Disclaimer: This may be a dull read, but my recent favorite topic is genealogy. Learning about my own and other people’s back stories is what consumes most of my internet browsing time since March.
A Few Years Ago: Watching Random DNA Videos on Youtube
One of my most ambitious items in my bucket list was to trace my ethnicity background. I had seen a few videos of people reacting to their ethnicity results; however, DNA companies didn’t ship to the Philippines, so it was impossible to purchase such kits unless I go overseas and have them shipped from there. Of course, that would be too tedious and impractical, so I learned to just accept that this would be in my bucket list, forever unchecked.
2023: Learning More about My Genealogy
Fast forward to 2023 in Japan, a few days before the spring vacation, I found myself deskwarming more and more because the teachers were already preparing for the school year to end. Thus, I had very little thing to do, and my mind was already occupied to my upcoming trip. Out of boredom, I decided to open my account on MyHeritage to see if I could improve my family tree there. I had that account since 2012, and I know that I haven’t opened it since then. I only had my immediate family up to my grandparents in my family tree because I had no further information beyond them.
At home, the only videos that I watched were of those concerning genealogy which led me (after many years) again to DNA testing kits. The more I watched, the more I became enticed to purchase a kit myself. I checked a couple of websites, and I was relieved to see that most of the DNA companies ship to Japan. They may be a bit expensive because I had to send them via EMS, but I still bought them because I wanted to feed my curiosity.
On a side note, I was also surprised that some companies also ship to the Philippines now; however, there are some extra steps for people living in the Philippines before shipping their DNA samples back. Sigh, I wanted to buy DNA kits for my dad and aunt (mom’s sister), so I can have more information on both my parents’ sides. But yeah, it’s going to be a tedious process. For now, it’s only me in my family who could do it.
Anyway, I ended up purchasing a kit from MyHeritage simply because that’s where I had started building my family tree. While waiting for my kit to be delivered here in Japan, I started interviewing my dad and aunt if they remember the names of their grandparents. My dad could only remember his grandparents on his dad’s side. Those names (my great grandparents) were all I needed to start my interesting and time consuming search of his ancestors.
I typed their names on FamilySearch.org, and lo and behold, I found a record of their marriage certificate. That in turn, introduced me to my 2nd great grandparents. From there, I had to dig more until encountering a brick wall which I think wouldn’t be solved unless I go to Bicol and personally sift through old church documents. The furthest I could trace back were a pair of my 4th great grandparents on my dad’s side. I had to be careful in adding names though because of the following: there were spelling inconsistencies, names in the 1880s were presented in Spanish order (first name, surname, middle/maiden name), and the birthdates for my one set of great grandparents made them too young to be wed and have children.
Besides these direct ancestors, I also realized a few things that are particular to my dad’s side while making the family tree:
- how particular surnames were connected to us. I sometimes heard those surnames when I was a kid but never made the connection.
- with my dad’s confirmation, learned the town where his family originated. Same province but different town.
- in old stories, they said that my father’s grandfather, my great grandfather, was mestizo or of Spanish descent because he was fluent in Spanish. However, I couldn’t find traces of Spanish ancestry from the ones that I have researched. Also, based on the timeline, he was born during the American occupation in 1905, seven years after the Spanish colonization. I guess my great grandfather could speak Spanish because his own parents had spent their childhood and teenage years during the Spanish occupation.
- my father still remembered his great grandmother on his mother’s side, but he could only recall the face and the nickname he used to call her.
My aunt, on the other hand, remembered both sets of her grandparents except for her dad’s dad (my great grandfather). No one alive right now remembers his identity, not his face nor his name. He left for China before my grandfather was born, and he never came back. When I was kid, I was only told that he was a Chinese person who died because the ship he was on sank. Recently though, I was told that he was deported from the Philippines. Whichever the reason for his father’s disappearance, my grandfather was given a totally unrelated surname. In fact, his surname was from the priest who christened him as a baby. Maybe it was uncommon for an unwed (I assume) woman to give her surname to her baby that’s why they thought it was better to have a stranger’s surname instead. I honestly don’t know.
In contrast to my dad’s side, I didn’t find a single record on FamilySearch.org that was related to my mom’s side. So yeah, anything beyond my great grandparents’ names is a huge brick wall. Again, this needs more time and personal visits to churches and probably town halls to acquire the information that I need.
Here are the things I realized that are particular to my mom’s side while making the family tree:
- just how big her family was.
- I have always wondered why I have nieces and nephews who are the same age as me. My mom is one of the thirteen children in her immediate family, and she’s the sixth youngest. Despite my mom being a middle child, my siblings and I are the second to the youngest bunch among our cousins.
- A cousin (among other older cousins), who is the son of the 4th eldest among my mom’s siblings, is the same age as their youngest. Confusing? In other words, this 4th elder aunt, who is my mom’s sister, welcomed two babies in the same year – one was her own baby and the other was her youngest sister.
- became more confused about my grandmother. Her deep set of grayish eyes and hook nose are a mystery to me. I grew up believing that she had distant European roots because of her facial features. Even her maiden surname was not part of the original Spanish surnames given to Filipinos. I wonder where her features and surname were from. Since there are no available records online, I am left with nothing to work on; thus, a brickwall. Her father’s first name was very Filipino, so he’s a local.
- realized that my grandfather’s parents were probably not married. My great grandfather went back to China while my great grandmother was pregnant, and (I was told) that she herself remarried. Thus, my grandfather had half-siblings. My problem though is that my aunts and uncles didn’t care to remember their half-aunts and uncles. They didn’t even remember the name of their grandmother’s legal husband.
Other Things I Had Learned after Doing the Family Tree:
- People back then married as early as 15 and 16 years old.
- I now know the names of some of my great and 2nd great aunts and uncles.
- The older generation in my family wasn’t interested in genealogy. Maybe it’s because they lived very simple lives that for them, nothing was extraordinary to keep track of.
- The people in my family tree were real. I was surprised when my father called my mom’s mother as, “Mama” when I showed him our family tree. To me, people from the 3rd generation away from me are just names, but to my parents, aunts, and uncles, they were their own grandparents who they had interacted at some point in their lives. Since people back in the day married young, they might even have met their great grandparents like how my father still remembers one of his great grandparents.
- Except for my estranged Chinese ancestors, I can safely assume that all my other ancestors from my second great grandparents had lived in the same island province since the late 1880s. It’s surreal to think of my ancestors living during the Spanish, American, and Japanese occupations.
- In relation to the previous item, I also assume that my ancestors were mostly farmers and fishermen. I still remember some stories told by my parents back when they were still kids. Also, I have some farmer and fishermen older cousins who I assume followed their parents’ footsteps.
- Doing genealogy in the Philippines is difficult because most of the old records are kept hidden from the public due to the privacy law.
Phew. I didn’t expect this post to be this long, but overall, I am pretty glad that I was able to have more information about my ancestors. I think that digging a bit deeper into one’s own genealogy provides more context to the relationship between family members and helps us understand how certain things have happened and how they affected the next generations.
Lastly, I received my results from MyHeritage two weeks ago, and I also uploaded my raw data to other websites. I’m going to share those some other time. For now, I’m ending this post here.
Hyphenized Changjo 