FAMILIA : ALDAN

Signature of Family Founder Lucio Aldan

in 1881 when he was still living on Guam

The Aldan family is a well-known family in Saipan which originated in Guam. For a time before the war, there were some living in Yap, as well. Now, the Chamorro Aldans can be found all around the Marianas and the U.S. mainland.

The family founder was a Filipino named Lucio Santos Aldan, the son of Tomás and Ana. Lucio was born in Imus, in the Province of Cavite, very close to the capital city of Manila. Tomás, therefore, was Tagalog-speaking. Spanish records indicate that he was a carpenter by trade.

Aldan, by the way, is not a surname found in Spain. But there are Aldans in the Philippines and is probably a Filipino name.

At some point before the 1860s, he moved to Guam. There he met his future wife, the Chamorro María Rivera de León, the daughter of Juan and Rosa, all from Hagåtña.

Their first children (Ana, Tomás, Juan, Antonio, Rita and Manuel) were born on Guam but sometime in the mid 1880s (1884-1886) he moved with his family to Garapan, Saipan where he stayed till he died in 1896. He lived for a very short time in Tinian, as well, during his Saipan years. In Saipan, a son Vicente was born. In Tinian, a daughter Francisca, the last of the eight children, was born.

The five sons, of course, were mainly responsible for the spread of the Aldan name as they married and had numerous children.

Tomás married Encarnación Cruz Concepción.

Juan married Nicolasa Cruz de León Guerrero.

Antonio married twice. First with Soledad Aurora Fausto and, after her death, with Maria Muña Charfauros.

Vicente also married twice. The first time with Antonia Díaz Castro and, after her death, with María Tenorio de la Cruz.

Manuel married twice, as well. First with Nicolasa Camacho Manibusan and, after her death, with Rufina Hernández.

Among the three daughters, Ana married Luís Luján de la Cruz, Rita married Antonio Esteves and Francisca apparently never married.

ANOTHER ALDAN?

The Saipan records also show that there was a man named Pedro Magofña Aldan, born in Guam around 1874. Was this an error made by a priest or secretary? Was his "Aldan" name really something else? Lucio was already married to María de León long before 1874, so who was this other Aldan married to a Magofña (unless it really wasn't an Aldan, only a mistake made by the record keeper). Pedro appears in the marriage records as having married on Saipan in 1917. His bride was Natividad Cabrera San Nicolás. No children apparently issued from this union.

ALDAN, NOT ADÁN

Some people who speak good Chamorro know that the Chamorro (Spanish) name for Adam (as in Adam and Eve) is Adán. It sounds awfully close to Aldan, because in traditional Chamorro the L in Aldan is changed to a T. At - dan. And some people wonder, humorously, if the First Man Created was from the Aldan family.

No. The answer is no. It's just that the two names are just one letter apart and sound very similar. But the two names are totally unrelated.

Listen to the slight difference in the way they both sound :