Finding out what it means to be Boricua through a genetic & genealogical journey through my family history
Many of the sources we use for research in Puerto Rico are vital records – we use birth, marriage, and death records to learn new names of our ancestors as we climb up genealogical trees. Sometimes we get lucky and find confirmation records (the Catholic sacrament) or church dispensations for marriages of consanguineous relations between …
Last week on May 23rd, I was able to attend an event in Paris just two days shy before leaving France. I had been living abroad teaching English the last eight months and my last wish was to attend this event hosted by CM98 (Comité Marche du 23 Mai 1998), a genealogical group I am …
Recently on Ancestry I was asked what I knew about Tomás Anzalota, an Italian immigrant to Puerto Rico who appears in my tree. Though Tomás is not a part of my main line of ancestors, whenever I find crossovers of people who married cousins or members of my family that are fairly interesting or a …
As I am currently living France, last month while I was on vacation I decided to create a specific and intentional route for my travels. Why? Because I knew that on the 21st of December I wanted to be in the town of Saint-Malo. Currently in my family tree, I have no genealogical connection to …
December 21st – A Day Dedicated to My Ancestress 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!) …
I’m not gonna lie — I have hesitated so many times in writing this post. First, I created the post itself and saved it under drafts for two years (enter the pandemic and other life events), after I began doing some research on the family and then stopped. Lastly, I created a file for them …
A Triple-Barrelled Surnamed Family? The García-Rodríguez-Bonilla Read More »
Sometimes in genealogy, the most important step is taking none at all – take a break from your tree! Though it might seem counter-productive, spending too much time on a specific branch can cause burnout, in my opinion. There are many times you might find yourself coming across dead-ends and brick walls with what seems …
Some time ago (or what feels like an eternity ago) I had the pleasure of presenting for the first time about Puerto Rican research and genealogy. The first presentation was to a society in Texas (over Zoom) which I was asked by a fellow Boston University Genealogical Research classmate if I could present in one …
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 …
It’s been quite a bit since I last posted, and for good reasonings. Given the situation we’re in globally and finishing out the school year was pretty rough so genealogy took the back burner for a while. I had originally started migrating everything from my older blog to my new website some time after the …