Compostela Valley Province, Philippines Genealogy

Asia Philippines  Compostela Valley Province

Guide to  ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records.

History
Compostela Valley, the 78th province in the country, was carved out of Davao del Norte Province by virtue of Republic Act No. 8470, signed by President Fidel V. Ramos on January 30, 1998. On March 7 of the same year, the law was ratified through a plebiscite conducted in the twenty-two (22) municipalities of the mother province.

Moves to create a separate province, now called Compostela Valley, from Davao del Norte started in the 80’s during the time of Congressman Lorenzo S. Sarmiento, Sr., himself the author of the division of the original province of Davao into three (3) provinces of Davao Oriental, Davao Del Sur, and Davao Del Norte. Believing that the sheer size of Davao Del Norte, then the 8th largest province in the country, had greatly hindered the realization of the province’s full potentials, he filed a bill in Congress seeking to create a new province to be composed of Mawab, Maragusan, New Bataan, Nabunturan, Montevista, Monkayo, and Compostela, with the latter as the capital town. However, this was not realized until his death in the late 80’s. His son, Rogelio M. Sarmiento, who became his successor in Congress, made way for the passage of the bill creating the province.

Upon consultation with the then incumbent governor of Davao Del Norte, Prospero S. Amatong; the province’s other two legislators, namely: Congressman Rodolfo P. Del Rosario of the third district and Congressman Baltazar A. Sator of the 2nd district; and the other provincial and municipal officials, it was decided that the addition of four municipalities, namely Maco, Mabini, Pantukan, and Laak to the proposed province would be the most ideal and equitable configuration as this would make both provinces on an almost equal footing in terms of area, population, and development opportunities. It was also decided that Nabunturan would be the capital town because of its more central location.

The name originally proposed for the province was Davao Del Norte, the former name, or so it was thought, of the mother province. However, the House of Representatives’ Reference and Research Bureau which conducted the research and legal work on the creation of the province found out that the mother province continues to be officially referred to as Davao Del Norte in most official documents including the 1987 Philippine Constitution despite the passage of RA No. 6430 on June 17, 1972 renaming it as Davao Province. Tedious technical and legal issues need to be resolved before the name could be adopted, the proposal was thus, shelved and the name finally agreed upon was Compostela Valley, referring to the great fertile plain in the heartland of the province.

The origin of the province’s inhabitants came from the ethnic tribes of the Mansaka, Mandaya, Manobo, Mangguangan, Dibabawon, Aeta, Kamayo, Davaweño and Kalagan. Similar to the history of other Mindanao provinces, most of the present populations of the province are descendants of migrants who came from Luzon and Visayas islands during the pre-war and post war eras. The bigger wave of immigrants came during the time of President Ramon Magsaysay wherein the policy of attraction adopted by the national government was to offer parcels of land to tenant-farmers. Although a virtual melting pot, the Visayans (mostly Cebuano-speaking) are the dominant group in Compostela Valley.

Cemeteries

 * Glorious Resurrection Memorial Park


 * Tibungco Cemetery


 * Buhangin Memorial Park


 * Old Chinese Cemetery


 * Davao Masonic Cemetery


 * San Pedro Memorial Park


 * Find A Grave

Family History Library

 * FHL Compostela Valley Results


 * Philippines Civil Registration (Archives Division) (FamilySearch Historical Records)


 * Philippines Genealogy


 * Philippines Genealogy Family Search


 * Family History Library Research Outlines

Philppine Statistics

 * Philippine Statistics

Researching Filipino Ancestors

 * Philippines, Civil Registration, Spanish Period (FamilySearch Historical Records)


 * Philippines Civil Registration- Vital Records


 * Philippines, Civil Registration, National (FamilySearch Historical Records)


 * Philippines, Civil Registration, Local (FamilySearch Historical Records)


 * [Philippines, Civil Registration (Archives Division) (FamilySearch Historical Records)]


 * Philippines Births and Baptisms (FamilySearch Historical Records)


 * Philippines Marriages (FamilySearch Historical Records)


 * Philippines Deaths and Burials (FamilySearch Historical Records)


 * Philippines, Court Records (FamilySearch Historical Records)


 * Philippines Church Records


 * Philippines


 * Death Records


 * National Archives Government Website


 * Catalog of Filipino Names


 * Civil Registration


 * Parish Registers - Family History before 1837


 * BYU Education Research Phillippines


 * Philippines, Civil Registration (Archives Division), 1902-1945


 * Filipino Ancestors


 * Obits Philippines freepages


 * Families of the Philippines


 * Surnames, etc


 * Resources for genealogy in the Philippines


 * PHILIPPINES-L Archives


 * Philippines » Birth, Marriage, Death


 * Philippines


 * Bona's Philippine Genealogy Site


 * Philippine Army and Guerrilla Records

Vital Statistics

 * Vital Statistics Special Release