Saturday 22 September 2007




Here is a very simple Caban family tree based on the work done by John, before he died. John did some pretty extensive research into the Caban family tree, even going around some of the parish churches looking near Barceloneta and La Florida, in Puerto Rico. He was looking for what ever family records he could find. From his work he compiled this information:

I. Lineage of Eduviges CABAN:

PATERNAL:

P1. Juan CABAN - born abt 1790. Married to Juana HERNANDEZ - born abt 1790. They are listed as "Strangers to Puerto Rico" in the records, apparently.

P2. Eduviges CABAN - born abt. 1818 Married to Maria Altagracia RODRIGUEZ - born 1820. The parents of Maria were: Antonio RODRIGUEZ and Leoncia RAMOS, both born circa 1790 in Puerto Rico.

P3. Rafael CABAN - birth date unknown, died before 1910. Married to Maria de los Santos RODRIGUEZ - born 1849, died after 1925. Maria's parents were Juan Antonio RODRIGUEZ & Maria Josefa JIMENEZ.

MATERNAL:
M1. Francisco RODRIGUEZ - born abt. 1800 in Puerto Rico. Married to Rosa SANTIAGO.

M2. Juan Antonio RODRIGUEZ - born about 1820. Married to Maria Josefa JIMENEZ - born abt. 1830
Maria's parents were: Isidro JIMENEZ and Luisa CANCEL, both born circa 1800 in Puerto Rico.

M3. Maria de los Santos RODRIGUEZ as listed above, who married Rafael CABAN.

CHILD: Well, one of 14, actually:

4. Eduviges CABAN - born 16 Sep 1892, Manati Puerto Rico - died 1965. Married to Margarita RODRIGUEZ, born 14 Jun 1894, Camuy Puerto Rico, died 1960.


II. Lineage of Margarita RODRIGUEZ

1. Francisco RODRIGUEZ - born abt. 1800 in Puerto Rico. Married to Rosa SANTIAGO.

2. Juan Antonio RODRIGUEZ - born about 1820. Married to Maria Josefa JIMENEZ - born abt. 1830
Maria's parents were: Isidro JIMENEZ and Luisa CANCEL, both born circa 1800 in Puerto Rico.

3. Valentin RODRIGUEZ - born abt. 1860 Married to Leoncia SOTO - born abt. 1870. Leoncia's parents were Juan Manuel SOTO and Monserratte PARRA, both born abt. 1850 in Puerto Rico.

Child: Margarita RODRIGUEZ

So, in actual fact, Grandpa & Grandma Caban were first cousins. Their children are -

a. Louis Caban
b. Germen de Luz, Jaime Caban
c. Eduviges Caban Jr.
d. Daisy Ann Caban

My research on the Caban lines is slowly making progress. I joined Ancestry.com and am coming across assorted census material, but other people who are descendants of Grandpa Caban's siblings have also gotten in touch with me. They've sent pictures and you can really see family features carried down through time, though we are all flung far and wide!

Friday 14 September 2007





Eduvijus Caban Senior, (the old man sitting in the chair) came to New York from Puerto Rico, aboard the "S.S. San Juan" which sailed on October 20th 1920 and arrived on October 26th 1920. He wasn't an old man then, of course. The records at Ellis Island say that he was 28 years old, born in Manati, PR... heading for Lexington Avenue in New York City... and single. Well that last part was a lie. He was married, with two sons!
You can actually see the ship's passenger manifest at the Ellis Island website.

My dad, Edwin Jr. (a name change obviously took place somewhere) said that Grandpa Caban was a Communist. That he had been put in prison for his Bolshevik ideas in 1917. It was also said that he'd killed a man. I did read a well written letter that he wrote to someone in his early years... he was very angry and said that the government viewed the less fortunate as beggers who must approach with hat-in-hand seeking favours. He was very eloquent in his indictment against the system.

When he got here, Eduvijus went back to work as a cigar maker. It was a family trade as far I as can see from the old census records for the early 1900s. When my father was a teenager he would work in the family business after school, sitting in the shop window rolling cigars so the suave business men would come in and buy the best. But he used to make my grandfather angry, for as he sat rolling the cigars he, himself, puffed away on his cigarettes. "You're ruining my business!" his father would shout.

Grandpa Caban's later years were not so great. He was not really the nicest man in the world - had some very serious character flaws that drove people away. In his later years he lived in a three room apartment in Newark, New Jersey. We would go to visit and my sister and I found it sooo boring.

Well, for one thing, I had not yet learned Spanish and could hardly understand him when he spoke in English. But of course, the conversations would be in Spanish if my dad was there, and the rest of us would be shut out. But Bev and I thought of games to play, even going into Grandpa's closet and stamping around trying to convince everyone that we'd found a secret passage way down into a hidden basement. Well, we were never bored...we always brought our imaginations with us everywhere we went!

At the end of his life Grandpa Caban came to live at our house. He had cut his wrists and called my father, who went to get help for him and then brought him back to Lincoln Park. He lived down in our spare front room and was mostly bed-ridden. Which was really unfortunate as one day he fell out of bed. And he proved to be too heavy for my mother, my sister, and me to lift back into position! (Well we girls were only 8 and 9 years old at the time) So my dad came home from work and got him back into bed, but then called an ambulance to have him taken to the hospital. He ended up in Greystone Park Hospital, in morris County new Jersey along with Woody Guthrie. That's where he died and he's lies buried in the Gate of Heaven Cemetery, in East Hanover, New Jersey, next to the wife he claimed he didn't have in 1920.

Thursday 13 September 2007

Hola!




Hola! Ok, I'll write this in English...

I've been doing family history research for about 30 years. And there are stories to tell, pictures to look at, things to share...both from our family before us and even our family now.

So if you have something to add...old or new...please do!