Bernarda would have been born sometime in the mid-late 1700s based on her children’s birth years. She was from the beloved town of Toa Alta and probably lived there for most of her life. I’m not sure if she and her husband Antonio de los Santos Rivera would move to Corozal and pass away there but many of their children would move and live there themselves. I do know that Bernarda would live passed the year 1818, however. Between Antonio and Bernarda, I have been able to trace nine children in total so far. She is one of my ancestresses from my maternal side of the family, who surprisingly has roots in Toa Alta which my father’s side of the family has lived in for many, many years.
The Marrero also appears a few times in my paternal side of the family, so who knows if Bernarda has some ties to those families being that they lived in the same town in the 1700s, I can’t imagine Toa Alta having a ton of inhabitants that weren’t related or connected somehow seeing as how Puerto Rico is pretty connected even now a days.
Seeing as Bernarda was born in a time that I don’t have records for, she doesn’t appear on any census records. Neither do I have a baptism, marriage, or death record. I do have most of her children’s baptism records and I can probably try and piece together some more family members through the names of the godparents. Hopefully I can find more records from Toa Alta dating further back in the early 18th century to try and piece together some of the lines I have from that town.