Category: Resources & Research Guides

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Revisiting Lyman Platt’s record list for documenting family sources

How old is too old?
Lyman D. Platt, Puerto Rico: Research Guide. Cover. (1990)
 While reading one of Lyman D. Platt’s research pamphlets on Puerto Rico, I came across his list for documenting family sources. Published in the pre-internet days of 1990, it’s still a great reminder of the variety of information one can use to reconstruct family relationships and fill in timelines with helpful detail.
I clustered the documentary items below according to their utility. Some sources may  tell you more about a person or family than others, which can lend insight into the context of a particular time or place.  Photographs are incredible resources, if the individuals depicted can be identified; at the very least, one can determine a time and place, often within a decade.

I clustered the documentary items according to their utility.  Some sources can offer more about a person or family than others, which can lend insight into the context of a particular time or place.  Photographs are incredible resources, if the individuals depicted can be identified– at the very least a time frame can be established for the image.  There are increasingly more collections on line, which I’ll write more about in future.

Thanks to migration and time, you may be left with vital records and the possibility of discovering these items at the homes of elders, relatives and friends of the family, via FB groups.. or even eBay.

Periodically revisiting your collection of family documents is a good idea– some details may have escaped notice the first time around.  For instance, i’ve gleaned information from my grandfather’s passport several times, realizing more detail was applicable than I initially thought regarding his first marriage. It’s also an incredibly rare image of them at a crucial moment as they voyaged to South America.

Ramon Fernandez, U.S. Passport, 1925. Personal copy.

So, think of these general categories as applicable for different countries– not just Puerto Rico.

Vital records & Notices

  • family civil booklets (for marriage registrations issued in Spain or Latin America)
  • newspaper clippings [U Florida has the Gazeta de Puerto Rico 1837-1902]; searchable on Library of Congress website.
  • baptism notices
  • death notices [Puerto Rico Obituaries 2005-2008 (Newsbank); try Legacy.com for recent obituaries and notices]
  • marriage notices
  • marriage invitations
Family
Networks
  • school records
  • work records
  • diplomas
  • photographs / picture albums
Some resources are available in special collections at universities and other institutions.
Don’t forget to look at Hunter College’s Centro for Puerto Rican Studies, the NYPL’s fabulous Schomburg Collection and there are additional repositories listed in my post on NY-NJ Archives: Notable Latinx & Caribbean Resources.

Suerte en su busqueda!  Good luck with your search!

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