"La Real Cedula de Gracias de 1815 y sus efectos en PR & Emigrantes llegados a PR procedente de Venezuela 1810-1848" by Raquel Rosario Rivera

Ellen Fernandez Sacco (who is an awesome genealogist)  commented:

 I enjoy reading your blog. I also have Caban in my family, which I am currently researching. There are Caban in Puerto Rico before 1800 on the west coast. Unfortunately none are listed in Raquel Rosario Rivera's book on the Real Cedula de Gracias. There seem to be several lines, one indigenous another of European origin. Cabal, Caban, Caval are some of the variations i've seen for the records ca. 1780s-1790s. Raquel Rosario Rivera has two books, La Real Cedula de Gracias de 1815 y sus efectos en PR & Emigrantes llegados a PR procedente de Venezuela 1810-1848. You can probably get them from Libreria Tertulia.

Boabdil said...

Ellen Fernandez Sacco: Madam, I believe I have seen your writings somewhere else related to the genealogy of the Cabans. My name is Boabdil Perez Caban, I am from Moca and family of Lorenzo Caban Alonso. This is what I have found from my tree. Based on church records in Moca, the earliest caban I found so far (going back to Moca in 2 weeks) is Alejandro Caban, father of Jose Maria Caban, father of Lorenzo Fermin Caban lopez, father of Lorenzo Caban Alonso, wich was my grandfather. I just saw this series of posts and have to read them to see if it relates to my line and how to trace it out of PR. Good luck to all..

Anonymous wrote:

   The first Cabán to arrive in Puerto Rico came with the Sosa family, which founded Aguada, a town in the Western part of the Island, next to Aguadilla. I strongly sugest that you look up articles written by Dr. Adolfo Pérez Comas, a prestigious historian and descendant of Bernardo de Sosa, who has done a lot of research about the Cabán de Avilés branch of the family, who came to Puerto Rico in the XVIIIth century. Raquel Rosario Rivera does not include any Cabán in her book about the Cédula de Gracias.

Conclusion (for me) - Ok, the Cabans didn't come to Puerto Rico on the Decree of Graces, if  Raquel Rosario Rivera's books are correct. The Sosa lead is a good one, though I have also heard that Cabans come from Cavan county Ireland - v is pronounced as a soft b many times in Spanish. There are also DNA links that put us in the Balkans and  there are Cabans living for centuries now in Poland! So, still work to be done. 

Shar

Comments with Interesting Research Leads...

There have been some interesting comments (44 to date!!) left on an older post I made a few years back. They include various greetings and the reaching out of our family members to each other. They also include research or information discovered by our cousins around the world!

Genealogical research is a collaborative effort in all ways. Whether you do what you can on-line, via various websites, or you are able (and lucky enough!) to go into old churches or record offices, it is all based on collaboration with dead family who left records, log ago census takers, ancient tax officials and anyone else who recorded social history or data publicly or privately. Even old family legends are not to be discounted, particularly if the keep popping up in several separated branches. The legends may prove to be a myth, but the fact that they pop up here and there shows that some sort of communication is going on, or has gone on between family members at some point.(It's amazing how quickly family members can disconnect! I have many cousins and try to know all of their children, but it takes effort as we are scattered. And yet I find ones who live in the same town - the younger ones - have no knowledge of their connection to each other. Very sad to me.)

So my purpose, beginning with this post, is to put up some of the comments scattered around the blog for you to think about and chew on. If it sparks anything please share!!! 

Thank you!

Shar

Museo de Los Santos

Have you heard of the "Museo de Los Santos"? It is a virtual museum project started and run by Richard Holm, co-owner of Carribean Consulting. They say: "El Museo de los Santos is a project sponsored by Caribbean Consulting to promote the appreciation, understanding and preservation of Santos and the history of Santeros in Puerto Rico."

While I personally am not into worshipping saints, I see the value of these statues as examples of folk art. More to the point, our Caban ancestors are reprresented on this website. If you are interested, here are the links!

Eduvijes Caban

Florencio Caban

Manuel Caban

The above woman, by the way, is Sra.Teresa Henández, the mother of Florencio Caban. 

There is a contemporary artist in the family taking up modern carving. That is Susana Caban. Susana is married to James Caban, who has been a jewellery designer for decades, and they live in Puerto Rico with their sons. This is one of Susana's pieces:

 

You can see the rest of her collection here: 

http://susanacaban.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.etsy.com/shop/SusanaCaban

and hear a discussion about carving and santeros between Susana and radio talk host Gil the Jenius (his spelling) here:

 http://puertorico.countrytoolbox.com/puerto-rico-blog-22/meet-susana-cabn-wood-carving-jewelry-artist-rincon-432/

The posting of the DNA markers is wonderful! Thank you so much those who have contributed! Yesterday I got a book out of the library about how to interpret DNA markers - what each one means and how it pinpoints a location. Well, at least I hope that's what it will do. I'm thinking it would be helpful if everyone could see why ("el porque" as my father always used to say) this or that marker puts our origins in different places. If anyone else wants to post their DNA results step right up! The more the merrier!

In the mean time it's also wonderful that our cousins are all reaching out and making contact... putting up a hand and saying, "Hey I'm here in... and my father or mother was..." Our name is uncommon and we come from those first settlers who made their way from Europe to PR. We are primos and we are waving to each other across time zones and the seas!

Rather than leave this in the comments area, I think it should be published here. It's an "annonymous" comment (though it could be from R. Caban!) and lends weight to a Balkan/Eastern European connection:

Hi with my R. Caban Haplogroup I1b
Positive for the following SNPs: M170+ M258+ P19+ P37.2+ P38+
Negative for the following SNPs: M161- M21- M223- M227- M253- M26- M307- M72- P30-
Haplogroup - I1b The Balkan countries likely harbored this subgroup of I during the Last Glacial Maximum. Today this branch is found distributed in the Balkans and Eastern Europe, and extends further east with Slavic-speaking populations

What do the rest of you think? Anyone else got tests done?

Cousins...

Hola familia mia! Some time ago I posted a question on the Ancestry.com message boards ( Message Boards > Surnames > Caban >) regarding the origins of our surname. Over time I've had interesting replies!

Marco Caban said "The Radhanites of Spain, in 1400, took the center of the Jewish goverment established in Spain to the korsack of Poland. It is suposed that some of the rabbis were Caban."

I don't know what the "korsack of Poland" means... if it's a typo or I'm just ignorant (most likely the latter) but I did look up the Radhanites in Wikipedia. It says:

"The Radhanites (also Radanites, Hebrew sing. רדהני Radhani, pl. רדהנים Radhanim; Arabic الرذنية ar-Raðaniyya) were medieval Jewish merchants. Whether the term, which is used by only a limited number of primary sources, refers to a specific guild, or a clan, or is a generic term for Jewish merchants in the trans-Eurasian trade network is unclear. Jewish merchants dominated trade between the Christian and Islamic worlds during the early Middle Ages (approx.AD 500–1000). Many trade routes previously established under the Roman Empire continued to function during that period largely through their efforts. Their trade network covered much of Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and parts of India and China."

That would explain our name getting around, if it's true that we have Radhanite origins.

CabanR said: "Hi interested in your posting and I also have been curious about the Caban origins - I can shed some new light having done Y DNA testing myCaban heritage traces back to Ireland - they have a county in Ireland call Cavan county - I also thought they were French but there is more to that having Polish origins is another mystery but the Y DNA also indicates Haplogroup I1b originating in the what are the Balkans in Europe

My grandfather Manuel Caban-Vera is a descent of the Caban santeros who settled Camuy-Quebradillas area. Manuel was born in Quebradillas - with DNA testing Y chromosome from the male the Haplogroup ia I1b - originating in the Balkans - they are also Celts - as the DNA mutations show origins in Ireland with matches - There is a county in Ireland call
Cavan county during the Irish disporta - Royal Decree of Grace - 1815 the Caban santeros are known from about 1850 to 1950 as multi-generational family of santeros."

That's very interesting too! My father was descended from the same Santeros. Anyone else connected to the Santeros group?

Randy Caban said: "Caban is also a surname found in Lincolnshire County, England and also in Scotland. Caban is also a word in the Welsh language - Caban is a surname found in Poland pronounced "tsban" and it is found in all parts of Europe."

And that probably brings us back to the Radhanites.

On these pages, Lucita has commented,

"I have a 4th great-grandfather, Alejandro Caban. I had my Mtdna done. I also convinced one of my male cousins to have the Y-DNA test done. Here are the results:
DYS# 393 390 19* (aka 394) 391 385a 385b 426 388 439 389-1 392 389-2
Did you have yours done?"

Hooray! Unfortunately I don't know how to interpret the data and being female mine would only go back to origins so ancient that they just virtually say "Human from planet Earth." But maybe someone will know how to read the data...

And in the meantime we also have cousins... the Rodriguez family has married very closely in with the Cabans, as have the Sotos and the Romans. I got a comment from Angela Roman asking if anyone knows about the connection. I can say what I know...

Valentin Roman Y Campos married Manuela Campos in the 1890s. They had the following children who were listed by the name Campos rather than the name Roman. (I believe this was done after the US took over PR in 1898.):

Francisca - b. 1895
Antonia - b. 1902
Lucia - 1903 - 1925
Jova - b. 1904
John - 1906 - 1972
Bienvenido - b. 1908
Leopoldo - b. 1908
Nazario - 1915 - 2001
Alejandro - b. 1917

All of these children were born in Islote, near Arecibo, in Puerto Rico. Of that list John Campos married Carmen Caban and they had two sons, John and William.

Carmen Caban was the daughter of Roque Caban and Juana Torres. Roque was the son of Eduviges Caban and Maria Rodriguez, and his parents were Juan Caban and Juana Hernandez. Juan and Juana are listed as "strangers to Puerto Rico" in the parish records that my late cousin John discovered. They seem to be the start of the dynasty - at least of the one that I'm descended from.

Their son, Eduviges had 5 sons - Quiterio, Rafael, Wincelso, Antonio and Roque. The Caban Santeros are sons of Quiterio. Roque was the mayor of Aguadilla for a while. Here is the picture from his campaign button -



I descend from Rafael Caban. So... Roque was my great-grand Uncle and his daughter Carmen married into the Roman family. And as I said, this is not the first or only connection. Perhaps you know of others! If nothing else, I hope this list helps some of us find a connection.

Oh and Manuel Caban-Vera is my first cousin once removed! Woo-hoo I connected with someone!!

Here is some info that came as a comment but needs to go as a posting! for those who are interested in DNA testing, I got a comment from the CEO of this DNA Testing Company:

Hi -- Since you guys are talking about DNA tests for genealogical purposes, I thought I'd share some news with you.

Familybuilder, a leading genealogy software and application company has just announced the introduction of Familybuilder DNA, the lowest-priced DNA test on the market. At $59.95, for both YDNA and mtDNA tests, this is ideal for genealogical purposes.


For more information, please visit: http://www.familybuilder.com/dna

Thanks,

David Rheins
CMO Familybuilder