Category: African Ancestry

1872 Slave Schedule in Puerto Rico

While the US Civil War led to the freedom of many enslaved people, the same cannot be said for other regions of the Americas.  Slavery was completely abolished in Haiti in 1803 and finally in 1822 in current day Dominican Republic thanks to the then Haitian President.  However, Puerto Rico was still enslaving many.  Many…

By Anna Bayala August 6, 2016 7

Death of Enslaved and Freed Blacks in Gurabo, Puerto Rico, Book 1 of Defunciones

Going through Gurabo’s San Jose parish books, I documented from Book 1 of Defunciones the following slaves or freed people. I hope it will help someone researching their ancestors in Gurabo, Puerto Rico. Book 1 covers from 1822 to 1840.  I didn’t capture the folios (page) on these but it does provide you with dates.…

By Anna Bayala July 22, 2016 0

Dominican Blog In Spanish But Worth Reading

One of the best blogs out there about Dominican culture,our African roots and indigenous Taino culture is done by someone by the username Lemba. I’ll refer to him this way to maintain his privacy since he is known as Lemba in many DNA and ancestry communities. The name of the blog is Cultura Campesina Del…

By Anna Bayala July 19, 2016 0

Researching Panamanian Ancestry

Panama has a rich history with connections to many in the Caribbean islands of Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico.  No matter which island you are from, you will discover cousins from Panama.  Personally I’d like to see an increase in people from the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America, and South America to have their…

By Anna Bayala July 19, 2016 3

Indexing Project for Dominican Republic Underway – Assistance Needed

Currently there are two projects for Dominican Republic that Family Search is looking for volunteers to transcribe records for their free index. www.Familysearch.org provides free access to digitized records for the entire globe is looking for assistance wint transcribing records written in Spanish. To ensure that records are indexed correctly and accurately, they need our…

By Anna Bayala July 18, 2016 0

Researching Your African Ancestry in the Caribbean

One of the greatest ways of researching African ancestry in the Caribbean is by actually reading many history books and from different resources and countries.  If you don’t have the time to go through so many books in the beginning then there is a shortcut.  I found that UNESCO Publishing is the best shortcut to…

By Anna Bayala July 15, 2016 1