Puerto Rico

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Puerto Rican Look at: AncestryDNA Update (2023)

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 …

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Travel Tuesday: País Vasco (Basque Country)

One of my goals with being abroad this year in Spain is to visit more parts of the country. When I lived here as a student I was able to travel a bit around Spain and I got to learn more about the various regions and cultural differences (accents, food, traditions, etc.). Amongst those regions …

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Veterans’ Day: Remembering José Avilés

Recently, in the United States Veterans’ Day, was observed on the 11th of November 2023. For most of my life, I thought I had only one recent ancestor who had served in any modern war, my maternal grandfather having served in the army in the 1960s.  However, a document with what seemed like a random …

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Exciting News: A scholarship, A Publication

The last month has been quite exciting for me in regards to genealogy! The first exciting news is that I was fortunate to have been chosen for a genealogical scholarship via the APG (Association of Professional Genealogists) and the second exciting news is that I will publish my first genealogical piece with the SPG (Sociedad …

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A Coincidental Find: My “De los Santos” Branch from Fajardo

Recently, another genealogist had asked me to check out a document from Puerto Rico and, if possible, provide a transcription for the text. I gladly decided to help, providing both a transcription and translation for the needed document. In helping her out, I decided to try and find some more information about the couple in …

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Puerto Rican Newspaper: El Mundo

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 …

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Update to Santurce records on Familysearch

Some time ago last year I realized that the Familysearch collection for Puerto Rican church records included some indexed record entries for people in my family who were either still living or had recently passed away – basically from the recent generations which are harder to research. Except since they were indexed records only and …

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Genealogical use of Don & Doña

If you grew up speaking Spanish or speak the language with elders, then you have likely heard the terms “Don” and “Doña” thrown around. Don Juan, Don Cheo (nickname for José), Doña Pancha (nickname for Francisca), or Doña María are some examples of this type of title being used. Generally, it is used nowadays to …

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