Benguet Province, Philippines Genealogy

Asia Philippines  Benguet Province

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

History
The mountainous area now covered by Benguet has been settled for millennia by several peoples collectively known as the Igorots. Two of these groups, the Ibaloi and the Kankanaey, are dominant ethnolinguistic groups of the area.

At the beginning of the Spanish Era, colonisers heard of the rich gold mines in the mountains, attempted to colonize the highlands, but failed. In 1572, Juan de Salcedo led a small expedition into the southern part of Benguet, but the natives forced them to retreat. The first major expedition into the mountains occurred in 1620, when Spanish explorers went into the La Trinidad Valley and briefly controlled some Igorot gold mines, and later abandoned after a few years.

In the 1800s, Spanish colonizers made more serious attempts such as expeditions under Col. Guillermo Galvey:280 and succeeded in establishing a presence in the La Trinidad Valley, named after Galvey's wife.

This area later became a district of the new province of La Union in 1846. Eight years later, in 1854, Benguet became a separate comandancia politico-militar.

When the Americans took control of the Philippines, they established local civil governments in many parts of the country. American civilian government was established in Benguet on November 23, 1900 by virtue of Act No. 48, with Canadian journalist H.P. Whitmarsh appointed as the province's first governor.

During World War II, Igorot guerrillas and the combined Filipino and American forces fought Japanese soldiers during the final days of the war in 1945.

On June 18, 1966, the huge Mountain Province was split into four provinces with the enactment of Republic Act No. 4695. The four provinces were Benguet, Mountain Province, Kalinga-Apayao and Ifugao. Benguet became one of the provinces of the Ilocos Region. On July 15, 1987, the Cordillera Administrative Region was established by President Corazon Aquino thru Executive Order 220, and Benguet was made one of its provinces.

Cemeteries

 * Baguio Public Cemetery


 * Cemetery Of Negativism


 * Irisan Public Cemetery


 * Buyagan Public Cemetery


 * Lubas Cemetery


 * Naguilian Public Cemetery

Family History Library

 * FHL Benguet 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