Late last year, a Spaniard by the name of Luis Martín Arriola commented on my blog. He's into genealogy and was researching on his wife's ancestors. It turns out that his Filipina wife Peachy is a distant cousin of mine, and that we have a common ancestor: Don Gregorio Bonilla y Calvo, our great-great grandfather. Luis Martín has been my Facebook friend ever since.
Yesterday, he sent me a digital copy of my Don Gregorio's baptismal certificate. Fortunately, my knowledge of paleography allowed me to understand the difficult handwriting.
According to this document, he was from Villa de Torremocha, Cáceres, Spain and was born on 20 January 1859 (baptized four days later by Fr. José Calero). His parents were Gregorio Bonilla and Guadalupe Calvo. My great-great-grandfather later migrated to our country and married Querina Villa of Atimonan, Tayabas. They settled in nearby Unisan. One of their children was Rafaela Bonilla who married Paulo Évora of Calapán, Mindoro. One of their children was Norma, my father's mother.
Gregorio also had a daughter from another woman, but I'm not sure if it was out of wedlock or a previous marriage (or probably his first wife). His daughter's name was Margarita, the mother of Atty. Benjamín Salvosa who founded Baguio Colleges Foundation (now known as the University of the Cordilleras).
I hope that one day, I'd get to walk the streets of Torremocha and breathe the same air that my Bonilla and Calvo ancestors breathed.
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