José Avilés Magraner

A Puerto Rican Look at: SS-5 Files

Recently while working on another genealogical case, I realized that I had gone all these years without ordering a crucial record for my ancestor José Avilés – his SS-5 file. Like many novice genealogists, I probably overlooked this resource when I first started my genealogical journey and then as time went on, I forgot that …

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A DNA Connection to Sóller, Mallorca

My journey to discover more about my Mallorcan roots has been a long one! It started with a simple story about an ancestor from Spain (Part I & II), learning about the surname Magraner, going to the archives in Puerto Rico to learn about a man named Damián Magraner and ultimately traveling to Mallorca to …

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Travel Tuesday – Lares, Puerto Rico

Late again on this Travel Tuesday and pretty late seeing as how I took this trip last March but I wanted to highlight my quick trip to Lares, Puerto Rico. Last year in March 2016, for Spring Break, I took a trip to Puerto Rico where I spent time with my grandmother both searching records …

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Searching el “Registro de la Propiedad”

While in Puerto Rico during my spring break, one of the main things I wanted to do was go to a Registo de la Propiedad. I had heard a lot about them and how they could provide certain information that census records and church records didn’t. So I knew that this was a place I …

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52 Ancestors – #52 María Inocencia Avilés (1876-1903)

Finally, ancestor #52! Took me a while to get here and I didn’t finish how I had wanted to on time but I’m glad to be on this post none the less! This post seems like a full circle for me since the tale of this ancestress is what sparked and fueled my interest at …

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52 Ancestors – #6 José Avilés Magraner (1891-1981)

My 2nd great grandfather, José Avilés Magraner, has been to me the quintessential Puerto Rican ancestor. Growing up I had always heard José Avilés was tall, white and had blue eyes. Stories were passed down to me about him that turned out to be typical myths heard in stories passed throughout the generations in Puerto …

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