Finding out what it means to be Boricua through a genetic & genealogical journey through my family history
Recently, an email was sent out informing its members that there had been another update on 23andme. I was pleasantly surprised, especially since this had to do with genetic groups in Africa! I was excited to see if any of my own DNA (or that of my family) would be categorized into new African groups, […]
A Puerto Rican Look at: 23andme’s New African Groups Read More »
Recently, at the end of September, 23andMe released a fairly big update to their genetic DNA results. The biggest changes seem to have come to the European section of the results, which have not been majorly updated for about ten years. So let’s take a look, focusing mostly on my European results! New European Percentages
A Puerto Rican Look at: Updated 23andme Results (2025) Read More »
This is my last post in this three part series. Granted, I know there are other cultures that are involved in making up Puerto Ricans such as Corsicans, other Caribbean islands, countries in South America, etc., but I wanted to focus on the three main groups known to make up the Puerto Rican culture –
A Puerto Rican Look At: Researching Your African Ancestors (Part III) Read More »
Following the post on how to trace your Spanish ancestors, I wanted to spend some time talking about tracing your indigenous ancestry. The main takeaway is that this research is hard! Since Puerto Rico became fairly mixed, fairly quickly, it is quite difficult to find your ancestors on paper listed as Taíno. With that in
A Puerto Rican Look At: Researching Your Indigenous Ancestors (Part II) Read More »
Recently, I decided to upgrade my 23andme test after having left it to the wayside for so many years (it was previously on the V2 chip). It is not that I did not care about my results, it just that for so long I focused on adding other family members to my list that I
A DNA Update: 15 Years Later Read More »
There has been a lot of buzz this week around AncestryDNA’s recent update with their DNA percentages. A lot of people have logged in and either been pleasantly surprised, utterly shocked, and somewhere in between. I wanted to share how my percentages have changed and my take on it. Caveat: I am no DNA expert
A Puerto Rican Look at: AncestryDNA Update 2024 Read More »
I can not believe that this is already my second to last post for 2023! The year has sped by again (… when doesn’t it?) and I soon wrap my genealogical year with a review of my goals and a genealogical look into 2024. However, to end 2023 I want to focus on one of
A Puerto Rican Look at: AncestryDNA Update (2023) Read More »
While browsing my 23andme profiles recently with a new update*, I noticed that various of my profiles would not be receiving said update given how long ago many of my tests were taken. I decided to check out when exactly they were taken and I noticed that some were as far back as 2011! Since
Updated 23andMe results – 2011 vs 2023 Read More »
Time is flying as the end of the summer nears and it seems like a lot is happening! I missed my final post for August but I am hoping I can post three times this month to make up for it. Quite a bit is going on personally in my life as well (good things!)
Updates, updates, updates! Read More »
DNA has been both one of the coolest and yet most difficult tools to use for Puerto Rican genealogy and research. For starters, many Puerto Ricans on the island share mutual ancestors, meaning that DNA has been repeated throughout our branches (sometimes multiple times) and thus create cousin matches seem closer in relation than what they
Chromosome 11 – An Afro-Caribbean Connection Read More »