The day started with the Farley family being unaware of the existence of living relatives in the Philippines, and ended the day surrounded by them! What Matt and Tia Farley hoped to find was census or baptismal records of people related to Tia’s grandfather, but to their shock and amazement, they actually located his descendants!
Background: Tia’s grandfather, Martiniano Pogot Limatoc was born 1905 in Siquijor. He moved to Hawaii in his early twenties. As part of the move he changed his last name to something more “American”: Limary, and went by the nickname Manny. Not long after arriving in Hawaii, he married a lady named Ida who already had at least one child (and they then had more together). At some point down the road, Ida passed away, and then he married Edith. Martiniano and Edith had more children; one of them named Jeff, is Tia’s father.
In addition to the friends, beaches, and basketball — Matt and Tia both knew this vacation to the Philippines would offer a rare opportunity to research more of Tia’s family history up close and in person. They liked the idea of visiting the places her grandparents were from to see if they could find more information about her family. Knowing they’d benefit greatly from a translator, they invited Matt’s younger brother Andrew to join them on the vacation (having served a 2 year LDS Mission in the Philippines, he maintains a fluency in Tagalog).
After some fun in the sun at Salagdoong, they were passing through the small town of Maria on their way to Cambugahay Falls, when Matt’s brother Andrew (Drew) pulled over on the side of the road and pointed to the town hall and said that if everyone was serious about finding information, they needed to stop at every town hall and ask for information. With that, they parked and entered the town hall of Maria.
After explaining their mission and flipping through a few pages of an old records book, the lady behind the desk said that she did remember going to a school with someone of the last name Limatoc, but that her records only went back to 1945. She suggested Matt should try baptismal records at the Catholic Church across the street, as they went back to the early 1800′s.
Tia and Jovie
Across the street to the Church they sifted through some very old hand-written records in search of Martiniano Limatoc. While a few Limatoc baptisms were found, there was nothing for Martiniano specifically. The records administrator at town hall believed the Limatocs she went to school with were from the village of Bogo.
Matt and Tia eventually arrived in Bogo and then started asking for information from random people at the barangay hall. After several referrals, they were told to go to “the house two doors down." The group finally located a Limantoc from Bogo. The person who greeted them at the door appeared confused by their visit (Surely he doesn’t get many Americans on his front porch), but after he understood what they were asking of him he seemed quite pleased to offer his assistance. As he began to explain that indeed there were people in his village who he believed were related to Limatocs, one of them rode by on his bike right in front the house. The counselor waved him down and asked him to guide the Farley's to his Aunt’s house. Luckily the man on the bike directed them to the proper house (They were right in front of it and didn’t know it as they were going around).
As usual they were greeted with very confused looks and Tia broke right in: “Do you know a man named [showing a piece of paper with the name written down] ‘Martiniano Pogot Limatoc’?” To everyone’s surprise, the response was “Yes, he is my grandfather…. [still looking confused]” To which Tia replied in delight “He is my grandfather too!”
At first Matt was a bit skeptical as to whether or not they were truly referring to the same person, but the lady, Anita, continued to tell the story of how her grandfather left for Hawaii as a young man and eventually married a woman named Edith (she didn’t know much more than that). Again, Tia was able to confirm “Edith is my grandmother!”
As several more relatives joined the reunion, hearts grew heavy, throats choked up, and a few in the room shed a tear or two. At one point Anita’s daughter, Judith, and Matt both had their camera phones out videotaping as Tia was grilling everyone in the room about their respective families (number of kids, names, ages, etc). Judith also showed Matt a portrait in their kitchen that clearly showed the same Martiniano they had seen in photos back home.