My Family History

Friday, 25 August 2017

Philippine National Hero - Jose Rizal

I wasn't really expecting this but one day I was doing some research into my family tree and I found out that I have a connection by affinity to Dr. Jose Rizal, the Philippine National Hero. Yes, genealogy is really very interesting.

Here below is how we are related. I have just blurred out the first names of people who I believe might still be living for privacy reasons:

Friday, 23 June 2017

National Artist - Lucrecia R. Kasilag

It is amazing what you find when you try to build your family tree.

From the Philippine Government Website of National Commission for Culture and Arts, I found one of the National Artist is Lucrecia R. Kasilag. She was Dean of the Philippine Women's University College of Music and Fine Arts. She served as Artistic Director and as president of the Cultural Centre of the Philippines from 1969 until her retirement in 1986.

Details of her are as follows:

"National Artist for Music (1989)
(August 31, 1918 – August 16, 2008)

Lucrecia R. Kasilag, as educator, composer, performing artist, administrator and cultural entrepreneur of national and international caliber, had involved herself wholly in sharpening the Filipino audience’s appreciation of music. Kasilag’s pioneering task to discover the Filipino roots through ethnic music and fusing it with Western influences has led many Filipino composers to experiment with such an approach. She dared to incorporate indigenous Filipino instruments in orchestral productions, such as the prize-winning “Toccata for Percussions and Winds, Divertissement and Concertante,” and the scores of the Filiasiana, Misang Pilipino and De Profundis. “Tita King”, as she was fondly called, worked closely as music director with colleagues Lucresia Reyes-Urtula, Isabel Santos, Jose Lardizabal and Dr. Leticia P. de Guzman and made Bayanihan Philippine Dance Company one of the premier artistic and cultural groups in the country.

Her orchestral music include Love Songs, Legend of the Sarimanok, Ang Pamana, Philippine Scenes, Her Son, Jose, Sisa and chamber music like Awit ng mga Awit Psalms, Fantaisie on a 4-Note Theme, and East Meets Jazz Ethnika."

This is how we are connected in the family tree:

Wednesday, 24 May 2017

Senator Macario Peralta Jr.

I have learned that there is another Senator attached to my family tree. He is the husband of the cousin of the wife of my great grand uncle Senator Esteban R. Abada. His name is Macario Peralta Jr.

According to the Senate of the Philippines website:

Senator Peralta was born in Manila on July 30, 1913.

He was educated in a public school where he quickly learned to take care of himself in the rough and tumble of the streets and became a student leader in a various activites. He obtained the degree of Bachelor of Laws, valedictorian (cum laude) at the University of the Philippines in 1936 and passed the bar examinations with flying colors.

Senator Peralta served in Cebu for two years as Commandant of Cadets of the Visayan Institute now University of the Visayas and was later on transferred to Adamson University and sent to various military school where he graduated with honors.

With the invasion of Japan, Peralta was sent to the Commander and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to acquaint himself with the latest military techniques. He was promoted as Brigadier General and appointed Deputy Chief of Staff in late 1945.

Senator Peralta was the youngest member of the Senate in 1949, at the age of 36. Among his creditable achievements as a Senator is the authorship of the resolution which investigated the notorious Tambobong – Buenavista Estate deal and also giving priority to veterans in employment in the government and then compelling members of the Senate to bore their assets and liabilities and his term expire at the end of 1955.

He married Natividad Kasilag.

The Descendancy Charts below are how they are linked:

Monday, 8 May 2017

Senator Esteban Raymundo Abada

As I mentioned in one of my posts before. One of the most popular people in my family tree was Esteban Raymundo Abada.

From the Senate of the Philippines website I read about him: "Senator Esteban Abada was born on March 15, 1896, in Sarabia, Negros Occidental. Of middle class parentage, the child Esteban grew up in the neighboring town of Kabankalan, where he graduated from the town’s elementary school as Salutatorian. At the age of 14, he went to Manila and studied at Manila High School. He was granted a scholarship and he pursued his studies in the Philippine Normal School, where he graduated in 1915. He embarked on an educational career, starting immediately after graduation as a teacher in the elementary grades. In 1916, he became elementary school principal, and was subsequently promoted supervising teacher. Four years after he started his teaching career, Abada was elected as a pensionado to the United States. Studying in the Michigan, he was elected to the Phi Betta Kappa, a nation-wide fraternity of scholars. He graduated as Bachelor of Arts from that University with distinction, and was consequently awarded a Teacher’s Life Certificate. Returning to the Philippines and to his interrupted teaching career, he served as high school teacher for two years, after which he was again promoted to the position of high school principal, which he held for three years. In 1927, he was a Superintendent of Schools. His first assignment was Zambales, and then he was transferred to Capiz, Tarlac, and Batangas. In 1939, he was designated Administrative Officer of the Bureau of Public Schools. While he was serving as Division Superintendent of Schools before that, he had occasion to associate with the then Speaker Manuel Roxas. In, 1946, after Roxas became President, he appointed Abada Director of Public Schools, and was Undersecretary of Education in 1948. Drafted as senatorial candidate in 1949, he copped second place among all winning candidates in that election. Abada carried his efforts in behalf of education to the halls of the upper chamber of Congress. As an official of the Department of Education, Abada had a reputation as a fighter, taking on even Americans who had a hand in running of that department before our independence. As a Senator, Abada preserved that reputation, to the advantage of educational circles in the country. To his credit he has several important legislative measures affecting education, all enacted into law. He was, aside from his efforts for education, likewise a member of the Philippine Delegation to the United Nations during one of its plenary sessions. Although suffering from an ailment, Senator Abada nevertheless contributed his share of work in the Senate during its 1954 session. He was Chairman of the Committee on Education, and as the session progressed, the ailment took its toll on his health. He went to the United States for medical treatment but never recovered. The educational and political career of Esteban Abada ended in the New York Hospital where he died on Decemer 17, 1954. He was survived by his widow, the former Purificacion Morente, and two children: Ester and Tita." From my research, I also learned that Esteban R. Abada has other children who died young.

Below is my relationship chart with Esteban Raymundo Abada. Our ancestors Andrea and Esteban were siblings. Please click on the picture to enlarge. Living persons are not shown for privacy reasons.

Monday, 1 May 2017

Still Another Family Tree

It's nice to be able to get different views of your family tree. This is another one of mine. This is from Magdaleno and Servanda to myself. The living persons have been blurred out for privacy reasons. Please click picture to see a bigger image.

Sunday, 30 April 2017

Another Family Tree

I have also joined familysearch.org and I was able to generate another family tree chart. They call it a fan chart. Again, I have blocked out the living persons for privacy reasons. Just click on the picture for a bigger view.

Saturday, 8 April 2017

My Family Tree

I have joined the family history website called Ancestry.com and I was able to generate a family tree chart. It is very interesting and I am planning to build it more so I can have a broader family tree. Below is the family tree that I have generated. I have blocked out the names of the leaving persons for privacy reasons. Click on the picture to get a bigger and clearer view.

Thursday, 8 September 2016

My Beginnings

I was born during a typhoon. In the Wikipedia online, this meteorological event was recorded and says: Typhoon Wanda (Diding) Duration April 23 – May 4 Intensity 140 km/h (85 mph) On April 23 Tropical Storm Wanda began its life to the east of the Philippines. It tracked over the archipelago, and emerged into the South China Sea on the 25th. It turned to the northwest, and became a typhoon on May 1 just off the coast of Vietnam. The westerlies brought Wanda to the north and northeast, where it weakened until dissipating on the 4th near Hainan Island. The storm caused 56 deaths (with 39 missing) and $700,000 in damage (1971 USD) from the heavy flooding. Thus, I was nicknamed Diding. I got it from the typhoon that struck our area.

My earliest memory is living in a house with a huge door and large windows. It seemed to look like those Gabaldon type buildings in the schools in the Philippines. I also remembered hearing the ringing of the phone a lot of times. This memory that I have was confirmed by my Nanay (Mother) and my aunt who told me that we indeed lived in such type of a house when I was very young and that there was a telephone in that house.

One story, which I don't really remember, was the story of how the house we were staying at (which is my grandparent's house) was struck by an eighteen-wheeler fuel tanker truck when I was very young. This story was related to me many many times over by my mom and my aunties that I thought it best to add it here. My mum used to work at this time so she came home very tired. Feeling very tired that day, she wanted to have a nap. Normally, I would be with her when she comes back home but that day, I was put under the care of my aunties because my mother had to rest. Luckily for me, I wasn't with her. That spared my life as the eighteen-wheeler truck plowed through the house and rendered my mum unconscious. After the accident, she was found under the truck buried in a pile of her own books. Luckily she survived.

One of the things that I really enjoyed when I was young was going to the beach. I enjoyed frolicking in the sun, and making sand castles. I also enjoyed the food. We usually have rice with broiled fish, sea shells, crabs, prawns, clams, and other seafood. My dad used to have two jeepneys and we used them for our trip to the local beach which was quite often, especially in the summer time. I used to have the interior of the jeepney tires used as life saver floats.

Monday, 8 August 2016

My Mother's History

My mother was born at Kabankalan, Negros Occidental, Philippines, at the house of her maternal grandmother, Faustina Verzosa Apla-on Abadiano. She stayed in Kabankalan for a few years and later on moved to Bacolod City. This was because of an eye infection that she had at three years old. She needed to have an eye specialist see her so their family moved to Bacolod City.

I grew up with my mothers brothers and sisters close by. She had 3 sisters and one brother. She also had a half-brother named Oscar Castel (deceased) and a half-sister (whom I do not know the whereabouts). My mother was quite close to my uncle Oscar as we visited their family every now and again but I have never met my aunt.

Being the eldest, my mother was quite hardworking and responsible. She had to learn to assist my grandmother at an early age because my grandfather was always away working as a sugar broker. I remember her telling me stories about how she would go my grandmother at only about 8 years old because sometimes my grandmother was at work or was sick. My grandmother has really trained her well at a very young age. I also remember her telling us stories about how she and her siblings would help each other doing household chores regularly because my grandmother was busy as a school teacher. They didn't have the modern machines those times so they had to do things manually. It's always fun hearing them recollect those childhood memories they had.

When my mother was a teenager, she worked at the Governor's office. She did some typing work and that has helped her to be trained early to work in an office, something that has really helped her in her later years. That has prepared her to become a working student which she has done later to help her get into the university because her parents could not afford to send her there. She was very serious in life at a young age, probably because she was the eldest child in her family and was quite responsible and hardworking at a very young age.

After high school, she went to Colegio De San Agustin de Bacolod and took a Secretarial Science course. She finished with the highest honours. Later, she went to the University of Negros Occidental Recoletos and finished Bachelor of Science in Commerce, major in Accounting. Because she was married with kids when she was in the university, it took a while before she finished.

She worked with SPCMA, Sugar Producers Cooperative Marketing Association, when she married my father. That is where they met each other. Later on, she worked with the city government of Bacolod. Around the late 70's, she moved on working for the GSIS, Government Service Insurance System, where she worked until she retired in the late 90's.

I have learned so many things from my mother. First and above all, her love and devotion to God was a priority. She has also taught me hardwork and responsibility. She has always taught me to do my best in everything that I do. She doesn't always tell me what to do but she says it best with the example she gives me. My mom was quite affectionate and always showered me with love and attention. She was very encouraging and was always proud of the accomplishments that I have made.

As an adult, I spoke to my mother often. We can talk for hours and never get tired of doing so. We shared a lot of discussions over the years. We were very like-minded so our conversations were always fun and engaging. Hopefully this will keep on going for many more years.