Originally, I wanted to post this once I had “it” all figured out. Then I realized that (a) it might be some time before I fully solve this mystery and (b) genealogy is a process, it is not linear. So posting about unfinished things can be helpful, both for me in regards to planning out next steps and for readers to see how I find things and make sense of them.
Twelve years ago, I published a blog post titled “Mystery Monday: Who IS the father?” regarding my research on locating the biological father of my previously enslaved ancestor Julienne Malvina Lautin. Today, I want to follow up on a small clue in confirmation records from Vieques, Puerto Rico, that is pushing me forward (just a bit…) in my research.
TL;DR (too long; didn’t read): I was previously searching for any evidence of Julienne’s biological father. Since she was born enslaved, there was no mention of him on her birth record. I hypothesized a surname Pitroo, which had appeared with the family on the plantation they were enslaved on and had appeared in Puerto Rico as Pedro.
Confirmation Records
One of the most under utilized records for me are the confirmation records and this occurs for multiple reasons. Typically, the confirmation records (in my opinion) do not include a lot of new information. If I have located the baptism record for an ancestor, then for me, the confirmation record will typically not add much genealogical information because these records are fairly short in nature.
Similarly, they are hard to research. They are typically indexed badly or not all because they tend to be long lists. So easily on one page you can have over ten plus entries of confirmations that all seem to run in one long run-on sentence.
However, with the advent of Full Text on FamilySearch this has been changing the game for me on finding confirmation records. Recently, I was taking a look at records in regards to my ancestors from Martinique and Guadeloupe and came across two interesting records that made my jaw drop!
These were confirmation records from Vieques for two daughters of my 4th great-grandparents — Gustave Jean Charles and Julienne Malvina Lautin.
Leonicia Llustavo
On 30 November 1882, Leonicia “Llustavo” was confirmed in the church of Inmaculada Concepción y Apóstol Santiago de Isabel Segunda in Vieques, Puerto Rico. She was listed as the legitimate daughter of Juan Carlos and Balvina Piedra. Her godmother was María Filpps (potentially Filips/Philips?).
The first takeaway from this record is that my ancestor’s surname was spelled as Llustavo, which means I would have not found it if I was not playing around with the settings in Full Text Search.
Next, was the surname Piedra. No where has this surname appeared. There have been variations of her surname as Pedro and even Pérez, but never Piedra. So for me, this was new evidence. Likely, the surname was still not Piedra back in Martinique, if not, this was another attempt at a French surname by Spanish-speaking ears.
Lastly, who was Leonicia? I have a Dionisio in my family tree born in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, in 1880; however, this was a daughter. Could this have been an error? I have seen the name Dionisio recored as León before (no idea why), so was this just a clerical error? This is something I will need to further research.
María Alejandra Llustavo
A second confirmation occurred the same day just a few entries after Leonicia’s. This one was the confirmation of María Alejandra, also the legitimate daughter of Juan Carlos and Balvina Piedra. It doesn’t mention if the next name was a godfather or godmother and the name is fairly difficult to understand. It seems like Figurita Xavier/Lavier, though I am sure the first name I have wrong.
I knew who María Alejandra was because she was born as Marie Alexandrine on 4 March 1878 in Saint Esprit, Martinique. To date, she is the only child who was born in Martinique instead of Puerto Rico. Research shows she was later known as Areopajita and died in Ponce, Puerto Rico, in 1900.
Pedro/Piedra Surname?
If I had to put my money on a guess, it would be that Piedra is the phonological evolution from French to Spanish of Julienne’s father’s surname. She was a Lautin in almost every other record, which also took on various spellings such as Loten, Lotten, Lotin, etc.
Chronologically looking at Julienne’s life, she left Martinique in 1866. By then, the enslaved people of the island had been freed for 18 years old. This meant that her biological father, if still enslaved in 1848, would have also received a surname the same way she, her sister, and her mother were given the surname Lautin.
My current hypothesis is that the surname was Pitroo. It’s the only surname we see that is similar to both Pedro and now Piedra of all the surnames given the those enslaved alongside Églantine, Julienne’s mother. However, there is still work to be done! I would need to identify all of the members of the Pitroo family and see I can locate a potential candidate.
Below I hypothesize the possibility of Pitroo pronounced as [pi.tʁu] in Standard French or [pi.tɹu] in Martinican French becoming the surname Pedro [pe.ðɾo] in Spanish. I think this is an interesting overlap between genealogy and linguistics that I often do not see. With the help of AI for the evolution and the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, I hypothesize what the evolution may have looked like.
Lastly, I also need to be open and aware of any other possibilities that may arise during my research. There are still some documents I want to review out there that could potentially be of help and, of course, I am open to the possibility of DNA matches helping me to solve this mystery as well.
It is hard to say if this mystery will ever be solved or if there will be one final ‘ah-ha’ moment, but I am excited to see what else I can figure out regarding Julienne’s biological father.
Cover Image Source:
Image #1: Iglesia Católica Inmaculada Concepción y Apóstol Santiago de Isabel Segunda (Vieques, Puerto Rico), “Libro primero de confirmaciones” p. 82v, no. 110, Leonicia Llustavo, confirmation, 30 November 1882; accessed as “Registros Parroquiales, 1854-1942,” browsable images, FamilySearch, (https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog : accessed 28 October 2026).
Image #2: Iglesia Católica Inmaculada Concepción y Apóstol Santiago de Isabel Segunda (Vieques, Puerto Rico), “Libro primero de confirmaciones” p. 83, no. 131, María Alejandra Llustavo, confirmation, 30 November 1882; accessed as “Registros Parroquiales, 1854-1942,” browsable images, FamilySearch, (https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog : accessed 28 October 2026).