New Year 2002
Nap Vergara had done an extensive study of the Mangatarem Vergaras, the results of which he had shared with me through the encouragement of his colleague at UPLB, Dr. Ben Vergara, Jr., of the Anao, México, Pampanga clan. Nap had disclosed more than a year ago that the Spaniards had introduced a nomenclature system to track down the natives of the Ilocos region who were getting restive. It was decreed that inhabitants of a particular town should adopt a surname beginning with a particular letter. San Esteban inhabitants had been assigned the letter V. He had also pointed out that the early Spanish missionaries in baptizing the natives had given them Christian names and Hispanic surnames giving rise to the possibility that the Vergara clan had originated 'locally' without any Spanish blood. If this was not the case, perhaps many ancestral native ladies must be so good looking as to attract the attention of Spanish settlers (and friars?). An explanation to the Hispanic features of many Vergaras nowadays? With his nephew, Joseph Olaez Vergara, he reminisced the features of Joseph's great-great grandfather, Catalino, with his "light complexion, high-bridged nose, large ears and low voice, the typical indicators of some Hispanic blood in his veins". Catalino was the brother of Nap's grandfather, Marcelino, who on the day before his execution by the Americans for being a Katipunero rebel had written an account of his life in Spanish.
During my sojourn in the Philippines on July, 2001, a message from the family on the imminent departure of a daughter, Claire Michelle, for Japan to teach English cut short my stay. in the Philippines. To catch up with her (or perhaps I was affected by my ordeal up north), I hurried back to Australia, thus missing the opportunity to meet Nap and other Vergara folks at Los Baños. Once again I had committed the sin of announcing as before that "I would traverse the entire Philippines to meet 'long lost relations'. So much for my big mouth, again! But honestly, the thought of going to and through Metro Manila dissuaded me from travelling southward".
An email dated July 13 made my spine tingle. Ricardo benavides Vergara had accidentally come across the website. He had lost track of his relatives in Sorsogón. Having lost his mother as a small child, he and a younger sister went to live in the Bondoc Peninsula in Quezon province where his father re-married and had a son. His father and the new wife soon died one after the other. Ricky, his sister and half-brother were adopted out separately. Eventually loosing track of his siblings and all other relatives and too young to realize the importance of his kin., he would, however, remember an admonition by his grandmother way back in Sorsogón to visit her close relative, Lolo Crispin, in Albáy. As a university student and later on as a journalist and a radio announcer, he met many Vergaras but did not think of finding out if they could be relations. As years passed he contemplated in re-discovering his roots, scanning telephone directories and attempting to call anyone sharing his surname. The nature of his work, however, has always kept him busy and prevented him from doing any serious research until he came across the web page. He was immediately put in contact with the Bicolano folks, Sonia Vergara and the Augustinian missionary in South Korea, Fr. Arlon Vergara, from whom he would discover that the Lolo Cispin his grandmother had told him about was an educator who founded a school, Zamora Institute, in Bacacay, Albay. Ricky is now well on his way on a voyage of rediscovery. I seriously wonder if all these things could really happen without the Internet.
From Vic Vergara, originally from San Mateo, Rizal, now living in Alameda, California, came an email. We had swapped information on genealogy way back in 1977, but somehow lost touch. He supplied the latest details of his folks which he now maintains in his private web page
Constant updates have been made on San Esteban clan as more information continued to pour in through the efforts of Imelda Vergara-Lasam, now living in Temecula, California, 42 miles northeast of San Diego where she used to maintain residence, has continued to pour in. She pointed out the existence in the archives of the Bishop's residence at Vigan of a piece of information about a Spanish friar "Fray Vergara", but was careful in concluding prematurely that the Vergaras in the Philippines could have been sired by a Spanish friar. She has been spearheading the movement in uniting the Vergara descendants of north Luzon, including Pangasinán. It is now an established fact that they have all originated from San Esteban. She also emailed the details of the Vergara descendants in Porzorrubio, Pangasinán, from some former neighbouring folks at San Diego. The details of the descendants of Simona Vergara were emailed by her great-great-grandson Atty Samuel D. Orpilla Jr. of La Palma, California. Sam Jr., whose dentist father, Dr. Samuel Enrado Orpilla had been elected mayor of San Esteban in 1955, immigrated to Honolulu his earliest teenage-hood and is now a Juris Doctor from Western State University. From Taiwan came another update on San Esteban clan, courtesy of Joy Vergara. Joy's friend, relative and fellow workmate in Taiwan, Ma. Farah Vergara, also emailed an update on the Tubao clan. Charlie Algoso Vergara of Los Angeles, California, whose father is the first cousin of the former congressman and now the current mayor of Baguio, Bernardo Vergara, had earlier sent information on his Tubao folks.
Up to this stage, it was safe to assume that the Vergara descendants had originally come from four localities in the Philippines: San Esteban, Ilocos Súr; Pampanga (most probably México); Sorsogón (probably Magallanes); and Barili, Cebú. That they came from the same womb is a tantalizing conclusion. The last two weeks of 2001 kept me busy with what may reduce the four localities into three - minus Barili.
Every piece of information concerning Barili had been painstakingly gleaned from the website of the Church of the Latter Day Saints in Salt Lake, Utah which unfortunately excludes details on any living descendant. Lloyd Nicholas VERGARA a student at Xavier University, Cagayan de Oro City, one of the very first to contribute to the Vergara Family website, had claimed that his folks in Ozamis City had originally come from Barili. Establishing a concrete connection had proved a tough nut to crack. A glimmer of hope emanated from San Antonio, Texas where James Hager lives with his Filipina wife who had hailed from Barili. After the most recent of his numerous trips to Barili, James, working on his wife's genealogy, obliged to communicate from his actual, personal research on the Barili Church Registry the extensive Vergara details which he did not really need for his wife's Estrada, but in his great magnanimity and benignity had collected. He completed his generous work by sending the details by air mail. Reconciling this information with that from the Utah sources, however, still proved to be very difficult. Any work further work on the Barili clan was put on hold for five months until an email from the neighbouring country down under, New Zealand, came courtesy of Thelma Aparicio Dustin who has been working extensively on the Negros clan. She recently made contact with a 'lost' uncle in America whose information helped in updating their family tree. Virgilio Sinining Vergara lives in Sunrise, Florida. When he had a look at his family details in the website, he somehow noticed the Barili site. Going into this, he recognized an entry which he found out to be his own grandfather's. A living descendant of the Barili Vergaras with definite, concrete proof of relationship has finally been found!
In his email on Christmas day, Virgilio also made a startling revelation. These are his very words: "I am looking for our Pampanga connection since my late lolo told me that his great great grandfather (Joaquin) was one of seven brothers and originally came from Pampanga with a missionary priest. Looking at the dates of his birth(1759),it seems that the most probable connection is Juán Vergara (1780) of San Simon, Pampanga. I will try to contact the San Simón Vergaras, and see if this make sense." If this is true, and I am inclined to believe it is, this makes it only three places - San Esteban, Pampanga and Sorsogón - where the Vergaras are likely to have come from!
The last email for the year 2001 came on December 30 from Imelda Vergara-Lasam with these words: "There's a probability that the Vergaras of Bicol also came from San Esteban, based on the account given to me by my aunt Rose Empleo Agustin about the Empleos. The Empleos of Bicol came from San Esteban. Since siblings/relatives/townmates tend to follow one another, it is very probable that the Vergaras followed their Empleo relatives".
Would this make it two places?