Year: 2017

How to Locate Ancestors in Church Records

Sometimes as an experienced researcher, you tend to forget somethings are not natural or known to many.  So today, I was asked how to find a family member that is in an index in an actual church book that is digitized online. I decided to post about it in the blog because I realize that…

By Anna Bayala September 29, 2017 5

Fajardo Digitized Church Records 1766 to 1946

Fajardo, which was founded in 1760, and is an eastern municipality facing the Atlantic Ocean, has a church called Santiago Apostol. We are fortunate to have these church records filmed since many of Loiza records are gone.  While not all books start in 1766, the death records do, which provides visibility to those who live…

By Anna Bayala August 10, 2017 2

Digitized Church Records for Arroyo in Puerto Rico

Before I go into the below records, I need to answer two questions that are being asked by many. I am not the holder of these church records. They are maintained by FamilySearch. While the records are available on their website, currently they are not easy to navigate until they make their changes which will…

By Anna Bayala August 2, 2017 0

Digitized Ponce Church Records 1835 to 1948

Ponce was established in 1692 and had settled prior to this year.  While churches did exist prior to 1836, it is the earliest records that were filmed for the region.  I cannot say if books prior to this date exist and if they do, they were never filmed.  Most importantly, Ponce has a large connection…

By Anna Bayala July 30, 2017 7

Joseph Vaguizu – An Infant Slave in Puerto Rico

I’ve edited this post with the following… I want to thank the source of this record,  an individual who is collecting records for Toa Alta. I wanted his okay before putting his name out there. I cannot thank Angel  Perez-Galarza enough for providing me with numerous images on those that were enslaved. This record is…

By Anna Bayala July 29, 2017 9

Ceiba Digitized Church Records 1840 – 1978

As I move forward in transcribing more records for different municipalities, I am discovering regions where I do not believe I have any ancestors but also how vast this island actually is.  While I see many comments that slavery existed on the eastern part of the island, the truth is that it existed everywhere equally…

By Anna Bayala July 26, 2017 0