The Secret Is Out

Last year I shared some of my family tree with a friend. After a few days they sent me an E mail. One sentence stood out. "Did you know that you are a descendant of Don Juan Ponce de Leon, Adelantado de la Florida?"

I was a little surprised then I wrote my friend back. No? Do you have any details?

They sent me a family tree that was documented up to Antonio Maldonado y Nieves married to Dona Manuela Montalvo.

Antonio was born 1795 in Utuado, Puerto Rico. 

I sat back and began pondering about the surname Montalvo.

Then I remembered that I had an mtDNA match with someone who had the surname Montalvo.

In any case the results of my research led me back to Diego Guilarte de Salazar and his wife, Dona Isabel de Avila Nunez de Bastides. Going further forward in my tree I finally connected to Juana Ponce de Leon y Luna, married to Garci Troche de Olmedo. Juana was the daughter of El Adelantado, Don Juan Ponce de Leon and his wife Beatriz de Luna y Ponce de Leon the daughter of Pedro Ponce de Leon and Maria de Luna y Rojas. 

When I finally made the documented connection I sent off an E mail to my friend who in turn sent off an E mail to a friend of his who eventually contacted me asking me if I would like to participate in the 500th Celebration of my ancestor's discovery of la Florida. I accepted and thus began the process of locating a breast and back plate armor, a sword and my friend then sent me images of what my vestments should look like. I browsed the Internet looking for period clothing but the few that I located were poorly made. It was then I decided to create and sew my own vestments. The image below was taken at Melbourne Beach, Florida.

In any case, to date I have 36,060 individuals within my family tree and 65 percent of them are Ponce de Leon ancestors.

If you live in Florida, you are invited to an hour long lecture that I will be giving on Saturday, 12 of October, at 1:00 PM. at Ana G. Mendez College 5601 S. Semoran Blvd, Orlando, FL. 32822

The name of the lecture: Mitos, Leyenda y Legado de Juan Ponce de Leon. Sponsored by the 500th Florida Discovery Counsel. 

I will be giving a talk about the many errors within the history and genealogy of Don Juan Ponce de Leon refuting them via the documents I have acquired from the Archives of Spain that are included in my book, Juan Ponce de Leon His New And Revised Genealogy.

In closing, I have an update for those who have purchased my book: It concerns two errata: 

Page 124, 6th Paragraph, should read: Beatriz de Luna y Ponce de Leon was the daughter of Pedro Ponce de Leon and Maria de Luna y Rojas.

Page 207, 1st Paragraph, should read within the genealogy:

Juan Ponce de Leon y Perea Carrizosa

+ Dona Beatriz de Luna y Ponce de Leon.

Sometimes publishers make mistakes too during the editing process. These two slipped past all of us.