A Puerto Rican Look at: My X-Chromosome

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

X-Chromosome Inheritance [Personal Photo]

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

X-DNA Male Inheritance [The Genetic Genealogist]

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

My X-Chromosome Inheritance [Personal Photo]

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

Genetic Breakdown

North African & Arabian; Broadly European

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

Native American

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

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

Broadly Southern European; Spanish & Portuguese

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

Conclusion

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

A Puerto Rican Look at: Colorized Pedigrees!

I've been seeing these style of pedigrees online for a while now and decided I should give it a go! Thanks to Zalewski Family Genealogy blog  I was able to use the template and create my very own pedigree. Because my family has been on the island of Puerto Rico for over 200+ years, I didn't think it would have made sense to create a chart with just the same color over and over again to represent Puerto Rico. With this template I was able to include up to my 3rd great grandparents, which are 32 different ancestors! I was able to include their surnames on the side as well, giving you an idea where my family surnames originate from on the island. It was interesting seeing how diverse my family tree is in terms of locations. If you notice, it was only recently that my family came to the capital of San Juan with 3/4 of my grandparents being born there, though all of them spent their formative years growing up and living there. If you take a further look, my family has been present on the island for those 200+ years in almost all my branches, there is only one ancestor that made the cut for being from another place and that's my 3rd great grandfather from Mallorca, Spain.

I definitely had a lot of fun doing this pedigree and there are so many other styles you could do as well! Though morbid, I'm thinking of creating a pedigree with family deaths to see if there are any recurring patterns and to have an idea of what is potentially passed down in my family. You could also even create a pedigree with signatures of your ancestors! Though I would love to create one, unfortunately most of my ancestors didn't know how to write since they were all farmers and barely attended school past what we know as elementary/middle school.

Colorized Pedigree [Personal Photo]

I'm not sure how common it is to move so much to different cities but if you notice my mother's side of the family, they were notorious for making moves across the island. My father's side on the other hand seems to stick more to certain towns. For example, we have been in the towns of Corozal, Lares, and Toa Alta for many many years on my dad's side of the family. To give you an idea, here's a list of all my family locations which include 20 different locations on the island, those being: 

• Adjuntas, Puerto Rico
• Barranquitas, Puerto Rico
• Corozal, Puerto Rico
• Jayuya, Puerto Rico
• Lares, Puerto Rico
• Maunabo, Puerto Rico
• Manatí, Puerto Rico
• Morovis, Puerto Rico
• Patillas, Puerto Rico
• Quebradillas, Puerto Rico
• Salinas, Puerto Rico
• San Juan, Puerto Rico
• San Sebastián, Puerto Rico
• Toa Alta, Puerto Rico
• Utuado, Puerto Rico
• Vega Baja, Puerto Rico
• Vieques, Puerto Rico
• Yabucoa, Puerto Rico
• Yauco, Puerto Rico
• Mallorca, Spain

I recommend any genealogist who enjoys working with their tree to give this a go. It was super easy to create and could make a very cool poster for a wall! You could even include names and dates to give it more importance as well! 

Small World, Smaller Island!

It's always crazy when something finds you serendipitously, especially in genealogy! So far throughout my searches I've come across some interesting things that have made me say "WOW! What a small world!". I'll talk about 3 different events that have happened to me that showed me that not only is this a small world but that Puerto Rico is indeed a small(er) island!

Look up! 

Looking for baptisms of my umpteen grandparents can sometimes be a taxing job. Especially in a town like Toa Alta, Puerto Rico where in the early 1800s the baptism books were divided by race categories such as Blanco (White), Pardo & Moreno (People of color/Black) and Esclavos (Slaves). If you didn't know what category your family was placed under, you'd have to search and search until you found them.

Finding my 3rd great grandmother Feliciana Mojica González wasn't to hard of a task. I knew her family was usually categorized as "pardo" so I checked those books first and found that she was baptized in Toa Alta on the 14th of March 1813. Easy enough! But finding my 4th great grandmother, Martina Vásquez Fuentes wasn't too easy. Her descendants moved into Corozal, Puerto Rico where my great grandmother Mercedes Marrero Ortiz would be born. So I thought that she too was born in Corozal. Yet looking over Feliciana's baptism record and looking at all the names I noticed that right above her was a "Marta" being baptized- turns out to be my Martina!! Since Corozal originally started out as a part of Toa Alta, many families originally had roots in Toa Alta before moving into Corozal or just falling into the section of the new town. These two women are not related but Feliciana's grandson and Martina's great granddaughter would father my grandfather! It would be so funny if these women either lived near each other or were behind each other on a line to baptize their children in the church. Small world!! Here is the record of Feliciana and Martina!

Baptisms in 1813 of Martina Vásquez and Feliciana Mojica
Toa Alta, Puerto Rico

An odd reunion

While doing some genealogy at one of the centers I visit, I met a nice woman who's family was also from Puerto Rico. As we started to chat we realized that we both had family in Toa Alta but no similar surnames. She was stuck with finding some records and so I decided to help her out since I knew the Toa Alta church records pretty well. While searching for her great grandmother's baptism record, I came across a great-aunt of her's being baptized in 1856. While looking at the names, I noticed something super interesting- the godparents of this great-aunt of her's were my 3rd great grandparents! So our families 157 years ago gathered at a church to baptize her great-aunt. Finding that record revealed that we actually had the surname Rivera in common! So far I haven't been able to confirm that we are connected by blood but our families did know each other. How weird that 157 years later in a different town and a different country, two strangers would meet who's families once knew each other!

My 3rd great grandparents: Pedro Rivera & Eusebia Diaz
as godparents in 1856.

At last!

Earlier last week, I had one of the best moments of serendipity. While looking for my paternal 2nd great grandmother's birth certificate (or her sister's) in Utuado, Puerto Rico I came across very unexpectedly someone else. I saw the surnames "Sánchez Arvelo" and right away realized those names were on my mother's side of the family! Oddly enough I found a 2nd great granddaughter being born in Utuado, Puerto Rico despite her parents being from Quebradillas and San Sebastián. This whole time I was looking through Lares, San Sebastián, Quebradillas and Manatí for them when out of nowhere I find one of them in Utuado! Odds are my 2nd great grandmother was also born there but since the records aren't indexed I'll have to search 1 by 1. Finding this record gave me the name of 2 sets of my 4th great grandparents- I was so happy to find out more names in this family because I had searched for so long to find out more about them.

I'm constantly surprised by how small this world really is!