Luis Rivera

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 […]

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Exploring Maternal Haplogroups

In honor of International Women’s day and because I was itching to write about a certain haplogroup, I decided that this was the opportune time for me to write! So far with 23andme, I have been able to test 7 people in my family including myself and have been able to discover 4 different maternal

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My Gustave-Lautin Family

This genealogical year has been off to a good start! The mystery of my Martinican ancestors is almost coming to a close (though there is still much to sort out!) Last week the Vieques church records I ordered to the LDS center arrived and I was pumped to search through them. I knew that my

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The Ending to a Search?

Sometime late last month, I decided to fully explore the possibility of Juliana Balbina Lotten’s death in Ponce, Puerto Rico. I had checked before but to no avail, nothing came up. I checked for the surnames Charles, Gustavo, Pedro, Pérez, Lotin, Sotin, and pretty much every other possibility that I knew was out there. I

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Making Ends Meet!

Last week I was pretty fortunate to be able to search through the Adjuntas church records which were microfilmed by the LDS. I knew that some ancestors in my family through my paternal side lived in Adjuntas for a while thanks to the Census records. Adjuntas, Puerto Rico- a town nestled in the Central Mountain

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Tracing Eglantine Lautin

Ever since I discovered the document for Julienne Malvina Lautin and her mother Eglantine Lautin (as well as Pauline Lautin) in Rivière Salée, Martinique I can’t stop thinking about this family! I was super lucky to find Julienne’s and Pauline’s birth records in Trois Bourgs despite them being slaves and I also discovered that Eglantine

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A New Year- New Genealogical Resolutions

A New Year Is Here!! As the new year rang in, I thought about all the things I want accomplished in my life throughout 2013. But I also thought about the genealogical resolutions I would make for this upcoming year. So I decided to come up with some resolutions and wishes (in no particular order) for

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Discovering Stories Through Others

Since I’m on vacation and have some downtime, I decide to start reading some of the books I ordered. The ones I got so far are “Black Shack Alley”, “Texaco” and “The Diligent”. I decided to start with Texaco seeing as how it’s a historical fiction book which I thought would be nice to start

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Past Lives and Genetic Memories

A couple of months ago, I read this very interesting article written in the New York Times by Doreen Carvajal. In the article, she explores the idea of epigenetics, which she states: “is the notion that genes have memory and that the lives of our grandparents — what they breathed, saw and ate — can directly

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