Ana Josefa Tapanes y Fuentes was born in 1800. Could she an aunt or grandmother . My father always said all the Tapanes from Matanzas were related one way or another. My father had cousins, 2nd or 3rd with the name of Juana Tapanes. My Tapanes family is very long.

My Tapanes ancestors are are follows:

My grandmother was Juana Padron Tapanes. She was born in Matanzas around the turn of the century.

Her mother was Dominga Tapanes Tapanes, also from Matanzas tho I don;t know what year.

Dominga's parents were Dionisio Tapanes Tapanes and Juana Tapanes Gonzales. Both born 1840 in Matanzas. Before that we have no more information. And I don't know of their siblings.

It is possible your relatives are associated...do you have information on siblings?

If your father knew a Juana Tapanes from Matanzas, it could have been my grandmother. She died in Cardenas in 1987.

This story is interesting to me because my mother whose mother was Juana Padron Tapanes was always told that her grandmother was "India" -- they didnt specify anything else but that she always had extremely long, think black hair and she had whatever was considered an "Indian" look...wonder if that is related.

Interestingly, I participated in the National Geographic Genome project where they do a test to determine what DNA group you belong to (on your mother's side only if you are a woman), I was put in Haplogroup D which is a group of peoples that migrated across Asia through North America and into South America, possibly the Caribbean. So when I got my test back it sort of confirmed that somewhere in my ancestry of my mother's line there must be some native peoples. Especially since the other side of my mom's family is strictly Basque.

Go figure.