Cagayan Province, Philippines Genealogy

Asia Philippines  Cagayan Province

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

History
Cagayan has a prehistoric civilization with rich and diverse culture. According to archeologists, the earliest man in the Philippines probably lived in Cagayan thousands of years ago. Evidences to this effect are now convincing beyond scientific doubt to consider it as an incontestable fact. From available evidences, the Atta or Negrito - a short dark-skinned nomad - was the first man in Cagayan. They were later moved to the uplands by the Indo-Malays who eventually became the Ybanag, Ytawit, Yogad, Gaddang, Yraya and Malaweg - the natives of Cagayan - who actually came from one ethnicity. These are the people found by the Spaniards in the different villages along the rivers all over Cagayan. The Spaniards rightly judged that these various villagers came from single racial stock and decided to make the Ybanag Tongue the lingua franca, both civilly and ecclesiastically for the entire people of Cagayan which they called collectively as the Cagayanes which later was transliterated to become Cagayanos. Even before the Spaniards came to Cagayan, the Cagayanos have already made contact with various civilizations like the Chinese, Japanese and even Indians, as evidenced by various artifacts and even the presence of foreign linguistic elements in the languages of the natives. Various other racial strains, like the Ilocanos, Tagalogs, Visayans, Muslims, Pangasinenses, Kapampangans, and even foreigners like the Chinese, Japanese, Spaniards and others were further infused to the native Cagayanes to become the modern Cagayano that we know today. It was only in 1583 that Cagayan began to be called a Province through a Spanish Royal Decree which originally comprises the whole of northeastern Luzon plus the islands in the Balintang Channel. This means that the present Provinces of Batanes, Isabela, Quirino, Nueva Vizcaya, and even portions of the Province of Kalinga and Apayao were part of the original territorial delineation of the Province of Cagayan. It was called La Provincia de Cagayan. It is protected on its eastern side by the Sierra Madre Mountain Range, on its western side by the Cordillera, and on its southern side by the Caraballo Range - making it a large Valley Province. The establishment of the civil government of Cagayan through the 1583 Spanish Royal Decree is commemorated in the yearly Aggao Nac Cagayan celebrations of the Provincial Government of Cagayan and its people. The Province of Cagayan is no longer the sole owner of this original vast territory - that was the La Provincia de Cagayan. Its daughter-provinces Isabela, Quirino, Nueva Vizcaya and even Batanes, Kalinga and Apayao have already claimed their rightful parcels. Today, only 9,002.70 square kilometers remain of the former vastness of Cagayan. The Province of Cagayan is currently comprised of 28 municipalities and one component city, which is also its capital, that is Tuguegarao City. The entire region however is still referred to as Cagayan Valley Region.

Cemeteries

 * Find A Grave

Family History Library

 * FHL Cagayan 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 (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