A Complex Lineage

It was a nice spring day on 8 May of this year when I arrived home from a bike ride about 10:45 am and decided to check on the status of reports from the Vatican as to who would follow the beloved Francis as pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church. White smoke is sent up from a chimney on the Sistine Chapel when a Pope is selected; if one is not selected, black smoke appears, but only every two ballots. They vote once the first day and then four times subsequent days, two in morning and two in afternoon-evening. The time of day meant if there was smoke it would have to be white with the selection of the pope. I had looked at news on the BBC site, and noticed  they were reporting live from the Vatican. While heads talked, a camera was focused on the most famous chimney in the world. I minimized that screen while working on other things.  A few minutes later, I heard cheering coming from the minimized BBC site. I opened it to find white smoke coming out. While the Church has storied rules about conclaves, the person selected as Pope, Robert Francis Prevost, has an interesting and complex lineage that rivals that of Vatican conclave secrecy.

White Smoke, 8 May 2025

It was just over an hour from when the white smoke appeared, that a cardinal came out to declare the famous Latin phrase, "Habemus papem."  I was surprised that the  largest conclave in history had produced someone on the fourth ballot, and much more surprised that American born Cardinal, Robert Francis Prevost, was selected. I did not know much about him, although perhaps just as much as Cardinal Dolan of NY knew about him before Dolan headed to Rome. Prevost was not even, according to Dolan, considered a North American Cardinal. Born in Chicago, Prevost served much of his ministry in Peru, over twenty years, including several years as bishop of a poor Peruvian diocese. He was only with the Vatican, as head of the dicastery for Bishops, for about two years, and less than two years ago was made a cardinal. In his first address on the day he was elected, Pope Leo spoke in Latin, Italian and Spanish; the latter language gave a shout out to his former Peruvian diocese. He did not give a shout out to Chicago, or the White Sox. Leo is a naturalized citizen of Peru. This proves the saying that was going around pre-conclave, that he is the least American of the Americans. I tend to take that as a dig at Americans, but whatever. If you are from the US, you claim him as an American, many elsewhere view him as South American, or simply he is almost a man without a country--he represents all.

Robert Prevost
Now Pope Leo XIV

Later that afternoon, when searching for information about Cardinal Prevost I came across a post about him having Creole heritage. The time of the news article was only two hours after the Pope was announced, so somebody did some hot and heavy research. The reporter who wrote the article quickly grabbed on a social media post by Jari Honora in New Orleans. The Pope has a complex lineage, and as newsworthy an American story his Creole heritage (mother's side) is, his Prevost side is also complex. As an amateur genealogist, I find this whole bit rather interesting, and was amazed at how quickly a genealogist in New Orleans found the Creole roots to his complex lineage.

Jari Honora is a Creole man of color living in New Orleans and a professional genealogist. He found the new Pope's Creole heritage in about an hour time. The biggest news, to me, is not that Leo is a Creole, but that it was discovered by Jari in less than an hour of searching and putting together a basic family tree. Honora self describes as a "New Orleans native & resident and proud Louisiana Creole with roots dating back more than two centuries along Bayou Lafourche and the German-Acadian Coast." His search began when he heard the Prevost surname, and his thinking went that it was from Quebec, or even Acadian, and could there be a New Orleans connection. However, as happens in genealogy, his search took him not to Pope Leo's father's side, but to his mothers side. 

The Pope's mother is Mildred Martinez, and she was born in Chicago in December 1911. Her parents migrated from New Orleans to Chicago between 1910 and 1911. The change in city also saw a change in racial identification for Mildred's parents. In New Orleans, her parents Joseph Martinez and Louis Baquie Martinez were identified as Black, colored or mulatto. While in Chicago, they were identified as white. You can find one post about Jari's search for the roots of Leo here. 

Pope Leo XIV Maternal side
Partial ancestry

The migration was part of a diaspora of persons of color from south to the north, in part to avoid discrimination due to Jim Crow laws in which any amount of non-white blood made a person suspect and considered a minority. Pope Leo has a complex lineage on Mildred's father's side of Haitian, Cuban and even perhaps Italian ancestry. For example, Mildred's 2nd great grandfather (her father's grandfather) some say, but not with certainty, was born in Italy as Giacomo Martino, but upon immigration to New Orleans in the 1820's he became Jacques Martinez. Jari thinks there may be a Czech connection. A good number of records, including the marriage certificate, point to his maternal grandfather as being born in Haiti. If the Martinez line actually goes back to Italy it shows the family changed the surname from Martino to Martinez. Today, a Martinez surname may get one deported to El Salvador, but for some reason it was preferred to the Italian surname. A change in surname will occur on Leo's paternal side.

New Orleans Church
Martinez and Baquie were married
Described in New Orleans as mixed race

Mildred's parents lived in the heavily Creole 7th ward, their house razed to allow construction of a highway. My niece in NO sent me a video while travelling on that highway and pointed out the 7th ward. She would have driven right over the site of Leo's grandparents former house. Jari Honora provides greater detail: "Joseph and Louise, born Louise Baquié, grew up in New Orleans’s Seventh Ward, an enclave for the city’s Creoles of color. Joseph’s place of birth is unclear, from studying the records. When he was an adolescent, it was listed as Louisiana. But in several censuses during his adulthood, he claims his birthplace as Port-au-Prince, Haiti." Jari Honora indicates that Joseph's birth certificate seems to claim Haiti as his place of birth, another source indicates the Dominican Republic, in an area claimed by Haiti. Jari further noted that Joseph's parents were both born in Louisiana. 

Louise (1868–1945) was the daughter of Ferdinand Baquié, a shoemaker; whose family, had been present in Louisiana since the colonial era. It is not unusual for different places of birth to be identified in census records. My own great grandfather identified, in different census years, both Germany and Austria as a place of birth. Joseph and Louise had six children--all girls, with Mildred the youngest. 

Mildred Prevost with sons
(front row l to r) Robert, Louis, and John at
Holy Name Cathedral, Chicago, IL

People in Louisiana and elsewhere are doing deep dives into their genealogy to discover if they are related to Leo. One New Orleans woman found she is related to Leo and stated: "As Creoles with African, French and Spanish ancestry, my families history weaves together Catholic faith, resilience, and 'laissez les bons temps rouler' spirit*.  The pope's New Orleans heritage mirrors this complex tapestry, blending culture, struggle and joy. A true American story, spicy as gumbo, now leading the Catholic Church."

More research continues since Jari's original post and part of the Pope's family were free persons of color. Jari and some other researchers think that they may find that some of his ancestors were slaves. In a NO Public Radio report Jari said: "I have identified a few enslaved individuals, who are ancestors of the Holy Father."

I have yet to see any evidence that he may have slaves in his lineage, but determination of slavery is difficult to many cases. Leo's story is truly an American story of the melting pot that was the US and how family migration tied to the early Jim Crow era with a diaspora of southerners to northern cities being a defining element. This move allowed them to identify as white in a culture of prejudice against non-whites. Now, if his Creole roots are of interest, a future post will detail something in his complex lineage that may well be even more spicy than gumbo.

*I think it means "Let the good times roll."