Many times in Puerto Rican genealogy, we stick to what we know when researching. This means that we heavily rely on four sources of our genealogical searches. These include:
- Registro Demográfico – created in 1931
- Registro Civil – created in 1885
- Registros Parroquiales – created individually by their parish
- United States records (censuses, WWI/WWII registration draft cards, etc.) – available post 1910
However, other source/resources exist! I have explored the use of the Archivo General de Puerto Rico and the Archivo Diocesano; however, these two require actually heading to Puerto Rico in order to conduct research which I know is not entirely feasible for everyone. Which is why I love when I am able to find and use new online records such as the El Mundo Newspaper Database and Archivo Digital Nacional de Puerto Rico where I was able to find newspaper articles for my most recent ancestors (El Mundo) and also my Dávila ancestors in Maunabo (Archivo Digital). So today I want to focus on a simple document that I recently learned about and what I found on it.
Coamo, Puerto Rico
Gastos Públicos, 1824
Recently through a Puerto Rican Genealogical Facebook group, I came to learn that more records had been recently uploaded to FamilySearch. These records included various types of archives for various towns in Puerto Rico regarding slavery, school records, prison records, censuses, etc. Many of these records can be found under “Gobierno de Puerto Rico” (I hope the hyperlink works since otherwise it is hard to find!) and there are various pages to scroll through.
One particular record caught my eye and it was the one titled “Censo Poblacional: Coamo. Municipal Census 1818”. Taking a look at the actual record, it didn’t seem to be a census at all, if not, it was a public spending record for the town of Coamo from 1824. Nonetheless, my family was present in Coamo around this time so I wondered if I could find any of my ancestors. What was cool about this record is that it was divided into different barrios (neighborhoods) of Coamo so I could potentially learn where exactly in Coamo my family had lived since the church records usually did not include this information.
I was happy to see my 5th great-grandfather listed on the page!
My 5th great-grandfather José de León Correa appeared living in the barrio Santa Catalina, Coamo in 1824. Above him was a man named Julián Sánchez, who sounded familiar to me. Likely, this is because this Julián Sánchez was likely Julián Sánchez Rodríguez, husband of my 5th great-grandaunt who lived in Coamo around this time as well. José de León has been quite an elusive ancestor and finding his origins have been difficult. I knew he died in Coamo in 1856 and so his presence in the town doesn’t surprise me; however, what did surprise me was his presence in the barrio of Santa Catalina.
Santa Catalina, Coamo
A map of Coamo shows that Santa Catalina lies on the west side of town. Why was this a surprise to me? Well, my family left Coamo to live in Salinas and so I always imagined that they simply lived along the eastern side of Coamo and “made their way” into Salinas only because Salinas wasn’t a town yet and so they would have already been there before it officially broke away. However, knowing that José de León Correa lived in Santa Catalina, at least in 1824, changes a bit my understanding of the family. A month after this “census” was taken, my 4th great-grandfather Juan Nepomuceno Correa Rodríguez was born in Coamo – could he have been born in Santa Catalina?
Since my Correa line has been so difficult to trace, I wonder now if there was actually descendants of the family in Juana Díaz or Villalba (which before 1917 also was Juana Díaz) since they were so close to the border.
One can argue I did not learn much from this record; however, for me, this small piece of information is quite important. To helps to better geographically place my family in the town of Coamo and to question drove them to go more east into Salinas. The belief is that the family was from San Juan; however, what if the family actually came from somewhere west?
Lastly, looking at the entire spending list of 1824, my 5th great-grandfather was the only man with the surname Correa (here spelled as Corea). What drove him to come to Coamo and where were his own parents, Francisco Correa and Eugenia Carcaño?
The mystery regarding my 5th great-grandfather still continues, but it is also nice to see that there are still clues out there to discover!