This spring has been quite busy (busier than I expected) and so quickly I fell behind on two posts. Coincidentally enough, today when I begin writing this post is May 27 (Memorial Day) in the United States. Why a coincidence? Well, I had chosen this month to write a post about my 5th great-grandfather who I recently learned had some involvement in the Spanish military. I know, I know… Memorial Day is an American holiday, so why am I talking about a Spanish soldier? I do not have anyone (that I know of) who lost their lives serving in the military, though I do have living veterans in my family. So the next best thing (by coincidence) was posting about a family member who served by about some 200 odd years ago.
So today I will post about how I discovered that my 5th great-grandfather, Manuel Román Díaz, was a Spanish soldier.
Background information
I had only just come to learn more about my Román Ayala side of the family when I found the marriage between José Rivera and Gertrudis Román in Guaynabo not too long ago. Gertrudis Román Ayala, my 4th great-grandmother, was the daughter of Manuel Román Díaz and Margarita Ayala Medina. Gertrudis was born in Arecibo the 2 December 1781 and baptized there the 17 December 1781, her godparents were Joaquín Román and María Candelaria Colón. If the FAN (Family/Friends, Associates, Neighbors) method has taught me anything, it is that likely Joaquín Román was a close relative to her father Manuel – Joaquín could likely have been his brother. Gertrudis’ parents were classified as “calidad mestizos” in her baptism.
My 5th great-grandparents, Manuel Román Díaz and Margarita Ayala Medina, married in Arecibo, Puerto Rico the 24 December 1780. Manuel was the son of Antonio Román and Ana Díaz while Margarita was the daughter of Juan de Ayala and Constanza de Medina. Both were residents of Arecibo and both were said to be “hijos legítimos” meaning that their parents would have been married as well before having them. There is no mention of Manuel’s profession in his marriage record.
Currently, I am not sure when Margarita Ayala Medina died, but it was Manuel Román Díaz’s death record that allowed me to learn about his connection to the military.
So far I have been able to identify six children for Manuel Román and Margarita Ayala:
(1) Gertrudis Román Ayala (1781-1844)
(2) Francisco Román Ayala (1786-?)
(3) Olaya Román Ayala (1787-1797)
(4) Mónica Román Ayala (1793-?)
(5) Pedro Román Ayala (1795-1796)
(6) María Román Ayala (1800-?)
Pedro died when he was about a year old and currently I am not sure if Francisco followed in his father’s footsteps of being a Spanish soldier.
Manuel's death RECORD
En esta villa de S.n Ph.e [San Felipe] del Arecibo veinte y siete de marzo de mil ocho c.s [cientos] y qtro [cuatro] a.s [años]. Yo el R.P.P. Fr. Silvestro Alv.s [Álvarez], Cura Th.e [Teniente] de esta Parroquia di sepultura ecles.ca [eclástica] e hice los oficios de ent.o [entierro] doble a Manuel Román, marido leg.mo [legítimo] de Margarita Ayala, soldado del Fixo de esta Plaza a q.n [quien] se le administró los sacramentos de confens.ne? y extrem.an? de ello doy.
Above is the extract of Manuel’s death in Arecibo the 27 March 1804. I wanted to include the transcription because you can see there are some shorthand words such as qtro (cuatro – four) and words with superscripted letters that might make them hard to understand if you did not know what they mean, such as ent.o (entierro – burial). Since I can not superscript here I used the period (.) to show where the word ended and the superscript began.
I was very surprised when I discovered this because I had no idea that Manuel was a soldier until very recently. In the death record you can see that Manuel was listed as a “soldado del Fixo de esta plaza“. So let’s explore what that meant!
Soldado Fijo
Reading a bit from the book Historia Militar de Puerto Rico by Héctor Andrés Negroni allowed me to learn more about the “Regimiento Fijo”. This regiment created in 1741 came from a Real Decree in Spain allowing for the creation of this unit to fortify places such as forts, strongholds, and the plaza of Puerto Rico (likely San Juan). The infantry battalion included four companies with 84 places and one artillery company of 64 places for a guarnición (garrison) of 400 men. This came to be known as the “Veterans’ Battalion” and just one year later as the “Batallón Fijo”. One of the important characteristics of this battalion is that it allowed “hijos del país” (Puerto Ricans born on the island) to serve (pg. 129). “Fijo” means fixed or permanent.
However, the battalion was not doing too well having received complaints of military preparedness/training and the fact that 2/3 of the men were married to mulatas and thus did not live in the barracks, if not at home with them (pg. 130). This all changed in 1756 with the arrival of Mariscal (Marshal) Alejandro O’Reilly who completely reformed Puerto Rico’s militia. For example, he removed “inválidos, inútiles e indeseables” (the invalids, useless, and undesirables) from the Regimiento Fijo thus only leaving 274 men – half of the original militia (pg. 131)! Later in 1804 (the year Manuel Román Díaz died), the Regiment was reorganized to include 3 battalions with a total of 1,396 place (pg. 132).
Likely my ancestor was still serving at this time, meaning he would have made the cut! I had never really been interested in the militaristic history of Puerto Rico, believing that my ancestors were just farmers on the island. Now that I have come to learn about Manuel Román Díaz, I am becoming more interested in this early history of the island and the involvement of both the Spanish and the locals. What is interesting is that Manuel Román was classified as mestizo meaning that he was of likely mixed origins, which makes me wonder what that would have meant while serving for Spain in Puerto Rico.
The Regimiento Fijo served in Santo Domingo in 1792, the defense of Puerto Rico in 1797, and “cubrió de gloria” (from my understanding it means to do something with honor) Santo Domingo from 1809-1822, as well as participating in the wars of independence in Venezuela where it was last stationed until it was dissolved in 1815 (pg. 132).
If my ancestor was serving in 1797 (which at the time he would have been living in Guaynabo) he would have likely participated in defending San Juan from the British invasion of Sir Ralph Abercromby. If this was the case, it would be such a cool fact to be associated with in Puerto Rican history!
Conclusion
As always, there is still a lot to learn about! I would need to investigate more and see what records are available for this time period. Since most of this is in the 18th century, it might be difficult to find digitalized material from this time in Puerto Rico and might require a visit to the Archivo General de Puerto Rico. Similarly, since this was during Spain’s reign in Puerto Rico, it’s possible that some of these records are located in archives here in Spain. Nonetheless, it is pretty cool to learn about my ancestors and their professions and learn how my family is connected to some of the earlier events of Puerto Rico history.
Cover Image Source: “Milicia disciplinada de Puerto Rico,” Puerta de Tierra – San Juan (http://www.puertadetierra.info/edificios/san_cristobal/milicia.htm : accessed 27 May 2024)
References
1. Negroni, Hector Andrés, “Historia Militar de Puerto Rico”, (San Juan, Puerto Rico: Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Puerto Rico y el Caribe – Instituto Cultural de Puerto Rico, 1922), p. 129-133; digitized at Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_GOQISe_Kh1AC/page/n3/mode/2up : accessed 27 May 2024)