June is Immigrant Heritage Month. As with previous years this is a reminder for donations to groups supporting immigration causes, and a reminder to look back at some of the previous immigration stories in my own family. MyHeritage has free access to its US immigration collection this week.
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| Photo by Patrick Jones. Echo Park, LA. 19 May 2018. |
It's been a month, and once again time to share research progress since the previous update for May. The most significant developments have all been on my maternal side questions, so this month's post will feature that activity. The discoveries from this month show my three previous questions blending together. Some of the bigger discoveries are still being worked through with cousins, and I'm holding off documenting this case study on the blog until hearing back from everyone for now.
1 - Working with Portillo DNA matches. I have been able to use chromosome mapping from matches on FTDNA, MyHeritage, Gedmatch and 23andme to identify segments most likely connected to the Portillo family. There's a lot here to still work through, but these matches are starting to identify specific segments most likely inherited from the Portillo family, and the segments in common are providing a likely generation of connection between Mariana Portillo and my 3rd-great-grandfather Manuel Portillo.
2 - Analyzing mtDNA matches in the maternal line path of Maria Jesus Vasquez. Now with an additional cousin we have some fascinating results and I'm working through them. This mitotree haplogroup is now A2a5b'd'e.
3 - Campuzano YDNA. This has been the biggest result of the month. I've been using a mix of tools, such as Diagrams.net, DNAPainter, and the various DNA testing platforms, to work through the matches and document the issues with this family line. The testers on both branches of the family are now aware, and I have a full recap of the research so far in the works.
[New] 4 - Identifying living descendants of Jose Jesus Amado for YDNA. This is an old research question that has come back after finding two Amado testers on 23andme, and connecting with the manager of an Amado kit on Ancestry. Using chromosome mapping I can see the segments of these Amado testers overlapping with a Campuzano cousin who descended from Maria Concepcion Amado. My hope is the tester on 23andme might be interested in a YDNA kit from FamilyTreeDNA.
Future RootsTech Talk. I submitted two session proposals for RootsTech 2027. Now I wait. Last year I heard back by mid-September that my 2026 proposal had been declined. Either way I'm looking forward to attending in person.
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| RootsTech 2027. |
My RootsTech 2027 talk proposal is in. The deadline runs to 29 June, but with travel coming up next week, I went ahead and finished the entry. I might send in a second topic, and have the outline already finished.
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| SMDP. Mountain lion in Santa Monica. 29 May 2026. |
A mountain lion was safely captured yesterday after hanging out in a Santa Monica backyard, right around the corner from our old home. The story reminded me of P-22, the famous mountain lion of Griffith Park. Hopefully the safe capture and relocation of the mountain lion will also drive attention to the Save LA Cougars campaign and the soon to open Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing over the 101.
This is a fascinating long form story in the NY Times (published 15 May 2026), about the families from two brothers originally from New Orleans who were placed in an orphanage. One brother went north to Chicago, passing as white; the other brother stayed in New Orleans. The families later reunited through the journalist who was a former national correspondent with the Times. Well written, and the story weaves in old photos and documents to the present.
