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"Nacido en Oviedo" - one of the pitfalls of Cuban Genealogy - by Fernando Lamas

The following was published as a post in the Cuban Genealogy/Genealogia Cubana Facebook page on 23 January 2020 and is used with the permission of its author, Fernando Lamas: “Nacido en Oviedo” - One of the Pitfalls of Cuban Genealogy I originally started to write this post as a reply in a thread posted by Maria Lopez Keith , who was searching for the genealogy of an ancestor documented in Cuban records as having been “born in Oviedo”. However, since this topic has repeatedly cropped up in my own genealogy, and will be helpful to others, I decided to devote its own thread to it. Oviedo is the capital city of Asturias and being “born in Oviedo” means being born in Oviedo, does it not? That’s the pitfall. Things are far more complicated than that. Maria López Keith, here are some explanations and advice that may help you track down your ancestor from “Oviedo”. I saw one of your posts where you stated that “Asturias was named Oviedo from the 1500s through the 1700s”. That
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Online places to check for your ancestors

This is another post which is going to be very much a "work in progress." I apologize for it's disorganization.  I just want to get some ideas out  there for you before I totally forget them. There are two excellent online resources for you to look at: Cubagenweb.org: Back in the 1990s, a group of like-minded people got together with a chat room on CompuServ with the intention of sharing genealogical information and resources.  Ed Elizondo was one of those early members.  When it became possible to create websites, he organized the CubaGenWeb.org pages. Here's the link. https://www.cubagenweb.org/ This site contains a database currently (as of July 30, 2019) 275,104 passenger names from 13,913 ships traveling to and from Havana. Passenger records can be searched by first and/or second surname, by first name(s), or by ship code. The ships database can be searched by ship code, ship name, port of origin, port of destination, or date. The home page of this w
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The National Archive in Havana

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This information was provided by two professional researchers who for privacy reasons prefer to remain anonymous. It was written in Spanish, however, I am in the process of having it translated for those who speak only English. Here is a link directly to the Archive, so you can see what they have.  From what I understand, they don't usually respond well to Internet requests.  For this reason, it seems best to hire a researcher to physically go to the Archive to obtain the information. http://www.arnac.cu/ Qué tipos de documentos están disponibles que proporcionarían información genealógica útil? El primer documento que recomendaríamos para una investigación de historia de familia es el testamento, luego los procesos testamentarios, es decir los expedientes que se forman tras la muerte del testador para distribuir la herencia y arreglar la sucesión. A continuación indicamos los padrones  o listas de vecinos, igual pueden ser útiles los padrones de fincas urbanas pues ind
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The Espada Cemetery in la Habana

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Havana's largest Cemetery is the Necropolis of Cristobal Colón.  But before the Colón was built there was also the Espada Cemetery.   About 1868, there were so many deaths in the city from Cholera that there was no more room in the cemetery for additional burials.  It was shortly after this that the Colón Cemetery was created. The book groups surnames by the same letter, but the names are not arranged in alphabetical order within the letter.  Hence, the fourteen Arangos were interspersed within the list of other people whose surnames began with the letter A. Volunteers from The Cuban Genealogy Club of Miami have indexed the book and it is available online at:   https://cubangenclub.org/cpage.php?pt=41 .
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The Basics - 01: Getting Started

This document is still under construction.  I'm posting it tonight so that it can be used before I'm completely finished with it.  More to come! This is for people who are just beginning to create a family tree.  Perhaps it might be a reminder for others who have been doing it for years! We'll start with a couple of basic principles: A - Work from the present backwards , one generation at a time.  Don't try to begin by looking for your great-great-grandfather. B - Document every bit of information as you find it!  Note where the information came from. C - If you have a computer available, use a genealogy data base to keep track of all the information you will be gathering.  It may seem unnecessary when you are dealing with only 20 or so people, but as your research turns up new people, you will soon have so much data that without a program, you will never be able to know who belongs to which family. You can use an online program like Ancestry.com, WikiTree
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Tips for Cuban Researchers working in Cuba

This post is for those who may have friends or family  members who wish to earn a bit of money by visiting churches, cemeteries, and Municipal Registry offices. Tips for doing research in Cuba Discuss with the client exactly what it is he/she wishes you to obtain for them.   Do NOT accept research that says, “Send me everything you can find on the Garcia family!”   Many clients have only a vague notion of what they are hoping to find.   Because they don’t understand the basic principles of genealogy - work from the present, back one step at a time into the past – they think that you will be able to produce a complete 4 generation pedigree for $25!   You need to help educate them and set their expectations.   They are accustomed to the US, where it’s easy and fast to go to a municipal office and obtain a document in minutes.   A client who knows what to expect will be a happy client.  So, help them to understand that:             A.          You will need some basic inform
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The Cemetery of Cristobal Colón, la Habana

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The largest cemetery  in Cuba is El Cementerio de Cristobal Colón. Zapata & 12th Street, Vedado, la Habana, Cuba. Construction began in 1871 and since that time, over a million people have been buried there. For those who are unfamiliar with Cuban (and European) burial customs, let me just say that they are different.  In the USA, people are buried in a cemetery and (for the most part), their bodies remain there undisturbed.  Europe has much less arable land, so church yard space is designated for short-term burials.  The bodies are laid in the ground or in a tomb, and then, about three years later, the bones are exhumed and placed into an ossuary (a container or in some cases, a dry well). The ground or tomb is then reused for the next burial.  In The Colón Cemetery, even if there is a family tomb, the family must pay a rental fee every year.  If the rental fee is not paid, the bones are exhumed and are placed in a general storage area. The following information was cont
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