Family Finder Matches with people of Puerto Rican Ancestry

[A Faria]

Hi Everyone,

I have been looking at my father's family finder matches he has one match of Puerto Rican ancestry. Is anyone else getting matches with Puerto Rican ancestry? I have read that there was some Azorean immigration to Puerto Rico during the Iberian Union about 1580-1640.

Antonio

[Shirl Sereque]

Antonio - My brother's DNA matched a man in Puerto Rico probably "way back when".  We haven't figured out where our match is yet, though.  Our ancestors didn't go to Terceira until after 1840.  (They came from Morocco and were Jewish.)

- Shirl -

Hi Everyone,

I have been looking at my father's family finder matches he has one match of Puerto Rican ancestry. Is anyone else getting matches with Puerto Rican ancestry? I have read that there was some Azorean immigration to Puerto Rico during the Iberian Union about 1580-1640.

Antonio

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[A Faria]

Hi Shirl

My family arrived with the first wave of immigration on Pico Island and I have Jewish DNA my direct paternal line Y-DNA is J2-M319 which is extremely rare and found in Moroccan and Iraqi Jews and is thinly distributed along the trade routes of Jewish traders. I think the Radhanites played a role in J2-M319 dispersal between 500-1000 ad. Also when I downloaded my family finder raw data to GEDmatch I came up 25% Sephardic Jewish.  I'm aware of Portuguese Sephardic Jews settling in Puerto Rico and Northern Mexico early. I suspect shared Jewish DNA is the connection to Puerto Rico in my fathers case. Thank you for sharing your brothers match.

Antonio

[pi...@dholmes.com]

My father's Family Finder results show matches to several people with Puerto Rico ancestry.

Also, a cousin on my Hungarian side has a mother born on Puerto Rico, though both her parents were born in the Canary Islands. The reason I mention this is not because she was born in Puerto Rico, but that there are matches to others with Azores ancestry. This could mean that if there are others from Puerto Rico whose ancestry is from the Canary Islands, maybe that's the route of the link - Azores --> Canary Islands --> Puerto Rico.

Once I can figure out how to find records to research his Canary Islands ancestry, I will hopefully figure out some of these Azores links.

Doug da Rocha Holmes
Pico & Terceira Genealogist

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[A Faria]

Hi Doug,

One interesting fact to also consider regarding the Canaries is that the Portuguese were there early as settlers, partially I'm sure due to in 1448 Maciot de Bethencourt selling the island of Lanzarote to Prince Henry the Navigator, it remained in Portuguese hands until 1479.

Antonio

[Kawika322]

Hi all, 

I thought I would try and revive this topic of Puerto Rican matches to Azorean ancestry on FTDNA Family Finder. My Uncle's DNA recently came back and I have been trying to sift through his matches. His maternal side is from Madeira, but his Paternal side is from the Azores.

It appears that he has approximately 20 matches with people from Puerto Rico. I have been in contact with 2 of the matches, and both don't have ancestry beyond Puerto Rico. Of the few trees that are on FTDNA, they all still only have lines going back to the beginning of the 1800's in Puerto Rico. 

I was interested in everyone's thoughts about where the Azores to Puerto Rico connection comes into play. It must be back at least into the 1700's. Several of the matches are in the 3rd-5th Cousin range and the highest is approximately 51cM with a longest block of 18cM (2nd-4th cousin estimated range).

One of the individuals my Uncle matches with the I have corresponded also stated that an oral history suggested that his mother's paternal side (Mercado) came from the Canary Islands in the late 1700's. This may help connect the idea what Doug was saying is the link from the Azores to Puerto Rico. 

Any insights would be greatly appreciated. 

David

[Margaret Vicente]

Hi, the answer lies in the history records and it shows the Canaries belonged to Potugal. The Spanish took over the Azores islands and controlled for s little over 60 years when England mediated the deal where Potugal was to keep the Azores and Madeira and give up the Canarie's. Regarding Puerto Rico, it was populated by the Spanish who naturally left their genes legacy all around. Hope this helps.

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[David]

Just to clear up the history a little bit...

1. The Canaries never belonged to Portugal in any way that left a significant genetic imprint, and what Portuguese claims to the Canaries existed comprise a distinct historical episode from the 60-year period of Spanish control of the Azores (and of Portugal and the rest of the Portuguese Empire).

Yes, Maciot de Béthencourt purported to sell the lordship of Lanzarote to Henry the Navigator in 1448, and yes, the pope (briefly) recognized the Canaries as being Portuguese. But Castile never accepted that, and the Castilian settlers didn't, and the local Guanche peoples didn't. There was never a big wave of Portuguese settlers, and by 1459 the last of what Portuguese were there were successfully booted out of the Canaries -- so no opportunity to leave a big genetic imprint.

The Treaty of Alcáçovas in 1479, between Portugal and Castile, finally settled definitively that the Canaries belonged to Spain (and that the Azores, Madeira, Cape Verde islands, and future discoveries to the south all belonged to Portugal), but again, the only real period of some degree of settlement by Portuguese had ended already in 1459, just eleven years after the purported sale to Henry.

Which isn't, of course, to say that there aren't some Portuguese-descended people in the Canaries, from various immigrants during or after that period of disputed ownership, just that (a) I've never seen, in the studies of the Canaries' gene pool that I have read, any reference to a significant Portuguese gwnetic contribution there, and (b) between that and the known history of settlement in the Canaries, it seems unlikely to me that much -- if any -- Portuguese ancestry in the Puerto Rican population arrived in Puerto Rico via the Canaries.

2. The period of the Iberian Union (1580-1640), the so-called "Babylonian captivity" of Portugal, when a Spaniard sat on the throne of Portugal and the two parallel empires were ruled by shared kings, is a completely distinct historical episode from the Portuguese claims on the Canaries in the 1400s.

And Occam's razor suggests that it is the Iberian Union that was most likely responsible for the Portuguese ancestry found in the Spanish colonies of the Caribbean (and other Spanish colonies). During this period, it is known, there was significant Portuguese migration to Spanish colonies in the Americas. For example, at one time a full one-tenth of the population of the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo (i.e., Hispaniola, the island next to Puerto Rico, now shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti) was Portuguese. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_(Jan)_Rodriguez#Biography

3. As a little bit of a tangent, but leaping off from the topic of luso-descendants from the Spanish Caribbean, allow me to put in a quick plug urging all of us who are luso-descendants in the USA to do a better job of claiming as one of our own (even if we have to share him with several other heritages and communities) Juan Rodríguez a.k.a. Jan Rodrigues a.k.a. João Rodrigues, whose Wikipedia bio I linked to above for the assertion that 1/10 of the Dominican population of that time was Portuguese.

If you're not familiar with him, please check out the full bio at the link, but in a nutshell: He was born in Santo Domingo as the son of a Portuguese sailor and an African woman, and went on to play an important role in early New Netherland's relations with Native Americans and in the acquisition and settlement of Manhattan. He is claimed as the first European-descent resident of what became NYC, the first African-descent resident there, the first Latino there, and the first Dominican there...

He's all of that, but he's also the first luso-descendant there (and maybe anywhere in what ultimately became the thirteen original states of the USA). Such a fascinating and accomplished life, too.


David da Silva Cornell
Miami, FL

Researching the following surnames and places:

Faial - Furtado, Terra, Furtado da Terra (unknown freguesia(s), but signs point to Pedro Miguel)

Flores - Freitas, Lourenço, Coelho (unknown freguesia(s))

Pico - Silveira Cardoso, Macedo, Machado, Pereira Madruga, Ferreira,
Cardoso, Cardoso Machado, Vieira, Bettencourt, Dutra, Castanho, Homem,
Goulart, Quaresma, Moniz, Barreto, Silveira, Pereira, Álvares (all Lajes do
Pico)

S. Jorge - Silva, Botelho, Azevedo, Cardoso (Urzelina); Silva, Azevedo,
Cardoso (Santo António in Norte Grande)