Robert Francis Prevost, the cardinal born in Chicago selected Thursday as the new Pope, descends from the Creole people of New Orleans.
The maternal grandparents of the Pope, both described as blacks or mulatto in several historical records, live in the seventh neighborhood of the city, a hoop that is traditionally Catholic and a melting pot of people with African and European roots.
The grandparents, Joseph Martínez and Louise Baquié, moved to Chicago in the early twentieth century and had a daughter: Mildred Martínez, the mother of the Pope.
The discovery means that Leo XIV, as the Pope will be known, is not only broken as the first pontiff born in the United States. It also comes from a family that reflects the many threads that make up the complicated and rich fabric of American history.
The Pope’s background was unearthed Thursday by a genealogist from New Orleans, Jari C. Honora, and confirmed to the New York Times by the Pope’s older brother, John Prevost, 71, who lives in the suburbs of Chicago.
“This discovery is just an additional reminder of how intertwined we are as Americans,” said Honora in a text message on Thursday night. “I hope that the long history of black Catholics, both free and in general, in this country, which includes the family of the Holy Father.”
It is not clear if the new Pope has approached his Creole ancestry in public, and his brother said that the family did not identify as black. The announcement of his choice in Rome focused on his early life in Chicago and decades of service in Peru.
Honora, who works in the historic New Orleans collection, a museum in the French neighborhood, began investigating the Pope’s background due to his French sound name, Prevost, but quickly found connections with the South.
His trail of evidence that links Leo with New Orleans includes the marriage certificate of the grandparents of his seventh neighborhood wedding in 1887, a photo of the tomb marker of the Martínez family in Chicago, and an electronic birth record of Martinez Martinez that the Shez Shez Shez stores that exhibition programs programs Programs Programs Programs Programs Programs of show programs showagagogo.
The birth registry lists Joseph Martínez and “Louis Biejex” as Mildred’s parents. The father’s birthplace appears as the Dominican Republic; The mother, New Orleans.
Mr. Honora also found records of the 1900 census listed by Mr. Martínez as “Black”, his place of birth as “Hayti” and his occupation as “Cigar Manufacturer.” The details of Mr. Martínez appear on the sixth line of a census page that Mr. Honora shared with the Times.
“Both Joseph Norval Martínez and Louise Baquié were people of color, no doubt,” said Honora.
Joseph Martínez’s exact place remains a mystery: Mr. Honora also found a 1870 census record that says that Pope’s maternal grandfather was born in Louisiana. But he said it was not uncommon for people to change their answers in the records of the officials.
Joseph Martínez and Louise Baquié married in Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans. Until it was destroyed by a hurricane in 1915, the Church building was in Annette Street in the seventh neighborhood of the city, a historic center of Afro-Creol culture.
Creoles, also known as “Creole people”, have an almost as old as Louisiana. While the word Creole can refer to people of European descent who were born in the Americas, commonly describes the mixed race people.
Many Louisiana Creoles were known in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as “free couleur gens” or free people. Many were well educated, Speech French and Roman Catholic.
Around the decades, they established a business support point, construction offices and the arts, in part music, with significant contributions to the development of jazz. They are continuously an important beach in the famous heterogeneous culture of the city.
The revelation of the Pope’s new inheritance is a tremendous moment for the history of the Louisiana Creoles, said Lolita Villavasso Cherrie, co -founder of Mr. Honora of the Genealogical and Historical Association Creole.
“I hate saying it, but we feel, many of us, that our history is hidden for us,” said Mrs. Villavasso Cherrie, 79, a retired teacher. In part, he said, that is because many Creoles have been able to “pass” as whites over the years.
It was only with the advent of the Internet, he said, that many people are their family history and realized their Creole roots. He pointed out that a significant number of Louisiana Creoles emigrated to the Chicago area in the twentieth century.
John Prevost, the Pope’s brother, said his paternal grandparents were from France, and that his father was born in the United States. He said he and his brothers did not discuss their Creole roots.
“It was never a problem,” said John Prevost.
What all this means, when it comes to the racial identity of the Pope, touches some of the most thorough questions of American society, but also reflects the rich diversity of US experience.
“We are all just a few degrees (or less than a few degrees) eliminated from each other,” said Mr. Honora, the genealogist.
Julie Bosman Chicago contributed reports. Susan C. Beachy Contributed research.
