Summary
The project formally started in late June 2006 and since then I've begun to make contact with multiple organizations and individuals that I believe might have an interest in participating.
In particular, I'm contacting Sephardic listserve groups, Jewish listserve groups, Jewish culture associations in Texas, and Hispanic genealogical associations in Texas. If you have suggests about who I should contact, please let me know.
Results in Brief
As of 17 July 2006, there are six participants in project (4 men, 2 women). Two tests kits have just arrived at FamilyTreeDNA for analysis and four kits are currently with participants and pending return. For some men, we've requested Y-DNA and mtDNA tests. For women, only mtDNA tests.
Currently, I am in contact with several other potential participants with connections to South Texas, the Spanish Extremadura, Cuba, and New Mexico.
No genetic information (data) to report at this time.
Carvajal and Interrelated Surnames Currently Included in the Study
• Carvajal-Davila
• Carvajal-Martinez
• Carvajal-Yocum
• Corbello (potentially a Canary Island variant of the name)
• Mora
Next Steps
• Continue recruiting participants in Texas
• Follow-up with personal contacts in Plasencia, Spain, to recruit new participants
• Develop and share a template for reporting results. Possibly, this template would involve reporting individual results
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Text of Email Update Sent on 17 Jul 2006
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Update 1, 16 Jul 2006: Carvajal Genetic Genealogy Project
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Dear Friends:
This note is to provide you all an update on the Carvajal Genetic Genealogy Project.The project website is here: http://www.rogerlouismartinez.com/gen/carvajal_genetics.html
Future updates for the project can be found at:
http://www.rogerlouismartinez.com/gen/page18/page18.html
You can join the project at:
http://www.familytreedna.com/(x0kyuy45yk4aplmgv3fguk32)/surname_join.asp?code=Q99241&special=true
As you all know, in conjunction with my Univ. of Texas-Austin dissertation research on the Carvajal family, I've created this project to encourage Carvajal families and descendants to look into their genetics to better understand how they relate to other families in the Americas and Spain. A good friend of mine, Federico Garza of Monterrey, Mexico, commented that this is an ambitious project -- and yes it is, but we are taking small steps now to build a large database over the next several years. My commitment to the project is long-term. I will be holding myself to account because as an academic historian I am required to produce research and writing throughout my career. And the Carvajal family is a critical part of my research.
The benefits of participating in this project include:
1. Better information for you and your family about your background,
2. Distribution of Carvajal genealogical information to the broader world of family researchers, and
3. Generation of new research that will survive in the long-term through my academic publications.
As always, I am very concerned about protecting participants' privacy. Please see the links above to better understand how I am protecting participants valuable and sensitive data.
SPECIFIC GOOD NEWS TO REPORT:
*After only about three weeks of work -- already six individuals are participating in the project.
*Two text kits are already at the lab and 4 others are already at the homes of participants or on their way back to the lab.
*Two additional individuals that have already tested their DNA wish to contribute their results to our project.
*I am in communication with another 3 to 4 individuals right now that have expressed an interest in participating.
*We've already have geographic coverage for descendants from South Texas/Nuevo Leon, New Mexico, and the Canary Islands.
*I've asked Sr. Federico Garza of Monterey, Mexico, who is a local Carvajal historian, to help me identify and recruit participants in the Nuevo Leon region of Mexico. I've known and conversed with Federico for most of this last year regarding my research and he has been an invaluable resource as I assemble the genealogical components of my dissertation. Also, I've asked Federico to join the project as a Joint Investigator.
*I am actively working to secure participants from the Extremadura, Spain. Specifically, I am in communication with a professor in Plasencia, Spain, who I've visited with personally while working in the Archives of the Cathedral of Plasencia. He is a local historian of the Carvajales in the Extremadura and I hope that he will help us locate living Carvajales in the region.
*Lastly, I'll be presenting a paper at the 16th Annual Conference of the Society of Cryto Judaic Studies in El Paso, Texas, on August 8th. You can read more about the conference at: http://www.cryptojews.com/
My paper discusses the 14th and 15th century interaction of the Catholic Carvajales and the Jewish Converso Ha-Levi or Santa Maria family in Plasencia, Spain. While I have not located any definitive evidence that the Carvajales were of a Jewish background or intermarried with Jewish families -- they conducted extensive church and financial business (including property holdings) with Jewish and Converso families. This draft paper, which still needs to be fully edited, utilizes many unpublished archival records I located in several Spanish archives. lf you would like a read a copy of the paper, you can find it at: http://www.rogerlouismartinez.com/page15/page7/page7.html
In closing, thanks for your attention.
Warm regards,
Roger Louis Martinez
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• Join the Carvajal/Carbajal Family Surname Project at FamilyTreeDNA
• To receive updates on recent postings to the Carvajal Genetic Genealogy Project, please use my subscription service.
Project Update #1
16 July 2006
16 July 2006