My Briones / Aleson / Alison Ancestry

Coming soon! :D

My Ledesma Ancestry

My Han Chinese Ancesty

My Ivatan & Gad'dang Ancestries

My Gad'dang Ancestry

My paternal great great great grandfather was Don Santiago Villanueva y Saquing, a Gad'dang. His parents were Don Enrique Federico Villanueva of Ilocos and Doña Maria Ynez Saquing y Tamani of the present Solano, Nueva Vizcaya, The Philippines. Doña Maria Ynez Saquing y Tamani was the daughter of Don Pablo Saquing y Dumelod, the 1789 gobernadorcillo of Lungabang (present Solano, Nueva Vizcaya, The Philippines) and of Doña Dominga Tamani y Dayag.

Don Pablo Saquing's parents were Don Santiago Saquing y Buseg, the son of Don Filemon Saquing and Doña Francisca Buseg, the daughter of Don Doming Buseg, the 1770 Capitan del Pueblo of Lungabang and of Doña Eustaquia Buseg.

Doña Dominga Tamani's parents were Don Jorge Tamani and Doña Ximena Dayag, the sister of Don Antonio Dayag, the 1779 gobernadorcillo of Lungabang (present Solano, Nueva Vizcaya, The Philippines).


My Ivatan Ancestry

My maternal great 6x grandmother Doña Vicenta Encarnacion Mariño y Fariñas also known as Entang,  who was born on 10 December 1788 in Taal, Batangas. Entang while on their family vacation in Vigan in Ilocos met the seafarer Franisco Cielo y Cabal, an Ivatan of Sabtang, Batanes. She and Franciso Cielo got married in Taal, Batangas. Their first born son was Vicente Cielo y Mariño who was born in Sabtang, Batanes.

Vicente Cielo y Mariño also known as Apo Vicing, a seafarer and businessman married Buenaventurada Ledesma y Arnaiz also known as Apo Buena, an interna in Real Colegio de Santa Isabel in Intramuros, the daughter of Don Juan Ledesma and Doña Margarita Arnaiz of Negros.

Apo Vicing and Apo Buena's first born was Ciriaco Cielo y Ledesma also known as Acong who was born in Sabtang.

The teenage Acong was playful with girls. He eventually had relationship to the Boholana-Cebuana sangley Gregoria Rangcajo y Talip in Parian, Cebu whom he had a daughter named Ynocenta Vicenta Rangcajo y Cielo also known as Mama Entang who eventually married Don Juan Evangelista Aleson y Campugan (27 December 1848, Cogon, Carcar, Cebu, Las Yslas Filipinas - 24 November 1886, Cogon, Carcar, Cebu, Las Yslas Filipinas) also known as Papa Angel, the lawyer and Customs Chief of Cebu back in 1800s. Papa Angel was shot to death by his brother-in-law Don Jorge Camomot y Barazon over land matters in Aleson Estate in Carcar.

One of Papa Angel and Mama Entang's daughters was maternal great great Doña Dolores Consuelo Aleson y Ras de Rangcajo.

My Berenguer de Marquina Ancestry

Our Great Old Man Felix

My great great great great great great grandfather was Félix Berenguer de Marquina y FitzGrerald (1736, Alicante, Spain – October 10, 1826, Alicante) was a Spanish naval officer, colonial official and, from April 30, 1800 to January 4, 1803, viceroy of New Spain.

Abuelo Felix Berenguer de Marquina was born in Spain to a family of the minor nobility of Alicante in 1736. His parents being Ignacio Berenguer de Marquina y Pasqual de Riquelme and Mary FitzGerald, he belonged to one of the most influential families in Alicante through his father's side and to the ancient Irish House of FitzGerald through his mother's. He joined the navy at a very young age. On April 30, 1754 he took the midshipman examination. Thereafter he served on ships of war in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. He married María de Ansoátegui y Barrón in 1758, thus becoming, years later, the uncle of one of Venezuela's Libertadores, José Antonio Anzoátegui.

He was studious, and became a teacher of mathematics and astronomy in the Naval Academy at Cartagena (1757-69). In 1789 he was named director of the organization of pilots of the fleet.

From July 1, 1788 to September 1, 1793 he was governor of the Philippines and named him the little pueblo which is now known as Marikina, part of Metro Manila. On August 15, 1789 by royal decree Manila became an open port to all but European products. He proposed plans for reform of the government.

Berenguer returned to Spain in 1795 to take up a position in the administration of the navy. In 1799 he was promoted to lieutenant general of the navy.

He was in command of a squadron in the Spanish navy when, on November 8, 1799, King Charles IV named him viceroy and captain general of New Spain and president of the Audiencia. During the voyage from Cuba to Veracruz, he was taken prisoner by the British near Cape Catoche, Yucatán Peninsula (Quintana Roo). He was conducted to Jamaica. He was treated with much courtesy and later allowed to continue on his way in the schooner Kingston, with his secretary.

He accepted the transfer of authority into his offices April 29, 1800, in the Villa de Guadalupe, and made his formal entry into Mexico City the following day.

In this period. the British dominated both coasts of New Spain. They smuggled huge amounts of merchandise into the colony from the United States and the islands of the Caribbean and captured the Spanish ships in the coastal trade. Berenguer supplied more resources to Spanish naval forces, but they were unable to do much to improve the situation. He also formed the Regiment of Grenadiers, consisting of twelve companies drawn from six provincial forces. Fearing British raids, he reinforced the garrisons at Veracruz and ordered that the valuables of the port be moved to Jalapa and guarded. He also reinforced the presidios in the north, to repulse American encroachment.

On October 1, 1800, Spain retroceded the territory of Louisiana to France, which soon sold it to the United States.

On January 1, 1801, Indio Mariano began an insurrection in the mountains of Tepic. Mariano, who had many followers, was trying to reestablish the Aztec empire. The rebels fought under a banner displaing the colors of the Virgin of Guadalupe. When Fernando Abascal, president of the Audiencia of Guadalajara, took notice of the rebellion, he sent Captain Salvador Hidalgo (or Fidalgo) of the navy and Captain Leonardo Pintado of the militia against them. The rebels were defeated. Many prisoners were taken, and many other Indians were forced up into the mountains, but Mariano escaped. He was never captured by the Spanish. 

His followers who were taken prisoner were transferred to Guadalajara, but most were soon released.

Also, in January 1801, Francisco Antonio Vázquez, a naval official, was denounced for conspiracy, but nothing could be proven.

In Teocelo, Veracruz, Pedro Martín led another Indian rebellion. There were also attempted rebellions by the indigenous in Nayarit, Durango, Guanajuato, Jalisco and Sonora.

He suppressed the American smugglers under Philip Nolan in the north of the colony. Nolan was born about 1771, probably in Kentucky. He was a close associate of U.S. general and adventurer James Wilkinson, a co-conspirator of Aaron Burr. Beginning after 1791, Nolan began trading/smuggling activities in New Spain. He also imported wild horses from Texas into the United States. He was regarded by the Spaniards as a spy and a rebel. They sent troops to arrest him in 1801. He was killed in battle near the present city of Waco, Texas. His band was taken captive and sent to work the mines in northern New Spain. Nolan County, Texas is named for him. Edward Everett Hale used his name for the protagonist in his story "The Man Without a Country".

He served as the Philippine Governor-General from 1788-1793. He had relationship to Doña Demetria Sumulong y Lindo(21 June 1772, Antipolo, Philippines – 01 February 1814, Cagsawa, Albay, Philippines) also known as Metyang, a Chinese-Japanese-Indian-English-Malay-Dumagat blooded lady. They had one child whose name was Doña Ysabel Berenguer de Marquina y Sumulong (19 November 1790, Cagsawa, Albay, Philippines – 30 January 1900, Banwa, Batan, Capiz, (presently Aklan), Philippines) who married Don Santiago Sauza (23 April 1777, Tequila, Jalisco, Mexico – 25 December 1880 Intramuros, Manila, Philippines), a Spanish-Mexican Indian navigator was the 22^nd  gobernadorcillo in 1809 and the 7^th  alcalde capitan in 1828 of pueblo de Marikina (presently Marikina City), Philippines. He was one of the founders of the first paper mill in the Philippines in 1825. He was one of the good friends of Joseph Bonaparte or King Joseph I of Spain.

Doña Ysabel Berenguer De Marquina y Sumulong and Don Santiago Sauza got married on 19 November 1809 at San Francisco Church (presently Mapua Institute of Technology) in Intramuros, Manila, Philippines. After their marriage, they moved to Cagsawa, Albay, Philippines and lived there for almost five years (1810-1815).

Moreover, Abuelo Felix extended to the entire colony the requirent that no one be admitted into meetings of the guilds or confraternities without being decently dressed. He permitted women to work in jobs consistent with decency, even if the ordinances prohibited it.

On October 5, 1801, an earthquake in Oaxaca destroyed the new church of the Jesuit convent of La Concepción.

In June 1801, Spain made peace with Portugal, and in 1802 with Britain. (The news of peace with Britain was published in Mexico on September 9, 1802). Thanks to the peace, prices of European goods dropped. In 1802, the payment of tribute to Spain was renewed.

He was persevering, honorable and valiant, but with little ability to govern. His public works in Mexico City were very limited — one fountain that never gave water, and the completion of Manuel Tolsá's equestrian statute of Charles IV.

He, disgusted with the disallowance of some of his measures, resigned. He turned over the government to his successor, José de Iturrigaray in January 1803. He returned to Spain, where he took part in the war with France. He died in the city of his birth in 1826.

My Garchitorena & Nacianceno Ancestries

My Malay Ancestry

HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS DATU IGNACIO ORTUOSTE (c. 1879 - 02 June 1936), my maternal great great grandfather who was also known as Datu Malako Mayanga was the most extraordinary member of the Cotabato triumvirate in that he was entirely a product of colonialism. His career, which spans the years between 1904 and 1935, illustrates most dramatically the disjunctions wrought by colonialism in Cotabato. There is very little written information available on Datu Ortuoste. Beckett (1982) does not mention him and Gowing (1983) assumes him to be a Christian Filipino. According to Datu Adil, Ortuoste was neither a Christian Filipino nor a Magindanaon nor originally from Cotabato. He was a Maranao from the Lanao Plateau who was captured as a child in a skirmish between Spanish soldiers and Maranao warriors. He was brought to the Jesuit mission at Tamontaka, on the south fork of the Pulangi River. There he was reared and educated, baptized and given a Christian name.

Like his contemporary Datu Piang, Ortuoste made a very successful transition from Spanish to American rule. Unlike Piang, his main assets were his ability to read, write, and speak Spanish as well as local languages, and his familiarity with colonial as well as local culture. Utilizing these attributes, Ortuoste became a highly effective intermediary between the local representatives of colonial authority and those who militantly resisted that authority. His singular personal background made him an ideal cultural and political broker, negotiating the subjugation of defiant local leaders to an occupying foreign power.

The first reported occasion for Ortuoste's mediation occurred in 1904 when he reportedly played a prominent role in dissuading Datu Ali from attacking the American military garrison in what was then the town of Cotabato (Millan 1952). Ortuoste's next recorded assignment for the Americans was in 1914, when he assisted in negotiating the surrender of Datu Alamada, an Iranun insurgent who had fought the successive colonial regimes for twenty years in the mountainous area between Cotabato and Lanao with a force of more than five hundred men (Gowing 1983).

American administrators again sought the assistance of Ortuoste in 1923 as a mediator in the surrender of another Iranun insurgent, Datu Santiago, the last leader of resistance to American rule in Cotabato. Santiago had rebelled against the imposition by the Americans of a head tax (cedula ), the compelling of Muslim girls to attend Christian schools, and the practice by school authorities of using forced labor without compensation to construct and repair school buildings (Hurley 1936; Tan 1982). Datu Adil remembers stories told by Ortuoste that, in this instance at least, he played a double role, simultaneously assuring colonial authorities of Santiago's imminent surrender and advising Santiago on the concessions he should demand from the Americans in return for his submission.

At some point after this, Datu Ortuoste was accorded the title Datu sa Kutawatu (Datu of Cotabato) by His Majesty Sultan Mastura, who was installed as Sultan of Magindanao in 1926. This was the reason why he was respected as one of the Royals of the Maguindanao Sultanate that he had this title "His Royal Highness" for the foreigners to greet or address him equivalent to the vernacular way of greeting or addressing a Royal in the Sultanate of Maguindanao and neighboring Sultanates (Smith, Roger and McArthur James, 1941 and Dennis John, 1935).

Sometime after helping secure the surrender of Datu Alamada he was also appointed assistant to the governor of Cotabato. In his political career, Datu Ortuoste enjoyed considerable influence among colonial administrators and gained the recognition of the Muslim elite of Cotabato. He accumulated large tracts of property in and around Cotabato City before he died, sometime before 1952. Two of his sons became civil servants in Cotabato.

That Datu Ortuoste was, in all important respects, a colonial creation is evidenced in the exceptional title bestowed upon him by the reigning Sultan of Magindanao. The office of Datu sa Kutawatu was unusual not only in that it was newly created—the creation of new royal offices was uncommon but not unheard of (see below).

It was also the first traditional title that in its very nomenclature acknowledged colonial domination. "Cotabato," after all, was the Spanish and American term for the territory locally known as Magindanao. As the ceremonial Datu sa Kutawatu; Datu Ortuoste personified the new colonial construct called Cotabato. He was the first purely colonial datu.

One of Datu Ortuoste's daughters, Bai Jacinta Ortuoste y Delos Santos (right picture), a Tiruray blooded-lady married Don Regino Joaquin y Felix, a pharmacist from Calle Real, Tacloban, and Maasin, Leyte, The Philippines. Jacinta and Regino Joaquin were my maternal great grandparents.

Citation: McKenna, Thomas M. Muslim Rulers and Rebels: Everyday Politics and Armed Separatism in the Southern Philippines. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.

Sources:

Reed, Thomas Royals of Mindanao & The Islands: 1935, Adamson University Library, Manila, Philippines

Smith, Roger and McArthur James The Colonial Royals of Mindanao. Manila: Maverick Press, 1941

Dennis, John The Oriental Royals. Manila: Maverick Press, 1935

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