During a recent trip to Puerto Rico this summer, I decided to do some digging outside of the typical notarial registers that I research while I am there. I wanted to see what else the Archivo General de Puerto Rico had in its records that could be of genealogical help. It was this way that I found an unexpected find — a book of baptisms for Vega Baja between 1840-1853.
This came as an absolute surprise to me because typical the religious books are held in the church or the Archdiocese and not in the General Archive. So when I found this book catalogued online, I was surprised to find it and wondered if it was still there.
During one of my in-person visits to the archive during my trip, I asked if they by chance had the baptismal book still there. The archivist told me he did not see why not and so I requested the box for another day. When I returned I was surprised to see the box waiting for me and even more surprised when I found the actually baptismal book.
What was inside?
Though the first pages were not in great shape, the rest of the book seemed to hold up well. It’s also important to note that when taking a look inside, it doesn’t seem to be the actual baptismal book itself, if not, a sort of shorthand. Nonetheless, I was surprised to find it because finding religious records from Vega Baja before 1885 is not easy.
An Entry of Interest
One entry of interest was a baptism that occurred on 19 October 1841 for María Florentina. She was the legitimate daughter of Juan Calderón and Concepción Nazario and classified as P.L. — Parda Libre. This was very likely the baptismal record of my fourth great-grandmother who went by the name Flora.
Typically, the names of the godparents are included in the baptism record which is why I believe this is not the full church record. Nonetheless, having this record provides an amazing great start! I wonder if with this information I am able to call the church in Vega Baja and request a fuller copy of it.
As has been my mantra for a while, you have to search high and low for all types of records because you never know where you’ll find them! I’ll have to sit down and careful peruse the book to see if there are other family members baptized between this thirteen year period of time.