I often wondered about the Manggåfan Båli Tres clan name. It seems to have a meaning with something being worth or having a value of three.
In Laura Thompson’s 1932 manuscript, “Archaeology of the Marianas”, she wrote:
“BALITRES, an ancestor of this family was the illegitimate offspring of a Spaniard by that name (Spanish).”
In the Chamorro Roots Genealogy Project database, the Manggåfan Båli Tres is prevalently tied to a Santos surname. There is much difficulty in tracing ancestral relationships with the Santos surname. It is widespread just like the Cruz surname. In fact, in both the 1920 and 1930 census for Guam, Santos was the second most common surname after Cruz. So in tracing one's Chamorro lineage, knowing the clan name does help quite a bit to narrow down the possible relationship matches.
In Tumon, there is a Tun Luis Bali Tres Street. I wonder if the honored Tun Luis is the same Luis Santos who married Ana Perez. I don’t have birthdates or dates of deaths, but I estimate their birth years to be in the early to mid 1800’s. They had at least one daughter: Andrea Perez Santos (1889-1966) who was married to Rosauro Ulloa Aguon (1877-1952, Manggåfan Makaka).
If some of the names above sound familiar, perhaps you may have tuned into the 671 Recipes group on Facebook, where the late Pedro Santos Aguon (1919-2012), a.k.a. “Pop” served as a mentor and advisor to the group’s management and administrative team. Tun Pedro was also a decorated World War II Navy veteran and Pearl Harbor survivor. We were so blessed to have his family, through his daughter Arlene, share his presence and wisdom with us on Facebook.
I grew up in Tamuning and do remember several of the Santos families in Tumon. But I am not certain if all those that I knew where of the Manggåfan Båli Tres. Perhaps family members will chime in and offer their story about Tun Luis Båli Tres Street or even more about their clan name.
Here’s a funeral announcement of the late Juan Santos Tenorio (1916-1986) who was from Tumon and I do know some of the members of his family.
