04/02/2020
Today is the birthday of my partner Marty, one of the very first people whose genealogy I researched! Doing Marty’s family tree is how I got hooked on this, because there was so much to find.
A little breakdown of some of the random confluence of events that had to occur for my partner to exist:
His great-grandmother Asuncion Etanislada Castellano was an orphan who grew up in a convent in Paracotos, Venezuela. As a young woman, she was basically human trafficked by a wealthy family into the United States to be their servant in New York. She soon got away and met Eulogio Hernandez from Carolina, Puerto Rico.
Eulogio’s father Antonio Maria Sorba Perdio was born in southern Italy to Corsican parents. He moved to Puerto Rico and married a local woman but had an affair with Eulogio’s mother Juana Hernandez Mangual, whose lineage we’ve been able to trace back to 1640 in San Juan, 1660 in Venezuela, and 1719 in Havana among others.
Marty’s other paternal great-grandparents were José Santiago Quiñones Ramirez and Leonor Roman Herpen. Leonor is featured in this page’s cover photo.
José’s grandfather Carlos Quiñones was born enslaved in San German, Puerto Rico. Many of his records list him as “liberto,” indicating that he was formerly enslaved. Carlos’s mother was born in Africa according to the documentation.
Carlos’s wife Cayetana Colon Soto was born in Sabana Grande, Puerto Rico. Cayetana’s mother Socorro’s family history is a bit of a mystery, but her father Evaristo is descended from some of the earliest conquistadors. Further back, his lineage is traced to European nobility.
José Santiago’s mother Ramona Ramirez was the daughter of Justina and granddaughter of Mercedes who were both born enslaved.
Leonor’s grandmother Agustina was born enslaved in Curaçao, and her mother Victoriana was born in Africa according to the records. Because of the ban on the transatlantic slave trade, there’s a lot of documentation of people being trafficked from Curaçao to Puerto Rico during this era.
Leonor’s mother Maria Luisa was the recognized daughter of a French man who had moved to Puerto Rico from Bretagne (and had ancestors who had moved to Nova Scotia for a few generations before returning to France) and Carlota who he enslaved. Carlota was born in Africa.
Marty’s maternal great-grandparents on one side met as teenage Jewish refugees in Winnipeg. Luckily they had Yiddish in common. Nusam Marcu Schwarzfeld from Piatra Neamt, Romania became Max Blackfield. His ancestry can be traced to the 18th century. Tova Halprin from Shumsk, Ukraine became Bessie. Her cousins became prominent members of the Winnipeg Jewish community, including a civil rights lawyer. They decided to ditch Winnipeg and moved to San Francisco in 1894, a dozen years before the earthquake. One of Max’s jobs was running a cigar store.
Marty’s other great-grandparents George Killorn and Miriam Davies met in Montana. They both immigrated as children from Sussex and Wales respectively. George’s paternal grandparents were Irish and his maternal side was from the very north of England, just next to Scotland. Miriam’s ancestors can be traced to her great-grandmother Dinah who was born in 1761 in Carmarthenshire, Wales. Miriam and George individually and together lived all over the US, including Missouri, Ohio, and South Dakota before ending up in San Francisco. They divorced (one of three marriages for Miriam who has been one of my favorites to research).
And all that happened (plus lots of other things not included either for space or that I have not been able to find documentation of) for my Marty to exist.
Our lives are such an extremely random miracle. And because Marty met me in law school ten years ago, he now knows all this history.
