
Phil (Velez) Vélez
Honor Code SignatorySigned 14 Jun 2020 | 434 contributions | 5 thank-yous | 77 connections
I began my genealogical journey in 2020 and have since been learning as much as possible about the field and my family history. I am really enjoying WikiTree and hope to be a great contributor. I have personally adopted my complete Puerto Rican name, Felipe Luis Vélez Viera Gómez, to fully honor my ancestors. Feel free to just call me Phil. Though I may be relatively new to genealogy, I know that I will be researching my family tree for the rest of my life.
Thanks for checking out my WikiTree page and take care for now!
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Boricua |
Phillip Luis Vélez is a native New Yorker of Puerto Rican descent who was born in 1967 in East New York, Brooklyn.
Phil's mother, Lydia Gómez Ruiz, was born in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico in 1949. Phil's father, Ferdinand Vélez Padilla, was born in San German, Puerto Rico in 1948. Phil was raised by his step-father, Angel Luis Viera Carmona, who was born in 1948 and whose family is from Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico.
Early on in his life, Phil's family lived briefly in Spanish Harlem, then moved back to Brooklyn before settling for some time in the Bronx, NY. Phil attended public school in Brooklyn and the Bronx and graduated in 1985 from Murry Bergtraum High School in Lower Manhattan.
In 1991, Phillip L. Vélez graduated from SUNY New Paltz then worked as an editorial assistant, temporary reporter, and researcher at the Associated Press from 1993 through 1999.
Phil then attended graduate school at Baruch College of CUNY, earning a master's degree in corporate communication in 2004.
From 2004 to 2009, Phil was employed at Columbia University where he held the positions of communication and insurance specialist within the health services division of the educational institution.
Between 2010 and 2020, Phil formed his own communication consulting firm, worked for an IT company, a community college, a management consulting firm, and a restaurant hospitality group. During this time, Phil also wrote/blogged about politics and Puerto Rico, and researched and self-published the history book of the Delphic Fraternity.
Phil's interest in genealogy began in 2018 but gained great momentum in 2020. He is enjoying learning as much as possible about his family history and looks forward to making genealogy a lifelong hobby.
Have you taken a DNA test? If so, login to add it. If not, see our friends at Ancestry DNA.
The WikiTree Ambassadors would like to invite you to join the project as part of the Bloggers Team.
WikiTree Ambassadors are volunteers who have taken on the mission of spreading the WikiTree Love across a variety of channels. There are five other teams, if you have an interest in any of them in addition to the Blogging team, just let me know:
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Azure Rae ~ WikiTree Ambassadors co-Leader
This is awesome! Thank you very much. I would love to gladly accept the invitation to be part of WikiTree Ambassadors as a member of the Bloggers Team. I would also like to join the Social Media Team as I am very active on Twitter.
Please let me know of any next steps.
Thanks again and I look forward to working with you and the rest of the team!
Take care!
As you have been a member of WikiTree for a few weeks now, I thought I would check in to see how you are getting on with the site.
Has the New Member How-To been helpful, or left you with any questions?
I am here to help with any problems or queries you may have. To contact me, be sure to use the "reply" link below this comment so that I will be notified. Alternatively, you can click my name to visit my profile, where you can send a private message, or post a comment on my profile page.
Laura ~ WikiTree Greeter
PS: If you would like to connect with others who may share the same relatives please see our G2G forum. It is a great way to find others who may have information that you can share. Your tags are also clickable links that will show you others following the same surnames.
I am very happy to hear that you are enjoying WikiTree. There are a lot of great and helpful members here. The 'Help Index' is still one of my best friends. If you can't find the answer there then just ask and someone will be happy to answer your questions. You can send me a message if you need information.
There is also a great Research tool located about middle ways down on the right side of the profiles you create. It takes you to a page (sign in using your WikiTree login) that has the information you have already added to the profile name, locations, dates set into it. At the bottom, it lists websites you can search without having to re-add all the information. This page will help you create proper Sources. You already use FamilySearch and most of us do. They give you the citation which a really nice feature.
Your DNA will appear on your ancestors' profiles back about to a 6th great-grandparent. You may find others DNA showing up on those pages. You can check for matches if you see someone has tested at the same company you have. You have a GedMatch ID a lot of people list theirs on WikiTree and use those to find matches since it does not matter which company you tested with.
Enjoy WikiTree,
~Laura
I see that you have had your DNA tested, congratulations! Getting Started with DNA will tell you more about how DNA kits are used on WikiTree.
DNA at WikiTree provides a visual way for you to find others who have tested and have the potential of having common ancestors. To get the best results, you need to continue adding sourced profiles for your ancestors until you can connect to existing profiles in WikiTree. If you have exhausted what you know on one line, try a different one. 24 hours after you connect to an existing profile, your test will have populated on the profiles of your ancestors and their descendants, where others with potential matches may also appear.
Let me know if you have any questions and have fun!
Wendy ~ WikiTree Greeter
PS One of our mentors created a tutorial for the GEDCOMpare process that others found very helpful. I hope that you will too.
First, make sure you check out our New Member How-To pages. They will save you time learning our system: New Member How-To pages. You may be interested in the Puerto Rico Project!
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