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Puerto Rico is currently under a state of panic, and many are unsure whether to continue celebrating holiday traditions such as “Las Fiestas de la Calle San Sebastian.” The people from Puerto Rico feel that this is a time to show respect to the ones who suffered from the damages of the earthquake, not a time to party.
Puerto Rican Genealogy/Hispanic Genealogy
- Genetic genealogy is a rapidly growing field. The potential for genetics to make genealogical connections and break brick walls is starting to be untapped. This is more so for Latin American and Caribbean societies where limited or non-existent.
- Puerto Rican genealogy inevitably leads to lots and lots of cousins. Also, it doesn't provide enough space to record as far back as I have gotten. Of course, a good notepad is necessary to write notes about leads such as: occupations, dates, rumors, new people and the like.
Before embarking on a search for your ancestors from Puerto Rico, it is very important to have a good background in the history and culture of Puerto Rico. Most birth, marriage and death records are kept at the local or town level so it is crucial to know the town(s) your ancestors came from. Additionally, it is important to know that the Catholic Church played a large role in Puerto Rican Society. Church records, also kept at the local level, provide valuable information about baptisms, marriages, First Communions, Confirmations, etc. A solid understanding of the roots of Hispanic surnames or family names is necessary because on official records, both the maternal and paternal surnames were used. Having an understanding of these names will help in the record deciphering process. Below is a list of books that cover much of the background understanding that will aid in a successful genealogy search. There are also a number of websites which are great sources for searching records and all of the websites listed below have detailed explanations and directions about how to best go about a search.
Image source: http://robertospuertorico.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/PR-Topo-1886-with-regions-in-color-225.jpg
Compiled 2019
***Si eres descendiente de los Magraner de Sóller, Mallorca, especialmente a través de Damián Magraner Morell o uno de sus hermanos, me gustaría hablar con usted para ver si podemos establecer una conexión genética. Puedes dejar un comentario aquí en este blog para contactarte conmigo. ¡Muchísimas gracias!***
While in Puerto Rico for Spring Break, one of my goals was to test various family members through various companies. Since I don't have easy access to men who carry Avilés and Correa Y-DNA like I do the Rivera line (myself being a carrier of this Y-DNA group) since those members live in Puerto Rico, I decided I would focus on getting a male cousin from my Avilés family and my Correa grandfather to test. I decided to buy two Y-DNA67 exams for them from FTDNA. Recently, they had a DNA day sale and I decided to myself a Y-DNA111 exam to test my Rivera branch as well. So those are boxes I can check off on my genealogical goals for 2019! This blog will focus solely on my Avilés Y-DNA results.
Buying a FTDNA Y-DNA test is not cheap! I would recommend to get these tests if you are an experienced genealogist interested in learning more about your Y-DNA group or an amateur genealogist trying to crack a wall in your direct paternal family. I have been fortunate to test various branches and I have done so for genealogical purposes such as: Establishing whether I have an African or European Guadeloupean Y-DNA group (Charles family), potential Jewish/Arab Y-DNA group (Correa family), Mallorcan connection to the Magraner family (Avilés family), and trying to establish a stronger connection for a relatively uncommon haplogroup (Rivera family).
| Family Tree DNA Home Page [FTDNA] |
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Background
For anyone that has been following my blog (thank you kindly!), you have probably seen the surnames Avilés and Magraner various times throughout many old posts. My trying to solve this family's mystery dates back to the beginning of my blog in 2011, wondering about my 2nd great-grandfather's origins. I spent time researching and writing about José Avilés Magraner in 2014 for the 52 Ancestors Challenge. I learned the name of my potential 3rd great-grandfather, Damián Magraner Morell, and traveled to Sóller, Mallorca a year later in 2015, his hometown, to learn more about the man who made his way to Río Prieto, Lares, Puerto Rico. The closest I've gotten to confirming this on paper has been José's brother Lorenzo Avilés who mentions Damián Magraner on his Social Security Application as his father. I stepped on Lares land for the first time in many years in 2017 but didn't make it up to Río Prieto. This year though I did!
Also, having a DNA match with a fellow genealogist with a grandmother from Sóller, Mallorca through various family members connected to the Avilés family helped me to help prove that genetically there is something there!
Collecting DNA
With my grandmother and great-aunts in tow we headed over to Río Prieto by car, my great-aunt wasn't too comfortable driving up the steep and narrow roads so I took charge of getting us there. The ride ended up not being too bad and I got to visit a few members connected to my paternal grandmother and great grandmother, I was introduced to the family as 'el nieto de Carmen' (the grandson of Carmen) since they had never met me before and my dad spent his childhood between San Juan and New York and not in the mountain town of Lares. The ride over was amazing and here are some photos of getting to and being in Lares, it was amazing to see the land transform as we made our way up the mountain!
| Driving up the mountain [Personal Photo] |
| Nature at its best! [Personal Photo] |
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| The view from my cousin's land [Personal Photo] |
| The 'two way road' near my cousin's land [Personal Photo] |
Our first stop was the house of my 1st cousin 2x removed. After seeing his land, talking about the effects of Hurricane María, and being gifted many fruits, I gathered up the courage to ask if he was willing to take two DNA tests for me. I was a bit scared he would say 'no' for fear of not knowing what the test would do, but he was very willing to help out. I collected his DNA, wrote down some important information, and when we got back to San Juan mailed off the DNA test.
My reason to test this line was because I wanted to know where in the world it was connected to and whether or not it could prove that my family was related to the Magraner family. The test results came back pretty quickly and so I took a look at them!
Interpreting results
| Magraner Haplogroup? [Personal Photo] |
Getting a Y-DNA67 gave me basic results, in the sense that R-M269 is a fairly common group and doesn't give too many specifics into the smaller, more recent branches of this Y-DNA branch. My next step would be to upgrade the test to get more detailed results and potentially make more educated results of my connection in R-M269. Under matches, I currently have 2 matches at the Y-DNA67 level but at a genetic distance of 5 and 7, this would mean that our connection is much farther back in history versus having a genetic distance with a smaller number which would mean having a closer relationship in generations. My genetic cousin at the 'genetic distance 5' reached out to me and we quickly chatted and noticed our relation was too far to discover at the moment but interestingly noticed that our surnames both had to deal with fruits - Magraner being a surname connected to the pomegranate tree! Lowering my markers to 37 for example gives me more matches but again, at a pretty far distance. The cousins seem to be wide spread across various countries in Europe, I do have some matches from Puerto Rico but they are at Y-DNA12 which is fairly distant as well. As you can see below my Y-DNA67 match has recent roots in the US but he said his family has older roots in southern France.
| Y-DNA67 Match [Personal Photo] |
My goal is that by hopefully writing about this branch and taking a Y-DNA test I'll be able to confirm my connection to the Magraner family of Sóller, Mallorca. If you descend from this branch, I'd love to chat and see if we can figure out our potential connection!
Conclusion
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Though in a sense my results were 'inconclusive', there still is hope! Y-DNA usually takes longer from what I know to establish stronger connections because it's such a specific group that is being tested versus for example autosomal DNA. 23andme has given me a bit of a deeper glance into the R-M269 group and hopefully as I upgrade to Y-DNA111, I will have stronger/clearer results and hopefully a Magraner descendant tests as well. This will in turn allow me to make a genetically educated guess about my Avilés family and whether our roots really are in Mallorca.
| Haplogroup R-Z209 [Personal Photo] |
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Here's to hopefully solving a 128 year mystery in the making!