Whisperings of the Past

So while researching through Puerto Rican records I came across something very interesting that I had never seen before and decided to post about it! While researching in the "Registro Central de Esclavos" of 1872 I came across a slave born in Africa who mentions her African parents' names! I'm not sure how often this happens but from the different experiences I've had searching in Puerto Rico, Martinique, and Guadeloupe this is the first time I have seen it. I imagine this has happened to others and I would love to see those stories! So today I'll talk about a woman named Julia Tirado and the whisperings of her African past.

By coincidence I ran into this woman's record and I can't remember how I came across her, I imagine I was searching for all "Julia" slaves in the registry and was surprised when I came across her record. Julia appears as the slave of a "Guillermo F. Tirado" and she is listed as a single laborer of 53 years of age. There are other things about her such as a description about her height, color, hair, eyes, nose, and mouth as well as where she was documented. Here is the record below!

Julia, slave of Guillermo Tirado [Ancestry]

Julia's physical descriptions [Ancestry]

If you notice, Julia was a slave living in barrio Indios, in the town of Guayanilla, a native of Africa, and the daughter of Osaré and Dango having one daughter named Cecilia also known as Celia. When I saw this I did a double take. Was an African slave just registered with the name of her African parents?!?!

Julia Tirado, African slave [Ancestry]

Now this shocked me for many reasons, one mainly being that we had some sort of connection to her past "across the pond". Though we don't know where Julia was from, probably somewhere in the range of Western Africa, we do know her parents' names… which to me was huge! This also surprised me because I had figured that the registry was made of slaves in which the slave masters had noted to the census takers… but could the slaves have had a say in who they were the sons/daughters of? Many slaves probably didn't remember the names of their parents because they were taken away at such a small age but Julia probably made the voyage over as a grown woman or at least a teenager and therefore knew very well the name of her parents. What could this information tell us?

First let's try to explore more about Julia's life in Puerto Rico! Julia was said to be 53 in 1872 meaning she was born about 1819 according to the registry. The registry states that thanks to the "Ley Moret approved on the 4th of June 1870, certain categories of slaves were freed such as the ones over the age of 60 or children of slaves born after the 17th of September 1868" (Ancestry). Therefore, Julia was already very close to receiving freedom but the following year in 1873 all slaves were freed in Puerto Rico. 

Since I don't have access to census records from Guayanilla in that time we can only use this registry and the civil registry to try and learn more about Julia. She would later pass away in the same town in the barrio of Magas on the 2nd of June 1887 from a fever, she was recorded to be from Africa and 90 years old. Interestingly here no parents are listed for her, I imagine after time the names were forgotten and not repeated. It seems that Julia was a laborer all her life while in Puerto Rico making a living tilling the land. We do also know that in 1872, Julia claims having a daughter named Cecilia and I was able to find a Cecilia, slave to the same man Guillermo Tirado, and the daughter of Eliceo and Julia. This Cecilia was 24 years old meaning she would have been born about 1848. 

Cecilia Tirado, Slave - 1872 [Ancestry]

If this Cecilia is the same girl, then we have another generation, a son named Ramón. I haven't been able to find a Ramón, slave of Guillermo Tirado but seeing as how he was possibly born after 1868 then he might fit under the Ley Moret and therefore was born with freedom. I was able to find a Cecilia dying in Magas, Guayanilla on the 8th of April 1821 at the age of 75, however no parents or grandparents are listed. Seeing though that this would place this Cecilia born about 1846 and being listed as "black (negra)" we can assume that they are one and the same. A 1910 census search shows a Cecilia Tirado, black, living as a boarder with a Yordán Dávila family in Guayanilla, she lists born parents as having being born in Africa. She lists having had 4 children though none were alive at the time of the 1910 census.

Cecilia Tirado - 1910 Census [Ancestry]

I was interested if I could find out more about the names "Osaré" and "Dango", could we find any association to a tribe or country? There is one website that I found in my research called African-Origins which uses information from other sources to give life to liberated Africans and others. Could I find any mentions of others with similar names? 

African-Origins Website

I searched "Dango" to see what I could find, so I searched the name as well as "female" to see what results I would get. I surprised to see I did get various results!

Dango results [African Origins]

Interestingly enough the first four hits show that those Dango women aged 21, 17, 9, and 20 respectively were on all separate voyages but all had one thing in common: all disembarked from Sierra Leone and in their geographical profile says that they belong to the language group "Kuranko". The Kuranko people are known to be an ethnic group from Sierra Leone and Guinea. I'm not sure if this could be a potentially point to Julia's origin but it's interesting to be able to make this hypothesis with the information available. 

Kuranko - Sierra Leone [Ancestry]

Now the father's name I'm not too sure, I want to say the name is Osaré but sometimes I think it might be Ocaré or Ocan, but based on what I can tell I'm leaning towards the former and not the latter options. Those results were a bit more varied than "Dango", I got various spellings of the name and I'm not sure that in Puerto Rico the name was spelled correctly since it was written with Spanish conventions, so I tried both Osare and Osaray. 

Osaré/Osaray results [African Origins]

The first result (Ocaray) gave me Igbo origins, while Osará gave me no language group connection. Other results such as Okaray and Ocaree point to Igbo origins as well. So I'm left with not really knowing where Julia's origins could be from, since the Igbo are mainly found in Nigeria which isn't a bordering country to Sierra Leone or Guinea. Though I can not point to a certain African origin, just even having the opportunity to be able to do this for someone is thrilling none the less. When many of us search our slave ancestors were are trapped in the New World with no names or evidence that might point us to any African origins. However having names of African parents gives us a different view into slave genealogy and research, I would say!

As I was writing this post, I discovered two other slaves who also knew the name of their parents, both interestingly enough in Guayanilla and one even another slave of Guillermo Tirado which makes me wonder! Interestingly enough these two slaves were also in the 50s as well! What makes think about the relation these slaves had with their masters as well. So much to think about! 

Serafina, slave of Guillermo Tirado - 1872 [Ancestry]

Ramón, slave of Pedro Villoch - 1872 [Ancestry]

Combining traditional genealogy research and DNA research would definitely yield some interesting results when it comes to research slaves' past! 

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

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

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

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

Parroquia San Joaquín de Adjuntas [Wikipedia]

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

Distance from Mayagüez to Adjuntas [Google Maps]

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

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

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

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

Lorenzo, esclavo de Bernardina Sepúlveda [Ancestry]

Juan, esclavo de Bernardina Sepúlveda [Ancestry]

Ma Tomasa, esclavo de Bernardina Sepúlveda [Ancestry]

Felipa, esclavo de Bernardina Sepúlveda [Ancestry]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Antonetti Slaves in Salinas, Puerto Rico

So being home all day bored leads you to a lot of genealogy. So a couple of days ago, I decided to write down all the slaves the Antonetti family owned according to the 1872 Central Registry of Slaves which can be found on ancestry.com. And boy did they have a good number of slaves; 97 to be exact that were registered! It seems that these brothers might have owned some type of sugar or coffee farm/plantation which was were these slaves were keep, probably a prominent family in the area. I decided to jot down the names, where they were from, their parents' names if they were mentioned, their age, a guesstimate for the year they would have been born, their profession (which was mainly just laborer), the names of their children if they had any and their martial status (which most were single), and lastly the page they were found on.

Just a few side-notes:

• You'll notice that some are highlighted yellow and that's because they were found on the 1910 Census still alive. 
• The list will probably keep evolving and changing in some type of way. Whether that be including more concrete dates or names, I'll probably go back to add more details about who these slaves were. 
• Some names appear with an "@" followed by another word. My theory is that these might be other names the slaves went by. From the looks of it, some had other names they were known by. I could easily be wrong, so if someone knows what it stands for please do tell!
• The list is not ordered alphabetically but by who their parents were. This way the children appear together as best as they could so that I can start developing a pattern of who was who's offspring and what not. 
• Some names might be followed by a (?), this means that the name wasn't really clear and so I took a stab at what it most resembled. 

Here's the list!