Batanes Province, Philippines Genealogy

Asia Philippines  Batanes Province

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

History
The people descended from Austronesians who migrated to the islands 4000 years ago during the Neolithic period. They also used gold as currency and produced a thriving agriculture-based industry. They were also seafarers and boat-builders.

In 1687, a crew of English freebooters headed by William Dampier came with a Dutch crew and named the islands in honour of their country's nobility. Capt. Dampier stayed for less than three months, and did not claim the islands for the British crown.

In 1783, the Spanish claimed Batanes as part of the Philippines under the auspices of Governor-General José Basco y Vargas. The Bashi Channel had come to be increasingly used by English East India Company ships and the Spanish authorities brought the islands under their direct administration to prevent them falling under British control. In 1790, Governor Guerrero, the Governor-general of the Philippines at this point in time is Félix Berenguer de Marquina, unless Guerrero refers to a governor of the Batanes.) decreed that Ivatans were to leave their idjang and to live in the lowlands, thereby giving them more people to tax. These Ivatans, who were then discontented with Spanish rule, killed the ruling General Fortea and declared the end of Spanish rule.

Toward the end of the Spanish regime, Batanes was made a part of Cagayan. In 1909, however, the American authorities organized it into an independent province. Because of its strategic location, the islands was one of the first points occupied by the invading Japanese imperial forces at the outbreak of the Pacific War.

During the Second World War, the Japanese army committed atrocities against the Ivatan. When the United States regained the country, Batanes regained its provincehood.

Beginning in 1945 liberated by the Philippine Commonwealth forces of the 1st and 12th Infantry Division of the Philippine Commonwealth Army was landing at Batanes were attacked by Japanese forces in the island during the Battle of Batanes.

Family History Library

 * FHL Batanes, Philippines


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Philppine Statistics

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Researching Filipino Ancestors

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


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 * Resources for genealogy in the Philippines


 * PHILIPPINES-L Archives


 * Philippines » Birth, Marriage, Death


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 * Bona's Philippine Genealogy Site


 * Philippine Army and Guerrilla Records

Vital Statistics

 * Vital Statistics Special Release