along with our Y-DNA line on FtDNA. Thanks to the suggestion of David (a French Caribbean genealogist), I migrated my grandfather's DNA to MyHeritage - which seems to be more popular in France. 

After breaking up my DNA in DNA Painter into segmented colors of who gave me what, you can clearly see all the yellow segments below belonging to my grandfather. 

DNA Painter [Personal Photo]

This DNA in turn comes from his parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, etc. meaning that though those segments cover much of my maternal DNA, I would have inherited genetic material from one out of eight 2nd great-grandparents on that side of the family with ties to Martinique and Guadeloupe. And since it is far back, the odds of me receiving many segments is low as well, but having my grandfather tested means there are more odds of him having more segments as well. Recently in my DNA, I have been able to identify two matches on AncestryDNA and one match on MyHeritage with clear connections to the island of Guadeloupe. 

AncestryDNA

My first match shares DNA with my grandfather but not myself or my mother. Though they share 3 segments across 49cm it's possible that my grandfather was the last generation to inherit these segments. In their "shared matches" list they only share three matches, which is very uncommon for Puerto Rican matches to share such low and limited cousins, so I can probably rule out the fact that this cousin as remotely Puerto Rican. This cousin does however have on their shared matches a cousin who is Puerto Rican but connected to my grandfather via his Correa family which is tied to Martinique and Guadeloupe via María Paulina Charles. The first match I have no idea how they are connected and the third match is a cousin with is mixed Guadeloupean and I think African American. Since AncestryDNA does not share where they match on their DNA, I have no idea how to "chart" this for my grandfather on DNA Painter. The cousin I think is not on Gedmatch either, and I have reached out but no return message so far. 

Guadeloupean Cousin [Personal AncestryDNA]

This 2nd cousin shares DNA across 3 segments as well with my grandfather but this time at 38cm, my guess is that these 3 segments are probably the exact same ones as the first cousin from above. However with this cousin, my mother and myself are said to share DNA with as well. Unfortunately, I have no way of knowing where on my DNA these segments are located.

Cousin with Guadeloupean Ancestry [Personal AncestryDNA]

MyHeritage

This was my grandfather's first official Guadeloupean cousin to first appear for him which was very exciting, since it helped to solidify all the research I had done in the past 8 years. As you can see below I was able to find this cousin by filtering his DNA matches by geographic origins and selecting "France". The segment is listed as only one shared segment but also at 38.3cm like one of my grandfather's AncestryDNA matches. You can also see that based on our trees we both have "Guadeloupe" as an ancestral place for our families based on the trees we have built. I have gotten a chance to chat with this cousin and our families both have ancestry from Les Saintes, which are a set of smaller islands belonging to Guadeloupe! It is possible that there are more matches amongst my grandfather's DNA matches who have a connection somehow to Guadeloupe but so far this is the only one I have been able to find on MyHeritage. 

Guadeloupean Cousin [Personal MyHeritage]

Luckily, on MyHeritage you can see where in your DNA you share the segments. For my grandfather and this match, the segment is located on chromosome 11. 

Shared Guadeloupean DNA [Personal MyHeritage]

My own personal chromosome 11 is inherited mainly in the same spot from my grandfather as the Guadeloupean match comes from but doesn't mean that I would necessarily share that same piece of DNA with that cousin, in order to better know I would probably have to transfer my own DNA into MyHeritage and see if I match this cousin as well.

My Chromosome 11 divided into Grandparent Inheritance [DNA Painter]

Interestingly enough, the region my grandfather shares with this cousin on Chromosome 11 is European on one side and African on the other and specifically the DNA on that side is registered as Nigerian. In a previous post, I took a look at inherited African DNA and I analyzed a bit the fact that Nigerian DNA was much higher on my grandfather's side of the family and potentially connected to María Paulina Lautin. If I had to put some money on it, I wouldn't be surprised if their shared DNA was on the Nigerian side via a slave(s) brought over to Guadeloupe. I'll have to read up on the African influx of slaves to Guadeloupe and see if any studies have been completed on which regions these slaves specifically hailed from.

My grandfather's Chromosome 11 [Personal 23andme]

Why no genetic connections with Martinique? 

I'm not sure why I originally expected genetic connections from Martinique over Guadeloupe. Maybe because I discovered the former side first versus the latter, I expected that my genetic connections would happen in the same order. But taking a closer look it kind of makes sense why I might not have Martinican connections right away, we know that Eglantine was from Africa and Julienne's father probably was as well. Out of Eglantine's five children (one of them being my own 4th great-grandmother), only three (two siblings) went on to have children and who knows if they were were full or half siblings (I'm guessing half over full). 

Next Steps

Nonetheless, this is exciting stuff! The next step would be to try and figure out how we're all related! It doesn't seem like we have any surnames overlapping with each other, but at the same time, knowing that my 5th great-grandparents from Guadeloupe were slaves means that they didn't carry surnames in the traditional sense we have come to know. My 5th great-grandmother only went by "Marie Lucie" and used no surname on documents while my 5th great-grandfather was known as "Jean-Charles Chaleau" and the children passed on both "Chaleau" and "Jean-Charles" as surnames depending on the time period. 

Recently, a document was discovered on Terre-de-Bas (merci beaucoup David!) which mentions Jean-Charles as an uncle in a death record in the year 1853, which would mean he would be related to one her parents. As you can see, there is still much to be discovered and I'm hoping that our DNA will reveal more about our connections. This is also why it is important to explore various companies of DNA and search within your matches! 

Nº 1 Françoise - Décès 1853 [ANOM]

I also can't wait to visit Guadeloupe one day!

Terre de Bas, Guadeloupe [Guadeloupe Le Guide]