Family History

I've been working on a digital scrapbook for my parents and I found this old photo of my great grandfather from the turn of the century (last century). Jose Ignacio Hernandez was the son of Canary Islander immigrants (Jose Antonio Hernandez and Encarnacion De la Nuez) who died in an ambush during the war for Cuba's independence. A relative of mine in Texas still has his war machetes!

I was also able to go back one more generation and get Jose Ignacio's grandparent's names (my great great great parents): Jose Sebastian Hernandez and Isabel Rodriguez Guerra.

Mayorga and Haplogroup R1b1b2

Marge’s dad just got back the Y-DNA results from the National Geographic's Genographic Project and it turns out he is Haplogroup R1b1b2 (formerly R1B1c), which is pretty common throughout Europe, but very common in the Iberian Peninsula. Here are some stats from Wikipedia:

Welsh 89%, Basque 88%, Irish 81%, Northern Portuguese 81%, Catalan 79%, Scottish 77%, English 75%, other Spanish 70%, Dutch 70%, Belgians 63%, Southern Portuguese 60%, Ossetians 43%, Italian 40%, German 39%

While doing some research on the Mayorga surname, which comes from a town in Spain and is a common surname in Nicaragua, I found this possible ancestor:

"Don Alonso Diaz de Mayorga y Arregui was born in Seville during the first half of the sixteenth century. His father was from Old Castile and his mother was Basque. He arrived in Nicaragua around 1608 and actively participated in the design of the new city Santiago de los Caballeros de León as the previous city had been destroyed by the eruption of the volcano, Momotombo, which forced the residents and authorities to seek a new site for relocating the city. It was relocated as the new town, consolidated on the site is now known as Santiago de los Caballeros de León. Don Alonso was one of those who collaborated on the layout of the streets of the new city, the location of the new church and buildings that would house the offices of the new authorities."

It seems most Nicaraguen Mayorgas are decended from Don Alonso Díaz de Mayorga y Arregui. The "Díaz de Mayorga" surname survived for like 9 generations before getting shortened to just Mayorga.

Spanish Inquisition Left Genetic Legacy in Iberia

After reading this article in New Scientist I was amazed that I've yet to find any Jewish ancestry in my family tree. For those of you just tuning in, my family, Hernandez Morales, is of Spanish descent. We've all had our DNA tested by the National Geographic Genographic Project just for fun and I will say our findings do concur with the findings in the article. We pretty much split evenly between European and North African DNA with Y Haplogroups I1 (Germanic) and E3b (Berber) and Mt Haplogroups U4 (Celtic) and U6 (Berber) as the norms. Again, it's very odd that I've yet to find any Sephardic Jew in my genes...

Cuatro Hijos

For more than a year now I've been sifting through old Spanish passenger lists looking to see if I could track down more information about my great great grandfather's arrival to the New World (i.e. Cuba) and I've finally found his name, Jose Antonio Hernandez Rodriguez, on a schooner traveling from Las Palmas, Canary Islands to Havana, Cuba in 1850. The ship was called Cuatro Hijos (Four Sons). The name, date, and locations all line up with the genealogical records kept by my family and it feels pretty cool to have added a bit to the record.

I've been corresponding with some genealogical researchers in the Canary Islands to see if I can trace my family further back than 5 generations and I'll post anything new that turns up.