Family historian Jari Honora talks Ellen Dionne Alverez and her son Harlon Patrick Martinez about their family tree in New Orleans, Sunday, June 8, 2025. Alverez is a second cousin of Pope Leo XIV.

The family’s race is listed as “B,” which meant Black.© Courtesy Chris Smothers 1920 U.S. Census records which depict the family living in Chicago, including the pope’s mother, Mildred.