Santiago Margarida – 8 Years Old Facing Slavery
While digging through records for Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico in search of my own African ancestors, I came across a record at the end of the book that caught my attention. Another baptism, but a baptism of an African child. I had previously posted about discovering a record of a 10 years old girl from…
Mandingo: Another Child Taken Into Slavery
As I continue to go through the records, telling their story, even if it is tiny in nature, is better to be told than to remain silent. This is the case with Teresa Maysonet. I suspect that she did manage to survive slavery as this line has African descendants I’ve seen in years later on…
Slavery – Purchase of Freedom in the Caribbean
While going through slave records and researching information on slavery, one of the things that caught my attention was the ability of slaves to purchase their freedom. This of course only exists in certain islands controlled by specific European countries. At one time individuals who escaped slavery from British colonized islands could attain their freedom…
Joaquin Hernandez: A Slave Documents Where He Came From!
Many of us wish we could jump into a time machine and change what our ancestors faced. This is the reality of those of us that descend from slavery. Unfortunately, many of us who descend from slavery ended with the person who was enslaved when researching our roots. Sometimes it is impossible to go beyond…
Puerto Rico: Naranjito Church Records 1831 – 1936
I nearly missed the Naranjito church records as I didn’t have them listed on my remaining list of churches in Puerto Rico. I want to thank Olga Figueroa for asking about them. A quick search of the website and I found that I never broke the films out for everyone. Naranjito is a municipality that…
Puerto Rico: Barranquitas Church Records 1860 to 1952
One of the interesting things I have discovered between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic is the constant repetition of town names. It is not a few but plenty of towns. While pulling up the map of Barranquitas, Puerto Rico, I discovered the town of La Vega which is a province and town in the…