Canarios in Monte Cristi, Dominican Republic

I had the most amazing 2015 in regards to genealogy.  I was able to find my great grandmother’s parents’ names thanks to her filing a Social Security application within 3 weeks of arriving in the USA in the 1940’s. She joined the ranks of working along with the many other immigrants that came to America.  I can now complete the stories in my memory of my grandmother telling me affectionately about her mother and grandmother.

I was able to discover new images of my grandmother’s father and her sister.  Many family members have added to our history by filling in gaps. Genealogy helps me truly appreciate my ancestors and what they faced; can’t thank them enough for their struggles and perseverance. We are quite lucky that they survived many wars and illnesses throughout the years. What we face today is so minor and I am sure that future family genealogists will feel the same once they look back at our history. Family is about connecting and appreciating those around us.

To add to the completion of my 2015, I was able to locate the photo of my 3rd great grandfather that is maintained on a history website.  There he was in his General outfit posing along with his biography.

However my searching has produced even a better find, I decided to play around in PARES and discovered a man by the name of Francisco de Mesa requesting permission to migrate his family along with 21 other families from his town to Monte Cristi, Dominican Republic.  I am providing a screenshot of the find below.  However there are many records on Dominican Republic well into the 1800’s.  I was actually surprised since the island wasn’t connected to it’s mother country for many of those years. Keep in mind that this record is from 1545.

If you want to pull the document for yourself as well as others, here are the simple instruction.  Hopefully you read my past post on PARES.  After arriving, make the changes as follows.  Type in the search field Monte Cristi Santo Domingo.  You use “Santo Domingo” and not “Dominican Republic” because that is how it was known back then. Change the archive filter and set it to Archivo General de Indias.  Click on the Buscar button at the bottom. 

Once the search result come up, select Audiencia de Santo Domingo, then select the last option Real Disposición.  You should arrive to the first image I provide.  I have also discovered many documents for Santiago de los Caballeros.  PARES has a lot of information and finding the information just requires determination.