Familias Maldonado de Interes

Lamar Ross — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 04:44:00 GMT

De vez en cuando incluiré la información histórica sobre no solamente los Maldonados de nuestro linaje de la familia, pero los datos generales que se relacionan con la migración de España (sobre todo las Islas Canarias). Las familias de Maldonado emigraron a muchas partes de América Latina, pero nuestro interés primario será esas familias de Maldonado de Puerto Rico. Aunque en este tiempo, muchas de las conexiones a los parientes posibles de Maldonado no se han hecho, esperamos que algunos de éstos que visitan este sitio tengan información adicional sobre otros parientes y la compartan con nosotros en este blog. Un árbol de familia genealógico de "nuestra" familia de Maldonado, hasta ahora se puede encontrar en mi sitio genealógico en: http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=elrross. Cuando usted consigue a esta página, si usted desea ir a la sección de Maldonado, Escoja "M" y busque "Maldonado". Busque a cualquier de los miembros de la familia de Maldonado para tomar un "viaje" del sitio. Sin embargo, si desea comenzar con el Maldonado más temprano de la base de datos , busca a Manuel Maldonado Morales. De esta persona, usted puede selecionar a los "descendientes", el "pedigrí" y/o "Ahnentafel" para conseguir la información adicional. En este sitio, ninguna persona viva tiene su nombre disponible. Para éstos miembros de la familia que visitan o frecuentan este sitio, yo proveere una lista completa de todos los parientes vivos así como los muertos. E. Lamar Ross, Autor

Primary Maldonado Families of Interest

Lamar Ross — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 04:12:00 GMT

From time to time I will be including historical information on not only the Maldonados of our family lineage, but general data that relates to the migration from Spain (primarily the Canary Islands). The Maldonado families migrated to many parts of Latin America, but our primary interest will be those Maldonado families of Puerto Rico. Even though at this time, many of the connections to possible Maldonado relatives have not been made, we hope that some of those visiting this site will have further information on other relatives and will share it with us on this blog. A genealogical family tree of "our" Maldonado family, up to this point in time can be found on my genealogical site at: http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=elrross. When you get to this page, if you want to go to the Maldonado section, click on "M" and look for "Maldonado". Click on any of the Maldonado family members to take a "tour". However, it you want to start with the earliest Maldonado in the database at this time, look up Manuel Maldonado Morales. From this person, you can click on the links for "Descendents", "Pedigree" and/or "Ahnentafel" to get information further information. On this site, people who are still living do not have their first names listed. For those documented family members who visit or frequent this site, I will be happy to provide a complete list of all living relatives as well as the dead ones. Log in and become a part of the Maldonado family fun. E. Lamar Ross, Author

Researching Lineages Through Maternal Surnames: A Maldonado Example

Lamar Ross — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 03:58:00 GMT

One of the greatest problems confronting most genealogists is ascertaining the surnames of the females who marry into each line. True, these surnames can be found in certain forms of primary data, but in most cases, even in the census records, the name of the spouse is given, but rarely with a surname.

There have been numerous articles giving research avenues for tracing the female lines of descent (e.g., see “Tracing Female Ancestors,” by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack, Family Chronicle, May/June 2002), so this brief article attempts only to illustrate an avenue specific to families with ancestors of Spanish descent.

This method, illustrated with documentation from the U.S. Census records in Puerto Rico, can be utilized with other types of documents from Spain or Latin American countries that have family names in them. This will be illustrated with actual research on my wife’s mother’s ancestors. Background My wife had left her home and family in Puerto Rico at 15 years of age to help care for a sick uncle who at that time was living in Long Island, New York. As a result of this visit, she remained in the United States, finished high school and college, married, raised a family, and only had contact with family members on an infrequent basis for 40 plus years.

Of course, during this time there was no contact with collateral relatives, no hearing conversations about “old times” among family members, and no stories about grandparents. Until a few years after the death of her father, she did not even know the names of her grandparents since they had died before her birth. Her only living uncle, the brother of her father, gave her the grandparent’s names at that time. Slowly over the last few years, by returning to Puerto Rico to renew relationships with aunts, uncles, cousins, and other relatives, the ancestral list has grown larger.

There has even been frequent contact with her paternal grandfather’s brother’s children who, until three years ago, she did not know existed. The Problem My wife’s mother, supposedly shortly after her birth, had lost her parents and was, along with her siblings and half siblings “farmed out” to different relatives. Over the years they ended up in various parts of Puerto Rico and the United States and only a few of them had any further contact with each other. My wife and I set for ourselves the task of finding out more about the “orphaning” of the children, and tracing her mother’s lineage back at least to her mother’s grandparents.

Her mother had died in 1996 so there was no possibility of getting further information from her. What we Knew We knew the maiden name of my wife’s mother (Virginia Vega Maldonado), her maternal grandparent’s surnames (Vega and Maldonado), and that her mother was born to her father’s second wife. We knew the name of her grandfather’s first wife and the names of the children of her paternal grandfather by both wives. This information was obtained from the daughter of one of her mother’s half sisters. We did not know the names of either of her other grandparents.

The Spanish Surname System

By knowing the full name of a person in the Spanish naming system, one can know both the surname of the father and the surname of the mother. The full name of a person is as follows: Given Name (or names) + Father’s Surname + Mother’s Surname. In the case of my wife, her mother’s name was Virginia Vega Maldonado. Thus, we know from her name that Virginia’s father (and his father) had the surname of Vega. We know that Virginia’s mother’s surname was Maldonado, since Virginia would be using her father’s last name (Vega) + her mother’s last name (Maldonado). It takes further research, of course, to ascertain the mother’s surname of her father, and the mother’s surname of her mother. Several relatives told us that Virginia’s father was Jorge Vega and that her mother was Victoriana Maldonado. To indicate marriage, a female uses her father’s surname + de (of) + the surname of her husband. So Virginia’s mother would be Victoriana Maldonado de Vega.

As one can see, it is a simple matter to ascertain parental surnames and marital relationships by the way the surnames are listed. So, we needed to obtain the following information before we could proceed any farther. Jorge Vega’s mother’s surname Victoriana Maldonado’s mother’s surname Only after we got this information could we proceed to the next generation in any systematic, documented way.

The Source: 1910, 1920, and 1930 US Census of Puerto Rico

After the Spanish American War in 1898, Puerto Rico became a territory of the United States, and became subject to the United States Census surveys beginning in 1910. We felt that if we could find the family or individual members of the family in the 1910, 1920, and 1930 U.S. Census records for Puerto Rico, we could most likely find the other family surnames. At the same time, by noting the nearby neighbors, we could possibly get an idea who the parents and collateral relatives might be. Since it was known that Virginia Vega Maldonado was born somewhere around 1918, the 1920 US Census seemed to be the logical place to start.

This proved to be an accurate assumption. Jorge Vega and his family were found in the 1920 Census records for Manati, Puerto Rico (the birthplace of my wife). It provided the following information. Head: Jorge Vega y Pedrosa Age 44 Wife: Victoriana Maldonado y Mercado Age 26 Children: Carlos Vega y Cancel Age 20 Natividad Vega y Cancel Age 16 Flora Vega y Cancel Age 8 Pedro Vega y Maldonado Age 3 & 5/12 Virginia Vega y Maldonado Age 1 & 10/12?

As an added bonus, in the next house lived Alejo Maldonado y Maisonet ( age 58) and his wife Brigida Mercado y Echevarria. They had the right surnames (Maldonado and Mercado) and were of the right age to be the father and mother of Victoriana. At this point, the postulated relationship, of course, was only an avenue for further research.

What did this information give us? We now knew that Jorge Vega’s mother’s maiden name was Pedrosa. We knew that Victoriana Maldonado’s mother’s maiden name was Mercado. We verified that Jorge’s first wife’s maiden name was Cancel by the surnames given for the first three listed children. Other relatives had already told us that Jorge’s first wife’s name was Julia Cancel. We also found Virginia living with her parents. So, at this point, both of her parents were still alive. This meant that she had not been orphaned at birth as we had been told. It also indicated that based on the children’s ages, Jorge’s first wife probably died somewhere between 1912 & 1915, with his remarrying Victoriana thereafter [another avenue to follow up with primary documents such as death records].

Our next step was to go to the 1930 US Census in the same geographical area to look for the same family members. What we found was not what we expected and opened up many other questions about the stories we had been told by relatives. Still residing in Manati, Puerto Rico, we found three generations, in the same household. Virginia Vega Maldonado was living with her mother, Victoriana Maldonado y Mercado, and her grandmother, Brigida Mercado de Maldonado. She was already 10 years of age, verifying that she could not have been orphaned as a baby. Head: Brigida Mercado de Maldonado Age 50 Daughter: Victoriana Maldonado y Mercado Age 30 Grandson: Pedro Vega y Maldonado Age 12 Granddaughter: Virginia Vega y Maldonado Age 10 Grandson: Bonifacio Vega y Maldonado Age 8.

What else did we find here? First, Jorge Vega is no longer with Victoriana and she is now living with her mother. Since the living family members say the family was split up due to a death in the family, it would appear that it was Jorge who probably died shortly after the 1920 Census, living only long enough after the Census to father his son, Bonifacio. We have now confirmed our suspicion from the 1920 Census that Victoriana’s mother was Brigida Mercado de Maldonado. We also know that most likely her father, Alejo, is dead. We also see that the children by Jorge Vega and Julia Cancel are no longer in the household. They would have been the ones going to other family members upon their father’s death. Further research in fact has pointed out the fact that at least two of Virginia’s half sisters were by this time living with family members in Ponce, Puerto Rico and another had married.

The next logical step was to find Victoriana’s parents in the 1910 Census. They again were found in the area of Manati, Puerto Rico as suspected. The household data as listed follows: Head: Alejo Maldonado y Maysonet Age 48 Wife: Brigida Mercado y ____ (Sp?) Age 46 Daughter: Victoriana Maldonado y Mercado Age 16 Son: Ricardo Maldonado y Mercado Age ? Son: Juan Maldonado y Mercado Age 14 Son: Tomas Maldonado y Mercado Age 12.

There are some discrepancies between the listed ages of individuals in the three censuses, yet it is obvious that we are talking about the same family members in all three. [The age discrepancies is an avenue of further research]. This Census entry added three brothers to the family of Victoriana. We are now beginning to fill out the collateral relatives.

Collateral Relatives

Since we are attempting here to show how the use of Spanish Surnames can extend ancestral lines, we will illustrate a few more of the steps that we took to provide us with names that we could research further by other genealogical methods.. By using the 1910, 1920, and 1930 Censuses we did the following searches to obtain the names of possible collateral relatives. In order to obtain possible siblings of Victoriana Maldonado y Mercado, we did a search of all surname entries in the surrounding geographical area for Maldonado y Mercado. The 1920 Census shows a Maria Maldonado y Mercado de Arroyo of the right age to be a sibling. In both the 1910 and the 1920 Census a Gregorio Maldonado y Mercado is shown as head of his family and is of the right age also to be a sibling. A cousin of Virginia Vega Maldonado told me that Virginia had spent some time as a child with her uncle Gregorio. This would be consistent with that story. We therefore postulate that these two individuals are probably also siblings [another area for further research].

The children of Alejo Maldonado y Maisonet and Brigida Mercado y Echavarria would then be as follows: Gregorio Maldonado y Mercado b. Abt 1883 Ricardo Maldonado y Mercado b. Abt 1885 Maria Maldonado y Mercado b. Bet 1989/1990 Victoriana Maldonado y Mercado b. 1894 Juan Maldonado y Mercado b. 1896 Tomas Maldonado y Mercado b. 1898 A search within the same geographical region likewise was done to postulate the siblings of Jorge Vega y Pedrosa. The same surname search was made for Vega y Pedrosa as was done for Maldonado y Mercado. As of this date, we still have not found the parents of Jorge Vega y Pedrosa, but the search still continues. Their postulated children however follow: Jorge Vega y Pedrosa b. 1876 Guadalupe Vega y Pedrosa b. 1877 Juan Vega y Pedrosa b. 1878 Clemento Vega y Pedrosa b. 1880 Carmen Vega y Pedrosa b. 1884 Marcelo Vega y Pedrosa b. 1893.

It seems highly likely that the first five are siblings due to their birth dates and close physical proximity. Only Marcelo, born 9 years after Carmen, is questionable. But, out goal was to use the Spanish surnames with the Puerto Rican Census data to aid in extending ancestral lines, not to necessarily confirm all of the relationships. The goal is within reach because we can now take these hypothesized sibling relationship and obtain further verification and documentation from other sources.

Summary

Among the countries with a Spanish heritage, upon the discovery of the full given name of the members of each preceding generation, both the surname of the father and the surname of the mother of the next ancestral line can be known and researched. For example, for Alejo Maldonado y Maisonet above, we know that his father’s surnames will be Maldonado + whatever his father’s mother’s surname was. We know that his mother’s surnames will be Maisonet (her father’s surname) + whatever her mother’s father’s surname was. So, when looking for records of families that could possibly be his parents we are looking for a male Maldonado and a female Maisonet.

Likewise, for Brigida Mercado y Echevarria, we know that her father’s surnames will be Mercado + the surname of his mother. Her mother’s surnames will be Echevarria (her father’s surname) + her mother’ mother’s surname. We will be looking for her parents in a family with a male Mercado and a female Echevarria. The same pattern continues on with each preceding generation. The American and Northern European custom of omitting the maiden name of the wife in most records after her marriage, creates untold difficulties for genealogists trying to extend their ancestry. The Spanish surname system, on the other hand, is made to order for genealogists. If only everyone could be so lucky as to have ancestors with Spanish or Latin American roots.

Welcome

Lamar Ross — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 21:12:00 GMT

When Lamar Ross married Amparo Maldonado, a new lineage was added to the ancestry of their children.

This blog is designed as a resource for members of the Maldonado family and a source in which these members can discuss and expand upon the knowledge of the family and their ancestors. Historical data and genealogical data will be posted. Posting may be made in English or in Spanish.

Welcome to the Ross/Maldonado connection, and specifically to the "Land of the Maldonados".

Lamar Ross

Maldonado Genealogy Blog

Familias Maldonado de Interes

Primary Maldonado Families of Interest

Researching Lineages Through Maternal Surnames: A Maldonado Example

Welcome