Welcome to y la Familia

Welcome. Our goal is to share the history of our family and interesting related facts as discovered by our family genealogist, Norma (Garcia) Pettit. We hope you find the information interesting, enjoyable and relevant. We also encourage family members to share their stories for a different perspective. As always, we welcome your questions and suggestions.

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU

We are certain there are many other stories with interesting points of view, particularly those that might help fill gaps in our family’s history. With that in mind, we want to encourage family members to share their stories and photos on this website.

If you have something you would like to share, please send your story to Norma at mamanony@sbcglobal.net, attach photos if you have any, and we will review and publish your submission or get in touch with you if we have any questions. Thank you in advance for your contribution.

Featured Article

Secret Babies

By Norma Garcia Pettit
Posted July 26, 2024

I remember how surprised I was to learn that my grandmother Ana Cruz García’s first baby was Matilde, born on January 27, 1907. Sadly, Matilde died on September 23, 1908, just two months after the birth of her baby sister, Adela. (See death record below). It’s amazing to me that none of my aunts and uncles, or even my father, ever mentioned that the oldest child in their family was named Matilde. We were always told that Adela was the oldest. Did they not know about Matilde? It’s seems strange that Florencio and Ana would never have talked to their other children about the first baby that they lost. By then, though, Florencio had lost three (or possibly four) small children as well as his first wife. Maybe at some point you just stop talking about the pain.

Read the full article...

Past Articles

The Vilá Branch of Our Family Tree

Posted May 1, 2024

Pedro Vilá was born in Cataluña, Spain, around 1781. At some point he sailed to Puerto Rico, where he met and married María del Pilar González, the daughter of Lázaro González and Eduarda Medina. They had six children: Juan de la Paz (1813-1872), José María (1815-1845), María de la Cruz (1817-1858), María Inés (1820-1878), Amalia Lucinda or María Amalia (1823-1868),...
Read more »

Are ALL Puerto Ricans Related?

Posted January 19, 2024

Years ago, on American Idol there was a Puerto Rican contestant named Tatiana Del Toro. She could obviously sing or she wouldn’t have made it to the top 36. Tatiana was sometimes dramatic and annoying, but I remember her also for a comment that she made about Puerto Ricans: “We are all cousins.” While that’s a standard joke that we...
Read more »

DNA Cousins

Posted November 4, 2023

If you have done your DNA test on Ancestry, you know that you have a list of matches that is broken down into close relatives, first cousins, 2nd-3rd cousins, 4th-6th cousins, etc. Those of us genealogy addicts that are on Facebook refer to the distant cousins as “DNA Cousins”. Back in July, I was contacted by one such DNA cousin,...
Read more »

Guessing Someone’s Age

Posted August 18, 2023

We do it all the time. We meet someone and until we get to know them we estimate how old they are. But how strange would it be to not know your own age? This actually happened to me. Years ago, I was going through some hormonal issues that caused me to have moments of disorientation. During one such episode, I...
Read more »

The Basque Contribution

Posted May 31, 2023

I am 100% Puerto Rican. My mother was born in Adjuntas and my father was born in Peñuelas. Their parents were born in Puerto Rico as were their grandparents and great grandparents. I am a Boricua to the core. That being said, when Puerto Ricans have their DNA analyzed, they are often in for a surprise when they see how...
Read more »

My Dad, His Fishing Boat, and a Trip Down Memory Lane

Posted April 18, 2023

In 1966, when I was fourteen, my dad (Oscar C. García) retired from the Merchant Marines. We were expecting him to come home to San Francisco and were perplexed when we didn’t hear from him. Eventually, we got a letter from him saying that he was in Puerto Rico. He had bought a 32-ft long fishing boat and was going...
Read more »

My “Cookie-Cutter” Childhood Home

Posted February 15, 2023

In my last article, I wrote about the astonishing progress made in housing from one generation to the next in our family. Specifically, I mentioned that my father was born in the mountains of Peñuelas, in the rural mountainside community of Santo Domingo. During the 2009 family reunion hosted by cousin Annie Meléndez, a group of us took a guided...
Read more »

Yo Tengo Ya la Casita

Posted October 23, 2022

Last spring we built a storage shed on our property in Yabucoa, Puerto Rico. At my request, Randy designed it to look like a typical Puerto Rican home of yesteryear. When it was completed, we saw people driving by, slowing down, and even stopping to admire La Casita, as we named it. We received many compliments on it, and some...
Read more »

Newsletter Archives

For more than 20 years, ‘y la Familia?’ newsletter had been published and mailed to family members. The final issue came out in June 2016.

We have saved a copy of all of the newsletters and they are available on this site in the archives. There are many historical and featured articles on family members within their pages. We encourage you to check them out.

Newsletter Archives >>