QUISALAO
In the 1897 Census, there are two women, both widows, with the last name Quisalao. They are both from Aniguak. Quisalao is a native Chamorro name, formed by Qui (Ke) like Quichocho and Quitugua. Salao is a word whose meaning is lost to history, unless we unearth something that tells us what it means.
Maria Quisalao had married a Merfalen.
Natalia Quisalao, possibly her sister, had married a Santos.
I am a descendent of Maria Quisalao>Soledad Valenzuela>Rita Crisostomo >Benita Pangelinan >Joseph Leon Guerrero. My great grand mother Soledad was born a Merfalen, her mom and dad are unknown. I believed she was raised by Juliana Merfalen . My aunt thinks Quisalao was a Portugees surname.
ReplyDeleteAlso to comment on this, my great grandparents were Joaquin Palacios Merfalen and Maria Mafnas Merfalen, my grandma was Josefina Mafnas Merfalen Guevara. I've been scrutinizing the surnames from the census records of 1728 and 1758. Is it possible the last name may have gotten lost in translation? I've seen a Luis Quisarao 1727 Umatag, Tomas Quesalao 1758 Anigua, Francisco Quesalao 1758 Umata,could it be possible this is all the same last name Quisalao? How could we check?
ReplyDeleteI would agree that all those forms are versions of Quisalao. Spelling was not uniform then. Even today, there is not uniformity in English spelling in all cases. But I'd suspect that the Umatac Quisalaos are not closely related (or at all) with the Aniguak Quisalaos. No way to verify that as all we have are lists of names (census) which do not show relationships between all the people in question.
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