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Now Available: Indexed Transcribed Land Records

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Written by: Bernard Punzalan

Published: 10 March 2019

If you are a suscriber to the Chamorro Root Database & Library subscription plan, the Index of Names for land records (1895-1906) is now available in the Misc. Reports menu option. This is a tool designed to primarily work with the Land Records subscription.

Also for you Chamorro Roots Database & Library subscription plan subscribers I have recently applied many updates that includes the addition of thousands more of images in the Archives to enhance more research possibilities.

Indexed Transcribed Land Records (Work In Progress)

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Written by: Bernard Punzalan

Published: 06 March 2019

Building More Tools for the Next Generation of CHamoru Genealogy and History Researchers ...

Sometime between 1958-1959 Dr. Domingo Abella was commissioned to translate, into English, land records of title in original Spanish manuscript from 1895-1906. These land records were comprised of four primary jurisdictions on Guåhan: Hågåtña (most places fell here), Hågåt, Inalåhan, and Malesso. These records have since been digitized by the Department of Land Management, Government Guam.

Although the Index currently remains a work in progress, once I am able to complete and publish, it will serve as another genealogy tool and quick reference companion copy to those land records. The names listed in the Index are the land owners, their age and marital status (if recorded), the year of the record, estate number, property location and the page number for Abella’s transcription.

It is interesting to note that in some of these land records an “alias” for a person was identified. In general, these “alias” seem to be the person's family clan name, so I left some field space on this Index for those that did have their clan name identified.

Mågua & Finahåguåyig: Ancient Villages on Guåhan

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Written by: Bernard Punzalan

Published: 01 March 2019

From a 1676 map of Guåhan produced by Father Alonso, he depicted where the Jesuits strategically placed churches in populated villages of natives. Up in the northwestern part of the island pertinent to the villages of Mahgua [Mågua] and Finahaguoyig [Finahåguåyig], the Jesuits established the Church of San Francisco Xavier as part of their overall outreach and Catholic conversion of the natives.

Francisco Xavier/Javier was a popular name during the religious conversion and conquest period. It is also the baptismal name given to one of the first four children San Vitores baptized sometime in the afternoon of June 16, 1668, while aboard the “San Diego,” a patache he and his crew first arrived on in the Mariana Islands.

The following year in 1669, there was a sickly three-month-old child from Fu’una, Rota. Father Francisco Garcia described the infant as lying stiff as a board for six hours and was expected to die. After Father San Vitores baptized him and said his prayers, he took the infant into his hands, and just when the signs of life seemed to have disappeared, the child moved and his breath and color were restored. It was a testament of faith for the moment. Unfortunately, Francis Xavier lived for only ten days and died on December 10, 1669. San Vitores named him in honor of the Feast for Saint Francis Xavier, which occurred the day of his baptism on December 1, 1669. 

References:

Francisco Garcia. 2004. The Life and Martyrdom of the Venerable Father Diego Luis de San Vitores , S.J . Translated by Margaret M. Higgins, Felicia Plaza and Juan M.H. Ledesma. Edited by James A. McDonough. MARC Monograph Series 3. Guam: University of Guam

Augusto V. de Viana. 2004b. In the Far Islands: the Role of Natives from the Philippines in the Conquest, Colonization and Repopulation of the Mariana Islands. University of Santo Tomas: Manila, Philippines.