IN SEARCH OF OUR ANCESTORS
LA FAMILIA OQUENDO PABÓN
EN BUSCA DE NUESTROS MUERTITOS
Selection by Rafael Hernández
D
r.
Ana Cristina Oquendo Pabón, M.D.
, a family medicine physician in St. Petersburg, Fl., mother of three and grandmother to four grandchildren, grandsons, Christian Alexander and his brother, Caelan Xavier and grand-daughters Kathryn Cristina and Darian JessicaPadre José Antonio Oquendo Pabón, Pbro., STL., former pastor of the Roman Catholic parish of San Antonio de Padua in Ceiba, Puerto Rico are trying to complete our genealogical tree. We come from a family of five brothers and one sister.
PATERNAL SURNAMES
S
ince 1980, until today, our work has been sporadic due to our respective professions. Now, time is of the essence as our parents, José Antonio and Rosa María, both orphaned at a young age, will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in August of 1999.
LINEA PATERNA
O
ur search has yielded more than 3000 names and surnames of relatives and/or possible relatives from the last two centuries. We are very proud of our Spanish, Taino, Afro roots (oh, and a touch of Dutch), but we need the help of our relatives or unfound relatives to locate our "missing" ancestors
("Nuestros Muertitos")
and their descendants from the 18th century (1700's) and even before.
MATERNAL SURNAMES
An example of one of the many facts we have been able to discover about our many ancestors, is that one of our 4th paternal gggg-grandmothers,
Bárbara Vélez
, was the slave of Don Josef Lorenzo Navedo of Vega Baja, Puerto Rico. No one knew how many children she had had because as a slave, all of her children were given the surname of her master and not of their mother or father. Because of this unknown fact, it was a mystery as to why the acts of Baptism could not be found. In 1811, she had her firstborn son, and he was baptized Josef Segundo (sic). Because of this, we believe that
he was the son of Don Josef Lorenzo.
LINEA MATERNA
There seemed to be no hope of finding any ancestors in that line..
BUT.....on a visit to the excellent archives in Nuestra Señora del Rosario in Vega Baja, whose books were bound with help from the Sociedad Puertorriqueña de Genealogía, and after years of research, we discovered that one year after the baptism of her first-born, Bárbara married a widower, Antonio de la Cruz Doles,
apparently a free slave, son of free slaves from the British Isles. We have been able to discover not
only
their marriage certificate, but the birth, confirmation and death certificates of them both and that of their children, grand-children and great grand-children.
A
ntonio is described as the widower of a María Calderon on the marriage certificate and at his death in 1838, it states he was 84 years old. On her death certificate, Bárbara is described as an "ancient" woman of about 104 years old and even if this is an exaggeration, she must have been very
old for this to have been noted. This is very important to us because so many of our ancestors and relatives lived into their 90's and hundred's. Currently, el padre is hard at work on his seventh chapter on a novel based on the life of our 4th great-grandmother.
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT WHETHER YOUR LOVED ONE (S) IS/ARE A PART OF OUR TREE, SEARCH THE LINKS ABOVE........AND HERE.........
INDEX OF SURNAMES
MUERTITO HEAVEN
ALL
MUSIC MIDIS FOR YOUR LISTENING PLEASURE, COURTESY OF LUXOR. I HOPE THEY BRING BACK MEMORIES OF HOME.
Photos de LA ISLA DEL ENCANTOLA GALERÍA DE MUERTITO HEAVEN
Take a Look at Our InterneTree on FamilyTree maker Web Site
Nuestros Comienzos
Nuestros Recuerdos
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Dra. Ana Oquendo Pabón, M.D.
Padre José Oquendo Pabón, Pbro., STL.
(Nuevo Contador)
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©Copyright
Oct. 30, 1996. Ana C. Oquendo Pabón, M.D., José Antonio Oquendo Pabón, Pbro., STL. All rights reserved.
10/06/98.
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