Early History of the Ortiz family. This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Ortiz research. Another 80 words (6 lines of text) covering the years 1227, 1455, 1503, 1500, 1480, 1520, 1508, 1510, 1570 and 1545 are included under the topic Early Ortiz History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
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- Genealogy.com is a source for family history buffs to find genealogical research originally posted in GenForum and our most popular genealogy articles. Start a search or browse below to start digging into your family's past!
- Puerto Rican genealogy is made exponentially easier because of the use of multiple surnames. Puerto Rico used the Spanish practice of using the last names of both parents. A child born would be given a first and middle name and then the first last name of the father followed by the first last name of the mother. Maria Luisa Rivera Garcia.
- Family History Daily offers many more articles about free genealogy resources. Read our guide to free genealogy sites in the U.S., how to access paid genealogy sites through your library’s website for free or check out all of our articles here. Featured Image: The Halley family. Priest River Valley, Bonner County, Idaho.
One of the biggest lessons I can teach others is understanding
One of the biggest misconceptions in researching is that if the last name is found in the town you or your family comes from, then we must be related via that last name. However, this is a huge fallacy that has led to many erroneous family trees on websites such as Ancestry. People assume that because you match on the last name, that is how you are related. Then people perpetuate this false belief by copying the tree information without validating it and not identifying your real ancestors. Remember, genealogy is about finding out the truth and not about just adding names to a tree.
False beliefs even extend to when finding individuals on your DNA list and assuming relationships with matches on your DNA results. This post will speak to both types of cases. The first example is on the Betancourt line out of the Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico and neighboring municipalities in Puerto Rico. There is a huge fallacy that every Betancourt that is from Trujillo Alto region are all related. Nothing can be furthest from the truth!
Case 1: Betancourt
Years ago I took interest in researching the Betancourt line because my father’s maternal great grandmother is Valentina Diaz Betancourt. Note that there is also a Valentina Betancourt Diaz. These two women are actually double first cousins. How so? Well, their parents are siblings to each other. Both families had daughters the same year and decided to name them both Valentina; do not mix these two women up.
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I wanted to know more about my Valentina, and via research, I was able to locate via records in Puerto Rico and Spain that she is one of the Betancourt Asencio
On the Betancourt line, people assume that all of the Betancourts are related in the Trujillo Alto, Carolina, Gurabo, Juncos, San Juan, and Loiza regions. While the majority came from the Canary Islands, they came from different islands and during different periods in time. In addition, the last name was taken on by the Guanches after the Spanish conquest.
I descend from Juan Diego Espanto Betancourt, who was from Gran Canaria, Canary Islands. Diego arrived in Puerto Rico from the Canary Islands sometime in the mid-1700s and had one surviving son, Rafael.
Then we have Pedro Roque Reyes Garcia and his wife, Josefa Adelia Betancourt. They are both from Lanzarote, Canary Islands. Roque and Josefa arrived sometime in the early 1800s. There are other Betancourt families that have also arrived to the region.
However, both of these Betancourt families are not related. Now there is a subset that does descend from both lines when they marry, but it does not make us all related to Pedro and Josefa. You can read more about the Betancourt families here on the website as I’ve written about them and delved deeper into the false non-sourced or nonvalidated information found on trees on Ancestry.
Case 2: Perez
So this one is an interesting one and should be a lesson to all the newbies and seasoned researchers out there. It is not as simple as screaming we are related via the last name because of shared DNA. If you think that that is how it works, you are seriously going to mess up your family tree and wind up cutting down the entire tree when you discover the truth. Do your research right and take your time. Do not simply take the word of another but seriously look at the data as you will uncover mistakes if you know what you are doing. Ask for documentation and revalidate it yourself.
So an individual approached me and asked if I can assist them with locating a parent. This person has the parent’s full name and I was provided with the last name of Perez. In addition, they also provided me some background information and approximate age for the person. Lastly, they advised that they had narrowed it down to a specific line as they had two second cousins with the last name of Perez. My thought, oh this should be pretty easy to figure out. As I glanced at these Perez matches, my thought was, yup they are indeed looking like solid second cousins and started digging through their trees, but something was not right with the information. I walked away temporarily from this case as I was concentrating on another case in helping two other individuals. Walking away temporarily was actually a good thing.
When I came back to this case, I decided to trash all the information provided to me and start off fresh as if I did not know their father’s name. And lo and behold! JACKPOT!!! It turned out that it was a mere coincidence that there was a second cousin with the Perez last name. Since the island is riddled with endogamy, I knew that there is no possible way that they connect on the Perez line as the numbers were too low. It turns out that these second cousins were true
These second cousins were actually second cousins through the Flores line and not the Perez line. The above images are trees of those second cousin. I was able to figure it out by connecting and correcting names on these individuals’ trees. None have dug back and not all even have the correct last name or at times have the nickname to the parents. This research alone took me about 3 weeks worth of digging to figure out the individual’s one set of great grandparents. Their names are Felipe Flores Davila and Juana Diaz Morales. This couple lived in Carolina, Puerto Rico. When I provided the evidence and information to the individual, they were blown away and I provided details they were obviously ignoring because they were stuck on the Perez
While I am still researching this person, one thing is sticking out, that their father’s last name of Perez may not be his last name. Potentially he is a Non-Parental Experience himself, or since I have not completed researching all the children of this couple, someone married a Perez. I do have a hot clue and that is the very strong second cousin that came in at 491 centimorgans (cMs) is double related somehow, but my current theory is that their father is a Perez only by name but not a descendant of that last name.
I am still continuing the research for this individual but wanted to share why people should not be assuming that because you have a common last name, that that is the way you’re related; especially if you are in the same town. I see it all the time in the groups, “I find no common last names so they must not be related” statements. I hope these two examples provide you with a better understanding that last names you match with is not necessarily the clue, but that the DNA is factual and holds the answers if you’re willing to work with it.
Search for your ancestors in the vast free genealogy resources of the Mormon LDS Church. In recent years, the Mormon genealogy web site known as FamilySearch has made huge improvements by giving free online access to copies of original records.
In the past, the Mormon genealogy records consisted of extracted data and member submissions (the IGI, Ancestral File, and Pedigree Resource File), but the new FamilySearch site offers rich international collections of historical records that consist of vital records, census records, and military records. Many of the record collections have online images that can be downloaded for free. New databases are being added at a quick pace and are browseable until the indexes are completed.
You may have to create and sign into a Family Search account, but it is always free.
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Search the New Family Search Site (Mormon Genealogy) consisting of original historical record collections of vital records (birth, marriage, death, and probate), census records, naturalization records, and military records from around the world. Many of the collections have downloadable images and most are indexed. All are free. New databases are added frequently.
- Caribbean, Central and South America
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Family Trees
Search for family trees in a collection of genealogical information taken from pedigree charts and family group records submitted to the Family History Department since 1978.
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Photos
Find your family history in online photographic images. Search by name in user-submitted old photos, stories, and documents.
Mormon Global Genealogy Resources
- Fan Chart
Build an interactive fan chart of your family tree. - Free Online Courses
Take an online self-paced genealogy course. The lessons take from between 5 minutes to 59 minutes and are available for beginners, intermediate, and advanced skill levels. - Research Wiki
The most current free family history research advice for the genealogy community written by the genealogy community with over 60,000 articles to learn about family history. If you want to learn how to build your family tree with genealogy research any place in the world, this is the place to go.
Browse the wiki by - country or by
- topic
- How to Start your family history
The four steps for beginning your family tree - from the first step of remembering your ancestors to last step of searching for records for Your ancestor. - Research guidance by location
Select a country, state, or province your ancestor was born, christened, married, or died to learn the basics for researching in that area. - Genealogy forms
PDF files with step-by-step guides for researching by location. - Worldwide maps
Downloadable historical maps from around the world. - Research helps
A Guide to Research - step by step guides, word lists, and other research guides.
Family Search Indexing
The new FamilySearch site with its millions of original records and images is possible because of the thousands of volunteers from around the world who are helping to make more free records available through Family Search Indexing. You can help FamilySearch by joining the indexing project to make even more records available today. Volunteers are of all faiths but all have the same goal of wanting to help save the records of our past.
Mormon Genealogy Library
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The Mormon Church has begun digitizing the millions of reels of microfilm that are in the Family History Library in downtown Salt Lake City, but not everything is online yet.
Search the holdings of the library catalog for more information about genealogy records that are available on microfilm and which can be circulated to a Family History Center near you for a small fee.