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Maga’låhi Toka’
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- Written by: Bernard Punzalan
Toka’ (spelled “Toca” in Fray Juan Pobre’s 1602 account) was a “native principal” who lived in Guaco, Rota.
Marjorie Driver. 1988. Fray Juan Pobre de Zamora: Hitherto Unpublished Accounts of his Residence in the Mariana Islands. Journal of Pacific History, Vol. 23, No. 1, 86-9, April.
(Note: As a reminder or in case you started following my research tidbits, many of our ancestors from the Mariana Islands are either nameless or are vaguely described with their name in historical documents. I have plans to one day publish an index names I do come across from the 1600 and 1700s. The photo above is not a picture of him; only a representation of him.)
FestPac Ready!
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- Written by: Bernard Punzalan
What we have, what we own, and what we will share....
The journey to FestPac included the first ever Festival of Chamorro Arts (FoCHA) in San Diego, CA sponsored by the Chamorro Hands in Education Links Unity (CHELU) back on January 16, 2016. FoCHA was the introductory event for the Guam Delegates selected from the diaspora (those residing away from our Islands).
During the morning part of FoCHA I presented an on-stage 15 minute overview of the Chamorro Diaspora. Later that afternoon, I conducted a 45 minute Chamorro Roots Genealogy Project workshop.
For FestPac, I will continue to lead and present these two events.
Part of our story is the Chamorro Diaspora story...My team (Vince Diaz, Sakman Mario, Trish Shook - Chief Editor and me) will be presenting a collection of these short biographical stories and video montage of Faces of the Chamorro Diaspora. This Chamorro Disaspora Seminar is scheduled for May 25, 2016, 9:00am - 5:00pm, University of Guam class (exact location TBD).
From June 2-3, 2016, University of Guam (Computer Lab), I will be facilitating a one and one-half day genealogy workshop titled, "Memorializing Our Family Roots." I have three special guest speakers who will be talking about their Chamorro genealogy work and efforts: Jillette Leon-Guerrero, Påle' Eric Forbes, and Anthony "Malia" Ramirez. This workshop will also include hands-on genealogy research for participants and then closing out with participants sharing their genealogy story.
So excited to be a part of and contribute to this grand and historic event!
FestPac & System Updates
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- Written by: Bernard Punzalan
Håfa Adei Everyone,
First, I want to apologize for not being able to give more time to updating the database. The bulk of my current focus and effort is with preparing for FestPac (Festival of Pacific Arts). I am part of the Diaspora Planning Committee, serve as the Training Coordinator and am also a Guam Delegate that will be conducting a Chamorro Diaspora Seminar and “Memorializing Our Family Roots,” workshop.
While it may not seem like it, I have been putting in quite a bit of hours as well with system upgrades and coding. This has been a challenging task, because my coding skills are rusty, and I suppose with age my tolerance levels are lower than what it use to be. Anyways, I have found and am working on some temporary solutions that will allow me to update the database using another method. The database is quite big in file size, and would time-out frequently as I perform the database update procedure. This took me more time and effort to try and resolve, but again just found the temporary solution (forced me back to manually coding a fix). The other challenge with me providing a manual coding fix is that when the system needs some system upgrades, I have to verify that my manual coding does not need to be changed; which so far has forced me to write and re-write codes as I come across system errors when updates are applied.
Also, I have been working with the “Headstone” feature of the project. So there are now about 300 photos or so of them uploaded on a few cemeteries on Guam. I still need to work on the other cemeteries, which should be a couple thousand more data and photo entries. That will take more time, because I need to get back to updating the database. But, at least I know the Headstone feature works and have documented the procedure for that.
Appreciate everyone’s patience with their suggestions and photo submissions. It’s a lot of geek talk and work going on right now, but hey, I’m just glad the system is still up and running! :)
Happy Easter!
Bernard
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