Happy New Year! This was my first time being back home in New York City for New Year’s since I was away the last two years living abroad. We were surprised with a sudden downpour of rain and even lightning and thunder; however, we rang in the year cozily from our couch so we were not affected by the rain. Nonetheless, like how I begin every year I want to spend some time talking about my genealogical resolutions. I have found that writing down my goals for the year helps to “manifest” them and keep them in the forefront of my mind. If I am ever bored or looking for something to do (genealogy wise), I come back here to see what I have on my list and what I can tackle or incorporate into my life.
Without further ado, here are my goals for 2025!
Genealogical
Resolutions for 2025!
1. Keep being accountable for Accreditation Process
Last year I took interest in the CG (Certified Genealogist) and AG (Accredited Genealogist) process and therefore joined some accountability groups. My hope is to organize myself for the application process by being surrounded with like-minded people who are also in the process of applying. I definitely can not do both at once so I might need to step back from one of them in order to make time for the other. Right now my BCG application is more organized for initial research; however, the ICAPGEN process for AG seems more feasible at the moment. I do not want to say I will complete “X” element by the end of the year in order to not put too much pressure on such a monumental task, but I definitely would like to stay connected to the communities and keep up with the application process.
2. Travel to Puerto Rico for Genealogy
Since I have been away from the United States the last two years, I have not been able to visit Puerto Rico. I try to go back every so often for both genealogy and family visits, but I have not been back since at least 2022. My goal is to find some time to go back and to visit a few archives to see if I can find some information on a few different branches. Similarly, if I need any documents from the CG or AG process, this would be a great time to find them.
3. Create descendant chart for Eglantine Lautin
This task is fairly simply and I have kind of begun it already/written about it before. Except this time, I would like to create a visual chart for all of Eglantine’s female descendants to see if I can find a member of this line that would be willing to test for the mtDNA haplogroup. Eglantine, my 5th great-grandmother, was brought over as an enslaved individual from Africa likely in the beginning-mid 1800s and given the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, we have no idea where she originally was from. Likely Eglantine is from the western coast of Africa and autosomal DNA might point to modern-day Nigeria; however, having a maternal haplogroup will hopefully be able to provide us more information as to her origins. Therefore, I would like to create a chart of descendants where I can see which lines have continued into the modern day passing down her maternal haplogroup. Finding a female descendant wiling to test would be a plus for this goal!
4. DNA test older family members
Recently, there was a sale on 23andMe for their ancestry kits and so I decided to buy a few. During my hopeful visit to Puerto Rico this year, I would like to test a few of my older family members on my mom’s side of the family to see how their results can add more information to what I already know about them. I do not expect to find a bunch of new information, but I thought it would be interesting to have my grandmother’s siblings test to see how their results vary and to give me a better idea of their parent’s DNA since their families have been fairly elusive on records at times.
5. Further study my Rivera line
Since I am a Rivera by birth, naturally I gravitated to this line earlier on in my research; however, I have not really gotten a chance to fully revisit it for a while now or rather do deeper research. I did post about the surname Rivera Belén that occasionally appears in my tree, but I really have not been able crack this line any further. I did also recently upgrade my own Y-DNA to the highest possible test (“Big Y”) and I am hoping the results will give me some more information as to the origins of my line. So this goal can take shape in different ways, either:
- Traditional paper research looking at the Rivera branch in Toa Alta
- Creating a descendant chart to try and trace other Rivera men who are from the same line
- Analyze my Y-DNA results and see where the new haplogroup assignment takes me
I am fairly open to seeing how this goal develops throughout the year and whether I complete one or various aspects of it. I don’t think I will be getting my results until at least April at the earliest (they take a while to process!) so this will give me time to think over what I really want out it.
6. Read five genealogical books
I have picked up the pace with reading more since I started challenging myself in 2019 – this year I got to read 47 books! My goal, simply, would be to add five books to my “to read” list and do just that. I have various books around the house dealing with genealogy so I know it won’t be too hard to achieve this goal. Hopefully by the end of this year I hope to have five books (or more?) that I could talk about here!
7. Y-DNA test a Correa male
My original goal was to test one of my grandfather’s brothers to add to FamilyTreeDNA; however, reading in the Facebook related to Y-DNA testing it was recommended to find members to test on older lines of your shared ancestor. Therefore, I would need to find another descendant from the Correa line who would be willing to test. This is quite a difficult task since a lot of people are unaware of Y-DNA testing and they are costly tests, so people are hesitant to buy them. However, online they recommended started with the Y-DNA37 to see if there is an initial match and then upgrade from there. My Correa line breaks away in the 1700s, which is up to where my paper trail goes in Puerto Rico so I would need to decide where exactly on my line I would need to “target” to find a descendant to test. Also, I already connect with someone who has the surname “Santiago” on this line so there could be a case of NPE (Non-Paternity Event) occurring on my line which is why I do not match many other Correa men. Butttt, it’s also important to note that my Correa line didn’t always use Correa (so it seems?) and at one point might have just used “de León” – so as you can see, fairly complicated! This seems to be a big goal but I hope to chip away at it a bit.
8. Write another genealogical article
I was able to publish an article back in 2023 (which was a personal goal I had not included in my yearly genealogical resolutions) with Hereditas the magazine of a Puerto Rican genealogical society and publishing is something I would like to keep doing. I have a few ideas of different articles I could publish of families I have studied in-depth from my tree and that could be developing into full-fledged articles. The steps I would need to take would be the following:
- Identify a family of interest
- Make sure that all of the necessary research is complete
- Create citations for the records used in my research
- Outline/organize my writing
- Write the article
- Edit and proofread
- Send it off to the society to see if it gets chosen
By identifying smaller tasks like this I would be able to accomplish my goal. Let’s hope I have a tangible article by the end of 2025.
9. Reach out to Quebradillas church
Back in 2021, I reached out to the church in San Sebastián and got lucky in that they responded positively. Next, I wanted to reach out to the Quebradillas church to see if they had any records on my ancestors from this area of Puerto Rico. Sadly, this task fell to the wayside as the summer approached and other things fell onto my plate. My great-grandfather’s grandfather was apparently from Quebradillas as were his parents, so I have not been able to find out anything on them since these records are not online. Reaching out to the church would allow me to know if they conduct searches for people and how much it would cost me. Since I have nothing for this line, finding a baptism record for my 3rd great-grandfather and/or the marriage record for his parents should allow me to learn more about this line.
10. Create more content for my Instagram Account
Some time ago I created an Instagram account with the same name as this blog, BoricuaGenes. Occasionally, over the last few years I have posted on it, but at most my posts were random and haphazardly done. My goal for this year would be to create more content for my Instagram by being more purposeful about how and when I post. Since I post fairly often on my blog, I could use those dates to create content for Instagram that would go along with my blog. I also have to decide how personal I would like the blog to be versus how “professional”. Really, I want it to be a place where I can tie back my blog and for people to interact with either me or what I research in a more “organic” way instead of just through comments on this blog. So stay tuned to see how this develops!
I am excited at the prospect of having another year to push myself genealogically and to accomplish the goals I have set out for myself. Hopefully none of the goals are too monumental or too unruly and that I have much success with all of them. Here’s to 2025!