All photos of Sóller included in this post were I personally took during my genealogical visit to Sóller, Mallorca in February 2023.
Researching is not just sitting hours in an archive, pouring over tomes of religious/civil acts, and deciphering old handwriting. It is also visiting the places your ancestors would have walked by, the squares or plazas they would have frequented, and experiencing the same views they would have seen in their lifetime.
When I was in Mallorca back in February, I took it upon myself to visit Sóller two times. I had previously visited Sóller before but there is a magic to this quaint town that is beautiful to continue experiencing.
My Connection
to Sóller
If you have read some of my previous posts before in regards to Mallorca, then you know I have a genealogical connection with this town via my father’s side of the family through the Magraner family. This connection is what brought me to Mallorca back in 2015 and it is what has driven my research on the island every time I visit.
In fact, this family’s story is what actually started my genealogical journey. I had been told by my great-aunt that we had a connection to Spain via my 3rd-great-grandmother and I wanted to set out to prove its accuracy.
Damián Magraner Morell is the ancestor who came to Lares, Puerto Rico and with his brothers created a sugar plantation on which at least one of my ancestors worked on given my 2nd great-grandfather’s WWI draft card’s employment section.
In Damián’s obituary, it also mentions that “in his youth Mr. Magraner lived large periods of time on the island of Puerto RIco, where he labored his fortune and in said Lares still owns an extensive and fertile estate”. (Sóller: Semanario Independiente)
Damián’s roots in Sóller are VERY extensive! The research so far has taken me in almost all of his branches back to late 1600s (which a few to the mid/early 1500s) almost exclusively in Sóller. There is one branch with the last name “Solivellas Cladera” (Damián’s 2nd great-grandmother) that has origins in towns such as Escorca, Lluch, and Pollença.
Exclusively looking at Damián’s paternal line I was able to trace the family back to the early 1500s to a Sebastià Magraner, son of Bartomeu Magraner, from Sóller, Mallorca. Likely, Damián’s ancestors have been in Sóller since at least the beginning of Sóller’s inception.
It is very cool to have all of this information and then to suddenly step on the same stones, wind through the same streets, and see some of the same buildings my ancestors would have seen. Below are some photos of places and things I saw in Sóller.
My coolest experience was being able to attend a Catalan mass in the church of Sóller (Iglesia de Sant Bartomeu) and stand again in front of the house of my ancestors. Experiences like these are why I do what I do. Though I was not actively raised with the culture from Mallorca, or the Catalan language, I had been aware of some sort of cultural connection to Spain since my youth.
I do not claim to be Mallorcan and it does not play an active role in my day-to-day identity, but knowing that I have roots here in Sóller are important to understanding the life of my ancestors and what lead me to being here today. This goes for many other elements of my identity. As a New York born and raised Puerto Rican, I know that my identity might play a role one day for my own descendants and the way they might chose to identify and hold on to elements from my own.
I hope to continue visiting Sóller throughout my life and to continue conducting research in Palma on my ancestors. My hope is to one day find other descendants from this family and communicate with them about research and the family in general. I have dabbled with Catalan on Duolingo so that I can use the language when researching and reading books about the history of the island and town. And who knows, maybe I will be able to speak Catalan in Sóller one day in the future!
