Puerto Rico is a commonwealth and territory of the United States after the Spanish American War of 1898. Puerto Ricans are natural-born citizens of the United States. Ancestry.com has made available the Puerto Rico Civil Records after 1885 as well as the census from 1910, 1920, 1930, 1935, and 1940 under US census rules. Civil registration in Puerto Rico began in 1885. Prior to that, registrations of vital events were kept by the Catholic Church, which was the predominant religion. This collection includes registrations of births, marriages, and deaths in Puerto Rico, which at the start of civil registration was a colony of Spain and after the Spanish-American. I also got a high Portugal percentage, also threw me off since we were taught our ancestors are from Spain. My results went like this: Portugal 30%. Native American—North, Central, South 13%. Cameroon, Congo, and Southern Bantu Peoples 5%. European Jewish 4%. Native American—Andean 3%. Northern Africa 3%.

• 2 Steps Closer Puerto Rican Genealogy Information
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• 2 Steps Closer Puerto Rican Genealogy Site

2 Steps Closer Puerto Rican Genealogy Information

Puerto Rico Genealogy covers information about an island located in the Caribbean, that is just east of the island of Hispaniola and west of the Virgin Islands. Initially, the island was populated by indigenous people when Europeans arrived in 1493. Although the indigenous people referred to the island as Boriken, Cristobal Colon renamed the island San Juan Bautista. Equally important, it is believed that the island had about 60,0000 natives.

In spite of the people being peaceful, many welcomed these foreigners and believe them to be gods and as a result, perished. Many of these natives perished at the hands of European settlers or diseases, albeit many did not survive.

It is important to realize that today, the island is inhabited by many cultures from around the globe. However, the primary language spoken is Spanish with English as its second language. So keeping this in mind, this page is dedicated to Puerto Rico ancestors that made it possible for many of us to be here.

The page is written in English to help those who do not live on the island but can be translated into many languages using the flag icons on the page. Moreover, the idea of this page on Puerto Rico genealogy is to assist many who are researching throughout the island no matter their native language. Therefore, if by any chance a language is missing, please feel free to ask for it and I’ll see if it can be added.

Puerto Rican Towns / Municipalities

So the below table contains posts pertaining to specific municipalities or towns that exist today in Puerto Rico. Although not all towns listed below contain content, the website is constantly being updated. Furthermore, it is worthy to note that not all towns existed and you must know the history to avoid frustration.

Moreover, the Puerto Rico genealogy page is here to make it easier for anyone researching their ancestors. Therefore, there are many posts below the list of towns that have not been moved. Lastly, just scroll down to view the additional posts below the town.

Because this website was migrated from its original location, you may discover problems with towns. For this reason, links within the town were added manually. Consequently, due to the manual nature, links URLs may have changed. However, the content does exist. Lastly, if you discover broken links, please feel free to reach out by leaving a comment below.

Puerto Rico Genealogy Posts

Because these posts are not appearing within all towns yet, they are to remain here. In the event that you visit this page and do not see content, please use the search button. Given that the below posts are general and cover the island, they will remain here until the website has been completed. In the event that you cannot locate a post, even after searching, please feel free to leave a comment so that I can point you in the right direction.

Today's ancestor is a maternal ancestor who I'm kind of stuck on and would love to learn more about! He is my 5th great grandfather and his name is José de León Correa Carcaño.
This ancestor is the earliest documented 'Correa' on my family tree so far. Growing up, I was aware of my Correa family as it would have been my 2nd last name had I been born in Puerto Rico, yet I was unaware of the family's origin. I have written previously about this family and all of the information and even misinformation I had on them. Luckily, I was able to crack my Correa brick wall and learn more about my maternal family.
José de León Correa Carcaño was born about 1778 in San Juan, Puerto Rico to his parents Juan Francisco Correa and María Eugenia Carcaño. As you can see, José was born a long time ago and thus would not appear on any census records. So I must rely on church records in order to find out more about my ancestors. José's son and my 4th great grandfather was named Juan Nepomucino Correa Rodríguez and according to records he was born in Coamo yet he lived and passed away in Salinas, Puerto Rico in 1883 – he is the first generation of Salinas inhabitants of the Correas. As you can see we are dealing now with three different towns: San Juan, Coamo and Salinas. This Correa family moved around pretty quickly, within two generations they had covered three towns and finally settled in Salinas probably around the mid-1800s.

San Juan – Coamo – Salinas [Google Maps]

José de León had two marriages and both occurred in Coamo, PR. I was fortunate and lucky to use the microfilms from Coamo in order to try and find José's marriages. Jose's first marriage in 1809 was to Rosa Ortiz, a illegitimate daughter of Luisa Ortiz, both natives of Coamo. With Rosa, to date, I know that José had four children: Antonio, María, Maximo and Juana. 10 year after his first marriage, José married my 5th great grandmother María de la Cruz Rodríguez Ruiz – they married on the 21st of November in 1819 in Coamo, Puerto Rico. Since they lived in Coamo, they most likely married in the Church of San Blás de Illescas, which began construction in 1661 making it one of the oldest churches on the island.

San Blás de Illescas, Coamo, Puerto Rico [Wikipedia]

I'm not sure however of where or when José de León passed away. It is very possible that José moved to Salinas with his son and died there, but it would have to have happened before 1885 as I've checked the books after that year or possibly José stayed in Coamo and lived out the rest of his life there [UPDATE: I have found José de León Correa's death record in 1856 in Coamo, Puerto Rico]. I also don't know where my 5th great grandmother María de la Cruz passed away. I'll have to order the church records from Salinas and Coamo again to search and see if I can find their death records. María de la Cruz was the daughter of Sebastián Rodríguez Rodríguez and María de Gracia Ruiz Sánchez, and it seems that both her parents and grandparents were from Coamo as well. Coamo was founded in 1579 and who knows how long my family had lived there! Salinas on the other hand wasn't founded until 1851!

Coamo, Puerto Rico [Google]

What's interesting is that my Correa line's Y-DNA is J1/J1e. This group can commonly be found in the Middle Eastern area which to me is super interesting. What's interesting is that Correa is commonly referred to as a Sephardic Jewish surname and there are

2 Steps Closer Puerto Rican Genealogy Records

males with a J1e paternal haplogroup who are Jewish. Could my male ancestor originally have fled Spain during or after the inquisition? Or was he a male that arrived in Spain from Africa via the Muslim Conquest? So far these are two possible theories, until I can truly document my Correa males with a paper trail or take a more in-depth Y-DNA test I'll have to settle for the hypotheses I have so far.

2 Steps Closer Puerto Rican Genealogy Sites

Haplogroup J1 Frequency [Eupedia]

2 Steps Closer Puerto Rican Genealogy Site