Which of the following describes the heritage of Peter Gene Hernandez, better known as Bruno Mars?

• Ukrainian
• American
• Filipino
• Hispanic
• Jewish
• Hawaiian
• Puerto Rican
• European
• Hungarian
• Asian
• Spanish

The correct answer is all of the above. And though I haven’t been able to prove it through the paper trail, he may well have some Taíno and African roots through his Puerto Rican ancestry.

As a genealogist who’s been delving into the past for most of my life and playing with DNA for almost two decades, I’ve climbed the branches of several thousand family trees, and the more branches I explore, the more apparent the growing “melangification” of America becomes.

Folks like myself who are 100-percenters or half-and-halves with roots in only one or two places are rapidly becoming quaint, and families like Bruno’s are slightly ahead of the curve. If you were to come back 100 years from now, I suspect most families would look like the cast of Hamilton. But for now, let’s linger on Bruno’s for a bit. Here are a few things you probably didn’t know about his roots:

• He’s typically described as being Hawaiian-born to a father of Puerto Rican heritage and a mother from the Philippines. This is all true. His parents are Boricua and Filipina. But his ancestral pool also happens to be one-quarter Jewish hailing from Hungary and Ukraine.
• In the U.S., Hawaii, New York, California, Nevada, Puerto Rico and Texas all hold a piece of his family’s past.
• Bruno’s Ukrainian immigrant ancestor, a one-time Hebrew teacher, entered America not through Ellis Island, but through the port of Galveston, Texas as part of the Galveston Movement. His future bride, however, was of Ellis Island stock.
• This same ancestor was once banned from ever becoming a citizen, but after modifying his name (please see the Ellis Island chapter of Hey, America, Your Roots Are Showing if you still believe that old myth about names being changed by immigration officials) and waiting about 20 years, he was finally naturalized.

• As seen in this photo, continental blending in Bruno’s family began a long time ago. This shows a pair of his great-great-grandparents — the father born in Spain and the mother in the Philippines — with two of their daughters around the 1890s. About a decade after her husband passed away, Bruno’s great-great-grandmother remarried to a Chinese gentleman 19 years her junior, introducing yet another country into the family mix.

Spanish birth record of a great-great-grandfather of Bruno Mars

• When it comes to Spain, it’s Segovia — I’m talking to you, Nava de la Asunción and Fuentepelayo! — that gets the bragging rights.

Whenever Bruno Mars races around the globe on tour, there are likely unsuspecting cousins in his audiences in Madrid, New York, Manila, Kiev, San Juan, and Budapest. I look forward to the day when we all realize there’s nothing especially remarkable about that.

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How I Found my Elusive John Murphy – I got my geek on with this piece about finding an elusive John Murphy in my family!

Images: Top – screenshot from linked video, Bottom – AI-rendered image generated from the author’s prompts

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Driving Madeleine – If you ever get a chance, do yourself a favor and watch Driving Madeleine.

Proclamation on Irish-American Heritage Month, 2024 – For my fellow Irish Americans. So tickled to have done the sleuthing on those Blewitts and Finnegans!

So Far: Genetic Genealogy, The First 25 Years (1999-2024) – Want the inside story of the first quarter century of genetic genealogy (yes, really!)? It’s all here and it’s free!

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Credit: David Shankbone (Creative Commons License)

If I mention the movie When Harry Met Sally and your brain whispers “I’ll have what she’s having,” I’ve got good news for you. Meg Ryan, longtime rom-com queen thanks to her unforgettable performances in this and other favorites such as Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail, is back with What Happens Later, a film she co-wrote, directed, and stars in. While in countdown mode, I couldn’t resist peeking into her past by exploring her ancestry because, well, that’s what I do.

When she embarked on her acting career, Meg adopted her maternal grandmother’s maiden name of Ryan, but her birth name of Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra hints more broadly of her heritage. Ultimately, I ascertained that she is 31.25% Irish, 25% Rusyn (from present-day Poland), 25% Polish (from present-day Lithuania), 12.5% German, and 6.25% English. As a fellow Irish-Rusyn American, this delighted me because there are so few of us, so I wrote about her Irish roots and am turning now to her Rusyn portion.

For those who may not be familiar with the word “Rusyn” (and no, I don’t mean Russian), we’re a Slavic people mostly found in the Carpathian Mountains, which is why we’re sometimes referred to as Carpatho-Rusyn. To further complicate matters, “Ruthenian” was once a more common term. Often overlooked, our favorite claim to fame is that Andy Warhol was one of us, but I hope you’ll take a few minutes to learn more by visiting the Carpatho-Rusyn Society.

This website provides a useful list of clues that you might be Rusyn (you’d be surprised how many are, but don’t know), but speaking as a genealogist, the two indicators I always seek are family documents that use words such as Ruthenian, Rusyn, Galician, and Austro-Hungarian, and ancestors associated with Greek Catholic churches, cemeteries, and organizations – particularly those in the old country before the family came to America.

It didn’t take long to trip across one of these giveaways. Following the path of the surname she was born with, I looked for Ryan’s Hyra grandfather in the 1920 census, and found him in Yonkers, New York with his parents and siblings. His father was recorded as coming from Galicia, and in the column for language, “Russian” is crossed out and replaced with “Ruthenian O.L.” The O.L. code stands for “other language” spoken at home, so this is how the Hyra family conversed a 100 years ago.

1920 census for Hyra family (Ancestry)

Languages census enumerators were told to expect to encounter for the 1920 census

As it happens, the immigrant in this branch, Orest Hyra, shared something in common with Meg’s Irish immigrant Ryan ancestor, as both were bartenders. Orest spent his first couple of decades in America working as a saloon keeper before shifting gears to running a grocery store.

So Orest Hyra, was Rusyn, but what about his wife, Anna, who was born in Pennsylvania? Chasing the answer to that question would reveal a tragedy all too common in Slavic families: a coal mining death.

The first trace I would find of Anna “Durkin” (the original name was Durniak, but variations like this are common) was as a step-daughter in the 1900 census. I then followed the trail of her mother, Catherine, to determine who her father had been and discovered that he was Nicolaus Durniak. Greek Catholic records noted that he died on December 24, 1893, and while I couldn’t make out the cause, thanks to Petro Orynycz’s Lemko translator (Lemko being a subset of Rusyn) and the help of Rusyn expert, Rich Custer, I learned that he was killed in a mine.

Death of Nicolaus Durniak (Ancestry)

Cause of death: killed in mine

Digging into coal mine inspector reports for 1893 reinforced this. As was typical, his name was distorted to Michael Durkin (those who are seasoned in Slavic research know how interchangeable Michael and Nicholas can be), but it was the right place and time, and he was about the expected age. So what happened? “Back severely injured; fall of roof” (“fall of roof” – not “off” – was common phrasing at the time).

Reports of the Inspectors of Mines of the anthracite and bituminous coal regions of Pennsylvania, 1893

I noticed that the accident occurred on the 21st of December, so had a go at finding a newspaper account, but when I saw how cavalierly his accident was treated, almost wished I hadn’t. “Happily no fatalities.” Well, not that day since he lingered for three more before succumbing.

The Times-Tribune (Scranton, PA), 21 December 1893 (Newspapers)

Since his death was uncovered in Greek Catholic records, I was confident that Durniak was Rusyn, but wanted to further verify this by finding his baptism in Europe. The mention of his place of birth in his death record steered me in the right direction, so I knew that Hańczowa, Poland was my target, and as expected, the answer was found in Greek Catholic church books.

Księga urodzeń dla miejscowości Hańczowa (1845-1898 Greek Catholic baptisms in Hańczowa)
(Archiwum Państwowe w Rzeszowie Oddział w Sanoku)

Birth of Nicolaus Durniak (Archiwum Państwowe w Rzeszowie Oddział w Sanoku)

There was no doubt. Meg Ryan’s ill-fated great-great-grandfather, Nicolaus Durniak, was Rusyn. His widow swiftly remarried out of necessity to a man named Jacob Korbelak and I couldn’t help but notice that Jacob’s surname appeared on the line immediately above that of Nicolaus’s birth. Though I didn’t check, there’s a good chance that this was a case of a fellow villager stepping in to help a widow with four children.

Newspapers unexpectedly turned up one more bit of evidence of the family’s Rusyn origins when Jacob assisted his step-children in trying to secure benefits that were apparently owed by a mutual benefit organization, likely the Greek Catholic Union of the USA.

The Times-Tribune (Scranton, PA), 9 January 1897 (Newspapers)

So yes, Meg Ryan’s Durniak and Hyra branches are undeniably Rusyn. In fact, her Hyra line hails from Zdynia, a village in Poland known for its annual festival of Lemko culture. And in case you’re curious, other Rusyn names that adorn her family tree include Filyk, Kardosz, Lukaczyn, Petkiewicz, and Wolchak. I’m beyond pleased that America’s longtime rom-com queen has Rusyn roots, and once they learn in her villages of origin, I have a feeling that they might be sleepless in Hańczowa and Zdynia!

More here about Meg Ryan’s Irish roots.

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Census Tree FAQ – Hmm. Might be some interesting things that could be done with this cross-pollinated US census data.

Photo Credit: Nikolas Fečunda via YouTube

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Remains of Indiana soldier killed during World War II identified – This was a daunting case, sent to me as high priority last year, so I’m even more pleased than usual that this hero has been identified. Welcome home, Pfc. Leonard Elkins Adams. Honored to have researched your family.

Veterans Voices: PFC Mark Wilson to be buried in Arlington Cemetery 79 years after death in WWII – Welcome home, PFC Mark P. Wilson. Honored to have researched your family.

Reclaiming a North Carolina Plantation – Interesting article from an unexpected source.

Introducing Reimagine: Scan and Improve Photos – Has anyone checked out MyHeritage’s Reimagine app? Looks as if it will be $50/year for full functionality.

With Gloria and Emilio Estefan at the 2023 Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Awards!

Chrissy Teigen Started ‘Spiraling’ After Genealogy Test Mistakenly Said She Had an Identical Twin – For obvious reasons, celebs are always tested under fake names, but I never thought I’d see an outcome like this!

One English Family Took Photos of Shipwrecks for More Than a Century – Love these tales of unexpected mini-archives from unexpected sources (in this case, photographs by 5 generations of one family), but rescue those negatives!

I never thought I cared about my family history, and then I went to Ireland – “it was a pile of rocks on an oceanside cliff that gave me the genealogical awakening I needed”

Top Photo Credit: Johnny Silvercloud under Creative Commons license

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Downton Shabby: One American’s Ultimate DIY Adventure Restoring His Family’s English Castle – If you’re like me and on the lookout for pleasant diversions in your reading, you might enjoy this one. A genealogical fantasy for most of us, but true for this fellow! That said, what a learning curve and commitment!

President Biden invited to visit Galway after discovery of family links – Did this at 1:20 a.m. my time, so fingers crossed I sound semi-coherent. President Biden is visiting Ireland this week, so there’s apt to be some chit-chat about his roots and Irish cousins.

How 27,000 bricks from Biden’s great-great-great grandfather helped build the cathedral where he’ll speak in Ireland next week: Deal made family $25K – before they sailed to the US to start new life – Hey, y’all, it’s that season again. Joe Biden is visiting Ireland this week so there’s going to be a lot out there about his Irish roots and cousins. Some of it has already mentioned my work, but I also expect a few discoveries I had nothing to do with. And this is one of them. Pretty cool.

Joe Biden invited to Galway after genealogist uncovers family ties to the county – This title is a little misleading in that I confirmed what then-potential family members suspected, but yes, he has Galway roots as well.

Cut from the Same Cloth: Joe Biden and Stephen Colbert Share More than Their Irish Heritage – My latest on Medium. Some parallels I’ve been struck by over the years.

Photo Credit: via Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons license

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Megan Smolenyak geneloygist to the stars – Points for creativity!

Top Photo Credit: Victoria Pickering under Creative Commons license

The post Genealogy Roundup, March 1 appeared first on Megan Smolenyak.

Holland America Opens 150th Anniversary Poster Design Contest – Calling all artistic genealogists!

Photo Credit: adaenn under Creative Commons license

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Genealogy book that traces 600 years of S’pore family history to include women for first time – And to think it only took 600 years!

“Said Ms Pang, 51, who is married with three children: “Including women recognises the value of daughters to families. Regardless of their marital status, daughters are breadwinners, caregivers and decision-makers in families. They are often the glue that holds the family together.” …

“As I researched our family history, what impressed me most was how the decisions and efforts of my ancestors, even those made centuries ago, reverberate in my life,” said Ms Pang.

“Family history teaches us humility and gratitude about our place in history.””

AI is getting too smart too fast. I’ve been playing with images, but am now having a go with writing, and I mean, this is a respectable response to my query.

Photo Credit: Paul Williams under Creative Commons license

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