Found: Antonio Rosell Carbonell, the most important and missing link to the Santiago family tree

Found Antonio Rosell Carbonell: The most important and missing link to the Santiago family tree.

Yesterday I was googling pictures for my Women in White page, when I came upon a very interesting article on the pirate Cofresi. Upon further reading I found that Cofresi's mother was of the distinguished Ramirez de Arellano family of Cabo Rojo.  Cofresi didn't have any children of his own to carry on his name.  His only son died very young. As for Cofresi's two brothers, after the infamous feats their younger brother pulled off, they most likely preferred not to be associated with the Cofresi name, and so opted (with good reason, I should add) to use their mother's name instead.

One of Cofresi's nephews or grandnephews (I'm not sure, as I need to do more research), married a young girl by the last name of Roselle. Lorenza, or Lorencita, died of typhus fever at the early age of eighteen. Her father was Antonio Roselle, a colonel in the Spanish army and stationed in Guayama, in the southern part of the island.  Antonio was born in Spain around 1820, and married Juana Josefa who bore him three daughters but no sons. 

Antonio met Bernardina Batista, the young daughter of Jose and Mercedes Batista, much later on in life.  She must have fallen in love with the distinguished older officer, enough to risk getting pregnant and bearing him a son, an illegitimate son whom she named Juan Anacleto. 

Records show that Anacleto was born in July of 1880. Antonio was close to 60 then.  As an officer of the elite Spanish army, we're certain that he could not afford to be mixed up in an extramarital affair, or much less, beget illegitimate children. At her age, his beautiful young girl lover gave birth to a son. But because of the particulars of this story expressed above, Bernardina chose to baptize her son by herself.  She did so in the church of Guayama a year after his birth.  She must have deduced that Antonio Rosell was never going to upset his marriage to Juana Josefa or his military career; and so she did the right thing. There is no record of the father, nor any information pertaining to his whereabouts, on the baptismal certificate. The fact that he was Spanish, would explain why he wasn't found in any of the island's demographic registries. 

That illegitimate son of Col. Antonio Rosell, was none other than our beloved grandfather, Anacleto Santiago, Mom's dad who loved his children, especially his Gandulito, with an unconditional love.  Read my book The Women in White. 

Records show that Bernardina later took a husband by the name of Jose Maria de Santiago. It would make sense that her firstborn illegitimate son should take the name of his stepfather. 

In summary, Papa's sister Lorencita Roselle, was married to a nephew or grandnephew of the famous pirate Cofresi who stole from the rich to give to the poor.  Papa would have been either the nephew or grandnephew of Cofresi the pirate from Cabo Rojo.  Throughout the history of our family there have been many links between Guayama and Cabo Rojo.

It turns out that our family is in some twist of fate somewhat related to Cofresi.  All this is documented and not a figment of my imagination.  I have all the records to prove everything I write here.  I have been diligently working on our family tree for almost two years, but I gave up the search for our great granddad, Antonio Roselle, a year ago when Mom passed away.

What a coincidence that this information was made known to me, only three days before Mom's one year anniversary of going home to the Lord.  Coincidence?  I don’t think so.  I truly believe this was Mom's gift to us before she leaves once-and-for-all for her eternal dwelling place.  After all, she was my biggest supporter when I was working on our family tree, and would spend endless hours on the phone with me trying to help me piece together our family history.  She wanted to know who her grandfather was, as much as I did.  

Mom, this one is for you!  You never did cease to amaze me!  Thank you from all of us, your children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, for this last truly and unique gift! I will love you always and forever! 

With all my love,

S.

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