Congressman, Genealogist Tout Possible Creole, Black Roots
The post Congressman, Genealogist Tout Possible Creole, Black Roots appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com. Topline Robert Francis Prevost, who was selected as the Catholic Church’s first American pope Thursday and took the name Leo XIV, has a family history that some were celebrating as uniquely diverse, with one genealogist claiming he has ties to “free people of color” in New Orleans. Cardinal Robert Prevost, newly elected as Pope Leo XIV, is seen on the St. Peter’s Basilica balcony, … More at Saint Peter’s Square in Vatican City on Thursday. (Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images) NurPhoto via Getty Images Key Facts The maternal side of Pope Leo XIV’s family can be traced back to at least the 1840s among “free people of color” in New Orleans, according to Jari C. Honora, a genealogist with the Historic New Orleans Collection, a research center documenting the city’s history. Rep. Troy Carter, D-La., who represents New Orleans, also released a statement Thursday highlighting Pope Leo XIV’s “ancestral ties to our Creole and Haitian families,” saying he was proud “As a Black man” and “a proud son of New Orleans.” Pope Leo XIV’s maternal grandparents, along with his mother’s older siblings, were “identified in records as Black or mulatto,” Honora told Forbes, but the family “passed … into a white racial identity” when they relocated to Chicago, where the pope’s mother—Mildred Martinez—was born in 1912. The pope’s grandparents resided in New Orleans’ Seventh Ward, an historically Black neighborhood, before moving to Chicago, Honora said. Pope Leo XIV was born in Chicago on Sept. 14, 1955 to Martinez and Louis Prevost, a World War II veteran of French and Italian descent. Martinez’s descent has been widely reported as Spanish, and Pope Leo XIV does not appear to have made major public statements regarding Creole heritage—the Diocese of Chiclayo, where Pope Leo XIV served as bishop between 2015 and…
The post Congressman, Genealogist Tout Possible Creole, Black Roots appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.
Topline Robert Francis Prevost, who was selected as the Catholic Church’s first American pope Thursday and took the name Leo XIV, has a family history that some were celebrating as uniquely diverse, with one genealogist claiming he has ties to “free people of color” in New Orleans. Cardinal Robert Prevost, newly elected as Pope Leo XIV, is seen on the St. Peter’s Basilica balcony, … More at Saint Peter’s Square in Vatican City on Thursday. (Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images) NurPhoto via Getty Images Key Facts The maternal side of Pope Leo XIV’s family can be traced back to at least the 1840s among “free people of color” in New Orleans, according to Jari C. Honora, a genealogist with the Historic New Orleans Collection, a research center documenting the city’s history. Rep. Troy Carter, D-La., who represents New Orleans, also released a statement Thursday highlighting Pope Leo XIV’s “ancestral ties to our Creole and Haitian families,” saying he was proud “As a Black man” and “a proud son of New Orleans.” Pope Leo XIV’s maternal grandparents, along with his mother’s older siblings, were “identified in records as Black or mulatto,” Honora told Forbes, but the family “passed … into a white racial identity” when they relocated to Chicago, where the pope’s mother—Mildred Martinez—was born in 1912. The pope’s grandparents resided in New Orleans’ Seventh Ward, an historically Black neighborhood, before moving to Chicago, Honora said. Pope Leo XIV was born in Chicago on Sept. 14, 1955 to Martinez and Louis Prevost, a World War II veteran of French and Italian descent. Martinez’s descent has been widely reported as Spanish, and Pope Leo XIV does not appear to have made major public statements regarding Creole heritage—the Diocese of Chiclayo, where Pope Leo XIV served as bishop between 2015 and…
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