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!

DNA Tribes Update

With the recent DNA Tribes SNP analysis/ update special (which is currently still going on), I decided to get my mother's and my analysis updated to included the newer populations such as: Andalusia Spain. Germany and Austria, Greek Mixed, Italy General, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia General, Serbia and Croatia, Southern Italy and Sicily, Assyria and Tibet. The main ones for me of importance were the European populations seeing as how I don't have Middle Eastern/East Asian ancestry (at least that I know of!). Here are the results of an example Puerto Rican and what the results would look like. Just a side-note: Since I tested with 23andme, I was able to use that raw DNA information for DNA Tribes to analysis. And so I want to show you the changes from the old analysis to the new one using my results as an example. I'm going to add snapshots of my results from both the old and the new to show you the differences. I will post the old results on the top and the new results on the bottom. 

8 Continental Zones

Here we can see some slight changes on the continental zone percentages. As we can see, with the lower continental zones such as Asian (South/East/North) I scored 0.00% on both the old and new and the update includes Northeast African which I also scored 0.00%. We see though that my European percentage goes from 45.79% to 56.4%. While my Middle Eastern drops from 24.74% to 12.4%, which is significant drop. My guess is that there was a shift of what was considered Middle Eastern and the populations were spread out more. My Sub-Saharan African goes up a bit by about 1% and my native as well. 

24 World Regions

Here we can see the break-up of Europe, Africa and Asian into what is called the 24 World Regions. Notice how my Baltic-Urals Region jumps from 5th place to 2nd place and my Arabian goes from 3rd to 9th. It seems that my highest contributor from Africa come from both Western Africa and Northern Africa which are both historically true to my background. With the importation of Western Africans for slavery and the Northern African conquest of lower Spain, both are contributors to the ancestry which I carry. Interestingly, my great grandfather matches a person on 23andme's ancestry finder with all 4 of their grandparents born in Morocco. I would love to find out how I connect to that person!

Native Populations

This new section called Native Populations was very interesting to me. I obviously take these results with a grain of salt but nevertheless they are very interesting. As you can see here, I included the first 14 countries listed in my Native Populations section. Interesting, England is ranked first at 12.5%, for reasons I don't know. I have no known English ancestry but it could be very possible (my mom's native population ranks England second at 5.7). Next you can see Spain which makes sense, then Aymara from Bolivia which is a native population- my guess is that since there are no pure native genes in the Caribbean from the Taino, the native tribes from South America are the next best thing to gauge a Native American population. Then we have Russia and Poland which is very interesting because I do get cousins on 23andme from these countries. Followed by some more countries. On the DNA Tribe analysis it mentions: 

"This portion of your report identifies ancestral contributions to your genome from native populations. These mixture percentages do not indicate percentages of nationality or ethnicity. Instead, mixture results below express geographical signals of ancestry based on the populations sampled in our database. These genetic signals can reflect present day ethnicity, as well as more ancient links between populations through shared origins, migrations, and trade contacts."

All Populations

Next we have All Populations which includes Diasporic populations. Similarly they mention: 

"This portion of your report identifies ancestral contributions to your genome from all world populations in our database, including modern populations that have mixed and migrated within the past 500 years."

 
As we can see Puerto Rico is correctly placed as #1 at 55.8%. Then we see England, Russia, Poland, Aymara, Brong, Mozabite along with others which appear from the Native Populations. I wonder how accurate the use of the Brong, Bantu, Kaba (tribe of the Sara people) and Hausa people are for me. Can these tribes point to locations where slaves were brought from to the New World? It's a very interesting question and I wonder if one day I'll be able to point to places in Africa where my ancestors were brought from. 

World Grid

Here we can see as DNA Tribe states:

"This portion of your report illustrates your total genetic similarity to a world grid based on native populations in our database. Locations on the grid that are genetically more similar to you are mapped in red (most similar), orange and yellow; locations less similar to you are mapped in purple (least similar), blue and green. This map illustrates the full spectrum of your world genetic relationships."

As we can see the grid shifts a bit from showing Southern Europe to sort of Mid-Central Europe as close populations. Nothing too serious I would say, just a shift based on the native populations section they've added which probably pushes me up a bit due to the English population that ranked so high. 

European Populations

Here we can see the European populations and their similarity to me. Interestingly, my top 5 were Tuscany Italy, Spain, Finland (huh?), France and England as my top five. Most of these made sense except for the Finnish part. The new top 5 European Populations are Greek Mixed (hmmm...), Basque Spain, Poland, Portugal, and Andalusia Spain. These make a lot of sense except for the Greek and Polish I would say, but hey there are a ton of branches on my tree that I have yet to fully explore so who knows what genes I'm carrying from around the world!

List of All Populations

Here is the last one I'll add, I don't want to give everything away ;) I included the top 20 all populations. As we can see both list Puerto Rico as #1, again correct. And then we start getting some interesting results! Browse and check out the top 20! 

I guess I'll never be sure from exactly where some of branches originated from, whether that be in or out of Spain, or even in out of Puerto Rico but hopefully I'll be able to tell you more about where they were from. Hopefully you found my results such as interesting as I did! And remember not every Puerto Rican is the same, some as for example the other profile which I mentioned above, shows completely different populations from the ones I've listed. As I've mentioned before, a lot of different populations contributed to Puerto Rico's history and so there is a vast range of makes us. 

What's In A (sur)Name?

The last four days I spent pouring through Puerto Rico's Civil Registry Birth Records from 1894-1908 from Patillas, Puerto Rico in search of my 2nd great grandmother. 3,003 documents later, I haven't found her. The reason why I decided to bite the bullet and search each document one-by-one is because in other documents where she is mentioned, there a surname which she uses which I have yet to see anywhere else in Puerto Rico (including census records). Which prompted me to write this blog post about the surname and hopefully someone with some knowledge of it or a lead could help me out!

Background: 

Some background about my 2nd great grandmother: Her name is Amalia Rivera Rodriguez/Masantini (she goes back and forth between Rodriguez & Masantini) and she was born about 1898-1901 in what the documents state is Patillas, Puerto Rico. Her father was Cruz Rivera Collazo also from Patillas, Puerto Rico and her mother was Luisa Rodriguez/Masantini from Patillas/Maunabo, Puerto Rico. Amalia married Julio Correa Gustavo/Charles on the 9th of March 1919 in Salinas, Puerto Rico. In her marriage certificate she is mentioned as Amalia Rodriguez (pictured below) and the reason being most likely because her parents were never married. 

9 March 1919 in Salinas, Puerto Rico

In 1910, Amalia Rivera is living with her father Cruz Rivera Collazo in Guardarraya, Patillas, Puerto Rico; her father's martial status is marked as (S): Single. By 1920, Amalia is already living in Rio Jueyes, Salinas, Puerto Rico with her husband. Here, she is mentioned as Masantini (picture below): 

1920 Census in Rio Jueyes, Salinas, Puerto Rico

Months later in March her first son, Manuel Correa Rivera (my great grandfather) was born. On his birth certificate Amalia is mentioned as Rivera and her mother was mentioned as Luisa Masantini. (Pictures below):

1920, Amalia Rivera appears on Manuel's birth certificate

My 3rd great grandmother, Luisa Masantini (sometimes appears as Rodriguez)

The name Masantini doesn't appear again until her third child, Modesta Correa Rivera is born in 1927 when it mentions again Luisa, her mother, as Masantini instead of Rodriguez:

Masantini appears again in 1927

Surname

This surname sounds very Italian/Corsican which is why I'm so interested in it, along with other reasons which I'll discuss shortly. I've search the Puerto Rico Records of Foreign Residents, 1815-1845 and no Masantini or variation of the name appears (I've searched Mazzantini/Mazantini as well). So either the person came in after 1845 or before 1815. Equally, the name has yet to appear anywhere else; even in the 3,003 records I searched not once did a Masantini appear. So I decided to do some research into the last name. I tried searching Masantini along with Puerto Rico and again nothing appeared. I remembered that during one of the "Who Do Think You Are" episodes I believe during the first season they used an Italian surname database to figure out where in Italy there name would be from. Giving it a shot, I decided to search in the database for anyone with the last name Masantini in Italy. To my surprise it appeared! A very small amount of Masantini were found in the Tuscany area of Italy, specifically in the Firenze area. Here are some screenshots of the name appearing in Italy.

Masantini as the red dot (1-5) in Tuscany

The area highlighted where the name appears

Masantini appearing in the Toscana (Tuscan) region, specifically in Firenze

Not wanting to jump the gun and assume that I have Tuscany ancestry running through me, I'll wait until I have further proof to help me identify whether or not I am related to a Masantini family coming from Firenze (also known as Florence in English). Interestingly the name also doesn't appear in America according to this database. There's another reason why I became so interested and it deals with my grandfather's genes.

Genetics

With many 3rd party tools, you can easily use the genetic information you have gotten to find out more. I tested my grandfather with 23andme and posted about results earlier in April. While using things such as Gedmatch.com and getting the BGA analysis I've been noticing some interesting things which I don't know if they are pure coincidences or more pieces to this mystery. In the possible populations mentioned in the BGA analysis were Tuscan along with Italian as well as Spain, when I asked if it was safe to assume there was Tuscan in my grandfather's ancestry he mentioned that it was unlikely to be significant. But could it mean that because my grandfather potentially has some Italian that it appeared none the less though not significantly? Equally in one of the cross sections of European populations, he appears smacked in the middle of the Tuscan & Italian populations. Again I could be overestimating it but no one I've tested in my family from both sides fits so neatly or even as near Tuscan/Italian like he does.

Carlos appears within the Tuscan population

Equally his red dot in the map for Europe appears right over the Tuscan part as well instead of near what I would expect, Spain.

Red Europe dot over Tuscany

Lastly, in the Gedmatch MDLP World-22 Oracle it's interesting to note that in the mixed mode population sharing after Puerto Rican the next possible one is Italian_North and equally as interesting Swiss (which I think could be possibility from German influence on his paternal side- another mystery I'm trying to solve).

Italian_North appearing right after Puerto Rican

I could be overestimating this and connecting false coincidental dots to one another just because I keep seeing the words "Italian" and "Tuscan" appearing left and right; or I could be onto something. So for now I'll settle with the former and consider myself crazy :) There are of course many questions to be asked. Could it be possible that this 'potential' Italian ancestry produce these Italian and Tuscan hits on the genetic side? No one else that I've tested in my family (besides occasionally my mother, of course) gets near to Italy or Tuscany, so why just him? Are the Spanish and Italians genetically different enough for these results to be more than just coincidences? 

Hopefully one day I'll have a solid answer as to why he appears so close to the Italian/Tuscan population and whether or not the "Masantini" family has anything to do with it. So until then I'll hope, dream, imagine and think about all the possible outcomes to this mystery! (And if anyone has an answer or could help; they'll be awesome!)

Narrowing Down Possibilites

I've been meaning to post about this a while ago and with some recent changes to the 23andme relative finder, I've decided to finally write this post!

By testing with 23andme and testing several family members, I am able to narrow down where certain cousins are related to me in my family. Recently I was able to add my grandfather to the list of tested relatives- after much persuading! This has helped tremendously to figure out who comes from what side of the family, yet unfortunately I haven't be able to confirm any of these lines except one.

Recently 23andme added another feature which allows you to link your parents, if you have them tested, and break up your matches into both "mother's side" and "father's side". Here are some screenshots from the new updates to Relative Finder.

New Relative Finder menu

Drop down menu which includes mother and father break down

Here are two distant cousins- "M" for Maternal and "P" for Paternal

For me this new update is both a curse and a blessing. The curse part of it is that practically all my cousins are related to me from my maternal and paternal side. except a handful of distant cousins that are too far away to actually determine how they are related to me. Puerto Rico's population is pretty small if you consider how a country like the United States has many constant, different inputs of cultures. Granted, Puerto Rico has a good number of different populations that can be found on the island, yet the population became a bit inbred after a while since some families have been on the island for such a long time. Most of my family, for example, has been on the island for at least 200-300 years so my mom and dad's side must have rubbed elbows somewhere along the genealogical tree; and 23andme does say they are 3-5th cousins, but I think the relationship is further because I've traced most of their lines through 3rd-5th generations and there is no overlap of ancestors from what I have found.

The blessing is that it allows me to separate the interesting matches I have easily. Now I don't have to enter the Family Inheritance: Advanced tab in Ancestry Labs to figure out where this cousin matches me or my mom/dad's side. Now I can just enter Relative Finder, look for their name and look to see whether a "M" or "P" appears. This is extremely helpful to sort out the Southern and Eastern European matches that keep appearing on my mother's side through her father. What's awesome is that since I was fortunate to test both of my mom's parents I can link them as well and break down the matches even further. Hopefully there'll be a sale soon so that I can test some members on my dad's side of the family in order to break down matches further as well. There are some interesting matches through my dad's side which I would love to know if they come from his mom's or dad's side of the family. 

Soon enough 23andme is expected to release a more up-to-date Ancestry Painting which will include more populations. Hopefully this will help out with sorting out cousins as well!

More pieces to the puzzle?

With the official indexed release of the 1940 Census, I've been searching endlessly for my ancestors hidden within these documents. Only one of my grandparents was born by 1940 and so I've only be able to locate all my great grandparents and some great great parents- those that were still alive. The 1940 Census doesn't bring that much light into my family but it does help add some distant cousins and push some branches out collaterally. But there is my great grandfather, Manuel Correa Rivera, who was very elusive to me until about sometime last year and so there is still a lot to learn about him.

According to the 1930 Census, and if all my information is correct, Manuel was living with his cousin Celedonio Secola and his wife and daughter in San Juan, Puerto Rico. By 1940, Celedonio has returned to Salinas, Puerto Rico and is living there with his mother as well as 'single' which is interesting. Both report that by 1935 they were still living in San Juan.

Now, looking for Manuel was a bit difficult. I tried searching with various things such as name, location, age, sex, etc. Finally I found a "Manolo" Correa Rivera living in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico who I'm pretty sure is my great grandfather. A lot of the information matches with what I know or have about him.

His race was 'colored', he was born about 1920, it says his residence in 1935 was Ponce which is interesting because in my grandfather's birth certificate he mentions Ponce and so does my grandfather whenever I talk to him about his father. So maybe he lived there for a while and considers that home? I have to look into that more! What kind of sealed the deal for me was that his profession was a chauffeur to the family he lived with. Now, how many Manuel Correa Riveras can be living in San Juan, Puerto Rico born abt 1920 of color with the profession of chauffeur? To me, there are too many coincidences for it NOT to be him!

Manuel Correa Rivera living with Luis Sanchez Vahamonde in San Juan, 1940. 

I just really hope that this is the same person I've been trying to track down for about a little over a year now! Too many pieces fit together into this puzzle for it not to be him, even despite having the name "Manolo" which after I looked up is a nickname for Manuel so easily the family could have referred to him as Manolo. So far this is the only person that matches the search and so I hope that everything is correct!

If only there was someone who knew either my great grandfather or even Luis Sanchez Vahamonde which whom Manuel lived with! I guess I have to keep searching for the remaining pieces of this puzzle!

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

So with college graduation and a break between my summer job I've decided to start a short series that I'll add to sporadically and will depend on how much I have to post on here. I've titled it "Series I" because I don't know how many I'll actually end up doing- hopefully I'll do more than one! This first series is titled An Ancestor's Story Through Records which is pretty much exactly what the title says- telling the stories of an ancestor through the records I have available for them (I'll try to choose ancestors that have multiple documents to give a full picture). The object of this series is to bring to life an ancestor I've never met and hopefully give them a voice. Every time I will pick an ancestor, whether a direct ancestor or one from a collateral line, and tell their story, about their families, their profession and anything else I can figure out from documents. For this first part I decided to pick my paternal great grandfather, Alejandro Rivera Gonzalez. I didn't know much about this line probably before two years ago, so to have all this information on him now is truly remarkable. Also, unknowingly-- at least by me, my uncle was his namesake. So let the story begin!

Alejandro Rivera Gonzalez was born in the barrio of Quebrada Arenas in Toa Alta, Puerto Rico. His baptismal record states that he was born on the 9th of December of 1883, and later baptized on the 1st of June in 1884. It states that he is the legitimate son of Jesus Rivera and Laureana Gonzalez, his paternal grandparents were Pedro Rivera and Eusebia Diaz and his maternal grandparents were Valentin Gonzalez and Feliciana Mojica (This last name has also appeared as Muxica and Moxica on other records). His godparents were Ramon Mojica and Agustina Hernandez. As we can see, we learned who Alejandro's parents were as well as his grandparents on both sides of the family. Alejandro was one of 11 children to his parents (These are from the ones I've found so far) and he was the fourth born.

Alejandro's Baptismal Record from San Fernando Rey in Toa Alta

Alejandro has his first marriage on the 19th of June 1906 at the age of 22 to Brigida Hernandez Velez, daughter of Jesus Hernandez Bauta & Maria Florentina Velez. In this first marriage, Alejandro would have three children. During the 1910 Census, Alejandro is still living in Quebrada Areas in Toa Alta with his wife Brigida and their first son Demetrio Rivera Hernandez. They've been married for about four years now and Brigida would be days away from delivering their second child, Monica Rivera Hernandez. He works on his own farm as SC "Su Cuenta" meaning on his own account. He and his wife are both able to read and write (which I say is rare seeing as most of my ancestors were unable to read or write at this time). Alejandro and Brigida would have their last child, Pedro Rivera Hernandez three years later and he would sadly die two months later as a cause of rickets. I imagine that Brigida herself passed away some where between 1913-1916 (when his second marriage occurs)-- I haven't tracked down her death certificate yet.

Alejandro and his family in 1910 (Toa Alta, PR)

Alejandro marries his second wife, Petrona Ortiz Nieves on the 5th of May 1916. She was the daughter of Elias Ortiz Feliciano and Paula Nieves. They married in Toa Alta which makes me wonder how he met Petrona who was originally from Corozal. Both towns are close to one another but I wonder the story behind their encounter. Interestingly enough, Alejandro appears in his WWI Draft Registration Card living in Corozal and that he was depending on Francisco Rodriguez who is his sister's (Valentina Rivera Gonzalez) husband, Valentina also appears on the WWI Draft Card as the closest family member. This makes me wonder where Petrona was at the time, was their marriage in shambles? The draft card dated October 26, 1918 gives us more information on Alejandro himself. It tells us that his race was "white", his height: Medium, his build: Full, his eye color: Brown and his hair color: Brown. As well as his signature!!

My great grandfather's signature on the WWI Registration Card

Alejandro and Petrona would have two children, Amelia Rivera Ortiz and Maria Julia Rivera Ortiz. Petrona later had another children, Manuel but I don't know who the father is- in 1930 he appears like Amelia and Julia as "Rivera Ortiz" but I wonder if that was just done as a mistake/ to make the census process go faster. Alejandro and Petrona would be divorced by the 17th of February 1922 by the Tribunal District and he would be remarried for the third time with my great grandmother Mercedes Ortiz Marrero on the 31st March 1922. Interestingly, his sister Valentina Rivera Gonzalez was living in Corozal next door to Mercedes and her family in 1920 so I wonder if that's how he met her, which is very likely. I neither found Alejandro nor Petrona on the 1920 Census so I'm not sure where they were, whether in Toa Alta or Corozal.

1920 Census with Valentina's and Mercedes' family as neighbors

Mercedes would be his last wife and the starter of our family line. Unfortunately the records I have don't tell me why Alejandro and Petrona divorced but I imagine the Tribunal District should have that on record and could be something I could find while in Puerto Rico. So by 1930 Alejandro and Mercedes were living in San Juan, specifically in La Perla with six children-- two from his previous relationship with Petrona (Demetrio and Monica) and the other four from his marriage with Mercedes (Antuliano, Maria, Manuela, and Francisca Rivera Ortiz). In this census it still says he is able to read/write but his wife Mercedes isn't. I can't make out what his profession was but I can see that he is working with his son Demetrio in Plaza Mercado.

Alejandro and family living in San Juan, PR in 1930

I've been lucky to find Alejandro and his family in the 1940 Census and mainly because they were still living in the same area. Alejandro appears still with Mercedes and his children Antuliano, Iris Maria, Manuela, Francisca and my grandfather Felipe Rivera Ortiz! They would have one more daughter, Antonia Rivera Ortiz, born on 1942.

Alejandro and his family in the 1940 Census

The last bit of information I have of Alejandro comes from the WWII Draft Registration Cards. It shows that he works in La Princesa St. in San Juan, Puerto Rico and that Alberto Gomez will always know his address (I'm guessing this is a neighbor of his). Again I have his signature and some more physical information which shows: his race as "white", his height: 5'4'', his eye color: Brown, his weight: 140lbs, his hair color: Brown, and his complexion: Light Brown. The reason why I put white in quotations is because race in Puerto Rico wasn't so easily split into categories, I would say.

Alejandro's Signature on the WWII Draft Registration 

This year, two miraculously things happened to me: the first was finding my cousin Mercedes (the namesake of my great grandmother/ her grandmother) who led me to number two: being able to find our family tomb. I wrote about it before in an earlier post. She also gave me a picture of my grandfather which I won't put on here just for the fact that I went through so much to get it that I don't want it floating all around the internet and I want it to be treasured. But I will post the picture I took myself of the family tomb. Only one final piece of this story is missing which is his death date and under what causes he died. He was pretty old when he must have passed away somewhere around his mid 70s I'll guess. 

I would how Alejandro would have felt seeing Puerto Rico as a Spanish territory and then living through the Spanish American War and becoming a US citizen and the status of commonwealth. I learned a lot about him, that he was pretty short (5'4'') and was able to read and write. That he married three times and moved from the rural town of Toa Alta as a farmer to heart of the city in San Juan and worked. That he had brown eyes and brown hair and looped his "R" in Rivera similarly like how I do. You can learn a lot about a person you never met through the documents that recorded their stories. And hopefully there is still more to learn about my great grandfather, Alejandro Rivera Gonzalez!