Robert Francis Prevost, the Chicago-born cardinal selected on Thursday as the new pope, is descended from Creole people of color from New Orleans.
The pope’s maternal grandparents, both of whom are described as Black or mulatto in various historical records, lived in the city’s Seventh Ward, an area that is traditionally Catholic and a melting pot of people with African, Caribbean and European roots.
The grandparents, Joseph Martinez and Louise Baquié, eventually moved to Chicago in the early 20th century and had a daughter: Mildred Martinez, the pope’s mother.
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The pope’s background was unearthed Thursday by a New Orleans genealogist, Jari C. Honora, and confirmed to The New York Times by the pope’s older brother, John Prevost, 71, who lives in the Chicago suburbs.
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It’s unclear whether the new pope has ever addressed his Creole ancestry in public, and his brother said that the family did not identify as Black. {snip}
Mr. Honora, who works at the Historic New Orleans Collection, a museum in the French Quarter, began investigating the pope’s background because of his French-sounding name, Prevost, but quickly found connections to the South instead.
His trail of evidence linking Leo to New Orleans includes the grandparents’ marriage certificate from their Seventh Ward wedding in 1887, a photo of the Martinez family grave marker in Chicago, and an electronic birth record of Mildred Martinez that shows she was born in Chicago in 1912.
The birth record lists Joseph Martinez and “Louis Baquiex” as Mildred’s parents. The father’s birthplace is listed as the Dominican Republic; the mother’s, New Orleans.
Mr. Honora also found records from the 1900 Census that list Mr. Martinez as “Black,” his place of birth as “Hayti,” and his occupation as “cigar maker.” Mr. Martinez’s details appear on the sixth line of a page of the census that Mr. Honora shared with The Times.
“Both Joseph Norval Martinez and Louise Baquié were people of color, no doubt about it,” Mr. Honora said.
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