Finding out what it means to be Boricua through a genetic & genealogical journey through my family history
There are many times in genealogy where we “discover” an ancestor, but a lot is still left in the shadows. We gain bits and pieces of information about this person, but sometimes the whole picture doesn’t come into full view. It can be missing information such as documents themselves to tie together the person or …
Revisiting my 2nd great-grandmother: Amalia Rivera Rodríguez Read More »
The time has finally arrived – April 1st, 2022; the release of the 1950 Census! If this is the first time that you hear about this release, it has been a long time coming. Literally 72 years! The census records recorded every ten years are stored away until the names written on them can be …
When it comes to learning about our ancestors, we usually want to learn pretty much everything about them – no detail seems too small. How tall were they? What color eyes did they have? Where did they live and where did they work? And of course, who were their parents and where were they from? …
Growing up I always knew I had ties to the town of Lares, Puerto Rico and the connection came via the paternal side of the family. My great-grandmother was born and raised in Lares, and just before she passed I got the chance to meet her in the early 1990s. I don’t remember much about …
Just like that it is time to set goals for the new year! If you’d like to read my goals from 2021 and what I was able to accomplish – click here! My Genealogical Resolutions seem to date back to at least 2013, which means I have been doing this for at least 8 years …
Well jeez – if I thought 2020 was the blink of an eye then 2021 was the second blink! This year definitely flew by as well as we continue to grapple with the pandemic. Now, with the Omicron variant making its way through the United States, things seem almost to be heading backwards as the …
Reflecting on my Genealogical Resolutions of 2021 Read More »
If you’re stumbling across this post- you’re either a faithful reader (Thanks! ¡Gracias!) or you might be ready to bite the bullet to hire a genealogist but you might not exactly know how to go about it. Granted, I have only hired one genealogist twice myself, but having various years of genealogy under my belt …
Back in 2019, I had learned rather be chance that my Rivera family had spent some time in Guaynabo. Whether to only marry or not, José de Rivera and his wife Gertrudis Román married in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico the 2nd of March 1802. Discovering their marriage record allowed me to learn the name of their …
To be quite honest, I had the idea of this post a long time ago and then I put it off from writing it for a long time as well. Mostly for two reasons: 1) the post seemed rather morbid and 2) I wasn’t sure if I was releasing information I didn’t want out there. …
Last July, 23andMe blogged about a recently (at the time) published article that looked at genetics and the legacy the transatlantic slave trade left on the New World (specifically countries like the United States, countries in the Caribbean and in Latin America which were main receivers of enslaved people). Their post (23andMe blog linked) offers …
23andMe Takes a Look at the Transatlantic Slave Trade Read More »