Looking Back As I approach My 92nd Birthday Next Month
Our Wedding Day: From Left to Right: Davd J Katague ( my Father), Elena Nieva Jambalos ( Macrine's Mother), Me, Macrine, Paz Barrido Balleza ( My Mother) and Bernardo Jambalos II( Macrine's Father), Boac, Marinduque, May 8 , 1957
Two Family Trees, One Filipino-American Family
Tracing Macrine's Nieva-Morente heritage and my own Javellana-Lopez roots
There are many ways to tell the story of a family. We can tell it through photographs.
We can tell it through old letters. We can tell it through family stories passed from one generation to another.
Or, increasingly, we can tell it through genealogy. For me, genealogy has become much more than a hobby.
It has become a journey into my past.
As I approach the later chapters of my life, I find myself increasingly curious about the people who came before me.
Who were they? Where did they live? What did they do? What challenges did they face?
And most importantly: How did their lives eventually lead to mine?
My genealogy journey has taken me along two very different Philippine family trees.
One is my own Javellana-Lopez-Catague/Katague ancestry from Jaro, Iloilo.
The other is the Nieva-Morente ancestry of my late wife, Macrine, from Marinduque.
At first, these appear to be two completely separate stories. But eventually, they became one family story.
My Javellana-Lopez Roots in Jaro
My paternal ancestry has taken me back to Jaro, Iloilo, where I discovered that my great-great-grandparents were Don Manuel Javellana and Doña Gertrudis Lopez.
The Javellana genealogy project has been particularly valuable to me in reconstructing this part of my family history. Its research traces the children of Manuel and Gertrudis and their many descendants.
One of their daughters was Marcelina Javellana, who married Victoriano Catague.
That marriage eventually connects to my paternal Katague/Catague line.
My father, David Jamili K(C)atague, was part of that family.
And therefore, when I look at my own ancestry, I can trace one important branch of my family tree back to Manuel Javellana and Gertrudis Lopez of Jaro.
That discovery has always fascinated me. I was born in Jaro, Iloilo in 1934.
I grew up in Barotac Viejo. I eventually left the Philippines in 1960 and built my adult life in America.
Yet, decades later, I discovered that the family history I had left behind was still waiting for me in old records, photographs, family stories and genealogy websites.
And Then There Was Macrine's Family
My wife, Macrine Nieva Jambalos Katague, came from a very different part of the Philippines. Her family roots were in Marinduque.
And that is where I discovered another fascinating family history.
At the center of this story was Calixto Nieva and his wife, Epifania “Capitana Maning” Morente.
Calixto was a Gobernadorcillo of Boac in the nineteenth century.
Together, they had six children:
Juan
Victoria
Dionisio
Gregorio
Jose
Rosita
These six became known in family history as “The Magnificent Six.”
What makes their story remarkable is not simply that they were six brothers and sisters.
It is what they and their descendants accomplished.
Their family tree spread into numerous prominent Marinduque families and eventually into many other parts of the Philippines.
Juan Nieva: The Most Famous of the Six
Among the six, Juan Nieva became particularly prominent.
Born in 1863, he eventually served as lieutenant governor or sub-governor of Marinduque from 1907 to 1916.
He was involved in the development of the province, including the planting of coconut trees and the expansion of communications.
He also had friendships and associations with important figures in Philippine history.
Today, when I visit Marinduque, I realize that I was not simply living in my wife's ancestral province.
I was living among the history of her family.
Victoria: The Woman Behind the Men
Another fascinating member of the Magnificent Six was Victoria Nieva.
According to the family history, Victoria was politically astute and became an important supporter of her brother Juan.
Even though she was physically disabled after an accident involving a calesa, she remained active in politics and civic affairs.
She also became involved in charitable work and helped establish the Boac Puericulture Center, which focused on the health of mothers and babies.
I find stories like Victoria's particularly interesting because history often emphasizes the accomplishments of men.
But women were also shaping Philippine communities.
Sometimes they simply did not receive the same recognition.
From the Magnificent Six to Macrine
The most personal part of this genealogy story is the realization that the descendants of these families eventually became part of my own life.
Macrine was a descendant of the Nieva family. She carried that history with her.
I carried my own history from Iloilo. She came from Marinduque. I came from Iloilo.
Her ancestors included the Nievas and Morentes. Mine included the Javellanas and Lopezes.
Two family trees. Two provinces. Two different ancestral journeys.
And somehow, our paths crossed. We married in 1957.
And suddenly, two Filipino family histories became one family.
The Beautiful Coincidence of Jaro and Marinduque
I sometimes think about the geographical distance between our ancestral homes.
My family history takes me to Jaro, Iloilo, in the Visayas.
Macrine's family history takes me to Boac and Gasan in Marinduque, in another part of the Philippines.
I eventually left Iloilo for America. Macrine and I eventually built Chateau Du Mer in Marinduque.
In a way, our lives created a bridge between these two places.
I had spent decades building my life in America.
But in retirement, I returned repeatedly to the Philippines.
And the place where I spent so much of my retirement years was the ancestral homeland of my wife.
That is one of life's beautiful ironies.
I left the Philippines to build a life in America and eventually built part of my retirement life in my wife's ancestral Philippines.
Genealogy Changed the Way I See Myself
When I was young, I never thought very much about genealogy.
I was too busy going to school. Then I was busy building a career.
Then raising children. Then working at the FDA. Then retirement. Life moves quickly.
It is only when we become older that we begin looking backward.
Today, I find myself asking questions I never asked when I was twenty.
Who were my great-grandparents? Where did they live? Who were their brothers and sisters?
Who did they marry? What happened to their children?
And how did their descendants eventually become my family?
Genealogy has given me a way to explore those questions.
The Javellana Website Became an Important Clue
One of the most valuable resources in my research has been the Descendants of Don Cristino Javellana website.
Javellana Family Genealogy Project
The site began as an effort to reconstruct the Javellana family tree starting with Don Manuel Javellana and Doña Gertrudis Lopez. Its research includes individual family branches and descendants.
For me, this was not simply historical information. It was personal.
When I saw the names of my ancestors and began following their descendants, I realized that genealogy can turn names in an old document into real people.
A family tree suddenly becomes a story.
What AI Has Added to My Genealogy Journey
Interestingly, artificial intelligence has now become another tool in this journey.
When I began using AI for my writing, I discovered that I could also use it to help organize my genealogical research.
I can ask questions. I can compare names. I can organize generations.
I can identify relationships that deserve further investigation.
But I have learned an important lesson: AI can help me investigate genealogy, but it cannot replace genealogy research.
Records still need to be verified. Family stories need to be compared with documents.
Dates and relationships need to be checked. A plausible connection is not necessarily a proven connection.
That distinction is especially important when dealing with family history.
Two Ancestries, One Family Legacy
Today, when I look at my family tree, I see more than names. I see two major Filipino ancestral stories.
On my side:
Javellana → Lopez → Marcelina Javellana → Catague/Katague → my father → me.
On Macrine's side:
Nieva → Morente → the Magnificent Six → their descendants → Macrine.
These are not necessarily branches of the same ancestral tree.
They are two separate trees that became connected through marriage.
And that distinction is important. Because family history does not have to mean that everyone came from the same ancestors.
Sometimes family history is about discovering how different histories came together.
What I Want My Grandchildren to Know
I now have six grandchildren and two great-grandsons.
I think about them when I do genealogy. I want them to know where their family came from.
I want them to know that their grandfather was born in Iloilo. I want them to know about Barotac Viejo.
I want them to know about the Javellanas and Lopezes of Jaro.
I want them to know about the Katague family.
And I want them to know about the Nievas and Morentes of Marinduque.
Because these are not merely names in a family tree. They are part of their story too.
The Real Meaning of “The Magnificent Six”
When I first wrote about the Magnificent Six, I was primarily interested in the history of Macrine's family.
Today I see the story differently. The Magnificent Six represent something larger.
They remind me that one generation can influence many generations that follow.
One family can produce teachers, professionals, public servants, community leaders and ordinary people who quietly make their communities better.
The same is true of my own Javellana-Lopez ancestry.
I may never know everything about the people who came before me.
But their lives eventually produced mine.
And my life, in turn, will become part of the history of my children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
That is the extraordinary thing about genealogy. We are all links in a very long chain.
From Iloilo to Marinduque to America
If I draw a line through my own life, it looks almost like a map of three worlds.
Iloilo - where my story began.
Marinduque - where Macrine and I created our retirement paradise.
America - where I spent most of my adult life and built my career and raised our family.
Three places. Three chapters.One life. And behind all three is the invisible thread of family.
My Final Reflection
I sometimes wonder what Don Manuel Javellana and Doña Gertrudis Lopez would think if they could see one of their descendants today.
Would they recognize me?
Would they understand that their great-great-grandson would eventually leave the Philippines in 1960, earn a Ph.D. in America, work for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, become an American citizen, raise four children, become a grandfather and great-grandfather and eventually spend his retirement years writing about them?
Probably not. And I certainly could never have imagined it when I was a young boy growing up in Barotac Viejo.
Likewise, I wonder what Calixto Nieva and Epifania Morente would think if they knew that one of their descendants, Macrine, would eventually marry a young man whose ancestral roots were in Iloilo.
They could never have imagined that either. Yet that is how families work.
Generations make decisions without knowing where those decisions will eventually lead.
People marry. Children are born.Families move. Countries change. People immigrate.
And somehow, centuries of history eventually converge in one human life. Mine.
That is why I have come to treasure genealogy.
It reminds me that I did not begin with myself.
I am the continuation of many lives that came before me.
And my children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will continue the story after me.
So, when I think about The Magnificent Six, I no longer see only six remarkable brothers and sisters from Marinduque.
I see a reminder of something much larger: Every family has a story.
Some stories are recorded in history books.
Some are preserved in church records and genealogy websites.
Some are passed down orally from grandparents to grandchildren.
And some are almost forgotten. But every story matters.
Because somewhere in that long chain of ancestors is the explanation for who we are today.
And for me, the journey from the Javellanas and Lopezes of Jaro to the Nievas and Morentes of Marinduque, and eventually to my Filipino-American family in California, has been one of the most fascinating journeys of my life.
I may be the author of many of my life's chapters. But I did not write the first chapter.
My ancestors did. And now, in the later years of my life, I am simply doing my best to preserve their story for the generations who will come after me.
AI Impressions and Recommendations:
I would make this more than another revised blog post. I think this could become one of the anchor pieces of your family-history collection.
Your Javellana website provides an unusually valuable foundation because it doesn't just mention the family name, it actually reconstructs branches beginning with Manuel Javellana and Gertrudis Lopez and follows their descendants.
And there is an especially nice connection to your earlier “Stevan Javellana-Without Seeing the Dawn” article. Stevan Javellana was a well-known Filipino writer whose novel Without Seeing the Dawn is tied to the wartime experience of the Philippines; your 2016 post began by identifying your own great-great-grandparents as Manuel Javellana and Gertrudis Lopez.
I would therefore suggest that your revised ancestry series eventually have three complementary pieces:
- “My Javellana-Lopez Ancestry: Discovering Where I Came From” - your Iloilo paternal roots.
- “The Magnificent Six: Macrine's Nieva-Morente Heritage” - your wife's Marinduque roots.
- “Two Family Trees, One Family: How Iloilo and Marinduque Became Part of My Story” - the piece above, bringing the two histories together.
That third story is, in my opinion, the most powerful one. It turns genealogy into autobiography. And that is exactly where your writing is at its best.
Moreover, I also did some digging into both your older “The Magnificent Six” material and the Javellana genealogy site, and I think there is an excellent way to bring these two family histories together.
There is an important distinction, however: the Magnificent Six are part of Macrine's Nieva-Morente ancestry, while your Javellana-Lopez ancestry is on your paternal side.
I would not claim that the two families were genealogically related unless we find documentation establishing such a connection. What makes the story compelling is something even more personal: two distinct Philippine family histories eventually came together in the marriage of David Balleza Katague and Macrine Nieva Jambalos.
In conclusion, your Javellana research identifies Don Manuel Javellana and Doña Gertrudis Lopez of Jaro, Iloilo, as your great-great-grandparents, and the Javellana genealogy site documents their eleven children and numerous descendants. Your own earlier writing likewise identifies Marcelina Javellana, daughter of Manuel and Gertrudis, as the ancestor who connects to the Catague/Katague line.
Meanwhile, the “Magnificent Six” refers to the six children of Calixto Nieva and Epifania “Capitana Maning” Morente-Juan, Victoria, Dionisio, Gregorio, Jose and Rosita. Your earlier article specifically traces the descendants of this family through numerous Marinduque surnames.
That gives us a wonderful theme: Two family trees. Two provinces. Two ancestral stories. One marriage that brought them together.
