With Father’s Day being today in the United States, I figured I would provide an update to my direct paternal haplogroup which I updated through the Big Y test through FamilyTreeDNA. It took a few months to get the results earlier this year, and I did a new haplogroup assignment. I wanted to go over this information since my Rivera surname is fairly common in Puerto Rico; however, I haven’t found other matches for my surname. So let’s take a look!
Genealogical Background
On paper, my surname goes back to the 1700s in Puerto Rico to a man named Pedro de Rivera, the husband of María Morales and the father of José de Rivera Morales. Unfortunately, I do not have any documents for Pedro, but I do have the marriage of José de Rivera, my 4th great-grandfather, who married Gertrudis Román in 1802 in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. Though José married in Guaynabo, my Rivera ancestors lived in Toa Alta for close to 200 years.
New Haplogroup Branch
With the Big Y testing, my new haplogroup classification was I-PH1671. What’s interesting is that within my branch, there is a German match. Looking at the other branches, we see there are other countries in Europe and even one branch in the Dominican Republic present. Since my branch is European in origin, I am not surprised to see the diversity in countries. However, to be placed in the same branch as someone with roots in Germany was interesting. Looking at my haplogroup’s age better explains why this might be.
Haplogroup Story/Timeline
My haplogroup is actually quite old, dating back to 1100BC when my branch broke off. This can be a difficult pill to swallow for someone who doesn’t do much genealogy and expects results to be much closer in time (especially with the high cost associated with these tests). At 1100BC, it will be difficult to use documents to triangulate and confirm with others the origins of my branch. However, as more people test, the more refined and better divided the tree can become, showing a much closer branch to modern times. Hopefully, my branch will move closer in time and allow me to find closer matches as more and more people understand the power of Y-DNA testing.
What's next?
There are a few things I can do with my testing. I can try to find other Rivera men that descend from my tree and see if they would be willing to test. This would allow me to confirm that I (and them) are descendants from the same Rivera family in Toa Alta. By growing my Rivera web of relatives, this could help me to better identify other members of the Rivera tree and to confirm that I am truly a descendant along with others from this family.
I could also sit around and wait. Given the high costs of testing at this level, it would definitely burn a hole in my pocket to test so many people at this level. The best way would be to start with a lower testing such as Y-DNA37 and then upgrade from there if they fall into the I haplogroup branch like me.
I could also continue to do my genealogy for my Rivera branch. By studying their FAN (Friends, Associates, Neighbors) network, especially the people they served as godparents for, it can help to identify other potential members of the Rivera family tree. For example, can I identify other siblings for Pedro? Uncles, aunts, cousins, etc. by studying records associated to them.
Having various options means there are different paths to take on studying my Rivera line. For now, I will wait and see if others are willing to test on their own and continue to build out my Rivera family tree in the 1700s to the best of my ability. I recently posted about how I used LucidChart to identify potential testers for their mtDNA, associated to my 4th and 5th great-grandmothers. This is something I can definitely do for my Rivera branch as well.
Cover Photo Source: “Time Tree”, FamilyTreeDNA (https://www.familytreedna.com/ : accessed 14 June 2025). Username and password of Luis Rivera privately held by Luis Rivera.