My mother's ancestry has been traced 3-4 generations back, thanks to my grandmother Josefina Abadiano who was very faithful in doing her family history work. I remember, I used to go with her when she would visit her hometown to update her family history records. My mother's ancestors, are a mix of Filipinos, Spanish and Chinese people as evidenced from our family history records. Also, my grandfather (Rafael Castel) seemed to speak more Spanish than our dialect because that is the language that they probably used in their own family. I grew up with my grandmother close by. Although vague, I can remember my grandfather a little bit. He used to visit us at home. I was 4 years old when he passed away in December 1975 and was buried in January 1976. We have always joked that he wasn't buried until after a year later because of the difference in years of his death date and his burial date.
My grandmother was a school teacher, something that I wanted to be at one point in my life. One of the most prominent member in her family was a senator by the name of Esteban Raymundo Abada. He was the 2nd cousin of my grandma's father (Tomas Abadiano). A few public schools in the Philippines were named after him because he was a leader in the education sector. I was never aware of schools being named after him until I met Mary Jane, who later on became my friend in the university. She mentioned going to a school named Esteban R. Abada. From there, I researched and found out that there were actually many public schools named after him.
My maternal grandfather's family were fairly well off. I remembered stories told about how they went about checking out their lands riding on horses. They had to be on horses because their lands were vast. However, due to some mismanagement and gambling problems of some family members, they slowly lost their wealth over the years.
My maternal grandmother's family were farmers. I learned that they had vast lands in the early days but because they were not very well educated, they also lost their lands of inheritance to someone who borrowed the legal documents and changed ownership of their vast lands to his relatives. It's a sad story but it's a lesson to learn from.
There was also another prominent member of my mother's ancestry. His name was Andres De Los Reyes Castel. He was the brother of my grandfather, Rafael De Los Reyes Castel. He served as an official in their hometown. I don't think I met him in person but I remember, we went to his funeral service when he died. There was a Philippine flag draped on his casket. I wonder why that was and my auntie told me that he actually has served as a vice-mayor of their town a few years back, that is why he had a flag-draped casket.
