Finding out what it means to be Boricua through a genetic & genealogical journey through my family history
Sometimes in our genealogical research, we come across an individual who had the same name as our ancestor and we have to decide – is this the same person or someone else? We therefore have to ask ourselves: How can we use records to help us deduce whether there is an overlap in identity or […]
Separating Same-named Individuals Read More »
It is that time of the year where the DNA results get updated again! It seems like just yesterday that AncestryDNA released an update, and yet, here we are again a year later! Let’s take a look at my updated AncestryDNA results and see how I feel about them. There are some new features and
A Puerto Rican Look at: AncestryDNA Update 2025 Read More »
Recently, FamilySearch released their “Full Text” search option as an official tool on their website. Initially, I was hesitant that it would be useful for Puerto Rican genealogy; however, I was proven wrong this past weekend! So let’s take a look at this tool and how it can be used for Puerto Rican research. Source:
A Puerto Rican Look At: Full Text Search Read More »
Two weeks ago I headed to Puerto Rico for a quick long weekend visit for my grandmother’s birthday. So I decided to quickly stop by the Archivo General de Puerto Rico (AGPR). I hadn’t been here since 2019 (pre-pandemic) when I was on spring break and decided to search for my 5th great-grandmother’s last will
A Quick Visit to the Archivo General de Puerto Rico Read More »
As a Puerto Rican genealogist, this is probably one of (if not) the question I get asked most often… How do I find my Spanish ancestor? This question gets asked for a variety of reasons such as family stories, DNA results, dual citizenship purposes, and/or hints from genealogical research where an ancestor was listed as
A Puerto Rican Look At: Researching Your Spanish Ancestors (Part I) Read More »
Recently, I decided to add three of my grandmother’s siblings to 23andMe. Though 23andMe does not feel as strong of a genealogical community as it did in the past, it still remains, in my opinion, to be one of the best ethnicity predictors out there. My main wish is that they bring back the chromosome
A Puerto Rican Look at Genetic Communities: Delmarva Peninsula African Americans Read More »
Last weekend from May 23-26, I was able to attend the National Genealogical Society’s conference “Tales and Trails” in Louisville, Kentucky. This entailed three days of genealogical workshops, seminars, chats, and get togethers that allowed me to pick up some new techniques, learn more about the work being done by others in the genealogical world, and
My First In-Person Conference: NGS Tales & Trails, 2025 Read More »
Last month, I had a great opportunity where I was able to speak about Puerto Rican genealogy (in both English and Spanish!) to the New York City area. The session was presented online and so I was able to pre-record my presentations in both languages, create the handouts, and share them with the community from
Preserving Your New York Story: Tracing Your Puerto Rican Roots. Read More »
In Puerto Rican genealogy the year 1885 can be a fairly crucial year. This is because before this date, vital events such as birth, marriage, and death were recorded by the churches… and with that came a lot of variation! For example, some church records are available online while others were not digitized and remain
Lares Municipal Census 1878 Read More »
TW: Suicide, death. This blog entry contains an article which speaks about suicide. If you find this to be a sensitive topic, please feel free to skip this post. This week I came to learn that the Puerto Rican newspaper El Imparcial had been placed online. Last time this happened, it occurred with the newspaper El Mundo where I
Puerto Rican Newspaper: El Imparcial Read More »