Finding Your Roots

We'd already traced Natalie Morales's father's roots in Puerto Rico, revealing her ties to sugar planters, soldiers, and a notable pirate.

Now turning to her maternal ancestry, we encountered another compelling character: Natalie's third great-grandfather, a man named Domingos da Silva Oliveira.

Domingos was born in Brazil around 1835.

The son of a municipal judge, but he didn't follow in his father's footsteps.

Instead, he became a farmer.

And according to his obituary, he left behind a significant legacy.

"A sectarian of liberal ideas, he enjoyed much prestige during the empire.

He had deserved political influence, but he never wanted to hold any office.

He always dedicated himself to farming.

And although he was not wealthy, he lived independently.

He had contracted three marriages, and from these three marriages, there were 13 children."

Seems like a humble person.

Yeah, who was prolific.

Prolific!

In many ways.

That means you have a zillion cousins in Brazil.

Marriage and children, yes, he was prolific, yes.

13 by three wives.

Yes, yes.

What's it like to read that?

You know, it's interesting because a lot of the traits that I read, I'm like, "That's like my mom, that's like my mom, that's like my mom," that he had upright and just character, seemed like a humble person.

While he "deserved political influence, he never wanted to hold any office," this is my mom.

She's so humble, hardworking, and just doesn't need to be recognized.

Right.

That's my mom.

Regrettably, as we look closer into Domingos's life, we saw that there was more to him than just his good qualities.

Brazil was colonized by Portugal in the early 1500s and became the center of slavery in the entire New World.

It's estimated that almost 5 million Africans arrived on its shores, and at least one of them ended up on Domingos's farm.

Another slave owner, in the family.

Another slave owner.

Oh boy.

Your third great-grandfather, Domingos was a slave owner.

Yes.

So on both sides.

What's it like to learn that?

Interesting.

He was of liberal ideas, but yet he was a slave owner, so, but, maybe everybody around him at that time maybe was in Brazil.

Who knows?

Yeah, there were- Not that there's justifying, but...

It was as common as common can be in Brazil.

Mm-hmm.

I mean, it's a sad piece of history.

It really is.

It's a sad piece of my family history, but it's a lot of people's family history unfortunately.

We now set out to see what more we could learn about this branch of Natalie's roots.

And we got very lucky .

In Glaura, a small town in south-central Brazil, we uncovered a baptismal record for Domingos's father.

It lists his parents, Natalie's fifth great-grandparents.

And we learned that his father, a man named Jo�o da Silva de Oliveira, was born in Portugal.

Jo�o is your original immigrant ancestor- From Portugal.

on this line from Portugal.

You got it!

That's incredible, wow!

He came to Brazil from Portugal sometime in the mid 1700s.

Yes.

There you have it.

That's my direct line- Yeah, and so... to Brazil.

So many people in either Puerto Rico or Brazil would never have any idea when their family came over.

Right, and who was the first.

So here he is, the first!

But you do, there he is.

What's it like to learn that?

Jo�o da Silva de Oliveira.

That's fantastic.

This is like a gold mine.