Miguel Bayala Gero: My Roots – a Genealogy Passage

For years I have wondered about my paternal heritage and only knowing my father. I, unfortunately, never got to meet my paternal grandparents. Therefore, through my research, I have discovered through my father a lot of information. As a result, I discovered that my father was the firstborn male to live the longest starting with Miguel Bayala Gero. This post is about my roots a genealogy passage to Miguel Bayala Gero.

My father, Luis Bayala Delgado, is the eldest son of Facundo Bayala Diaz. My grandfather, Facundo, died at the age of 49 in 1965. Facundo was the eldest of 14 children from the marriage between my great grandparents. His parents are Juan Bayala Montañez and Manuela Diaz Morales. Through Puerto Rico church records, I discovered that my great grandparents were married on September 14, 1910.

Their married occurred at the Parroquia Exaltación de la Santa Cruz. The church’s name translates to the Exaltation of the Holy Cross Parrish. Finally, this Roman Catholic Church is located in Trujillo Alto, a town in Puerto Rico. You can scroll to the bottom to see images.

Knocking down barriers

A challenge in researching is not the language barrier, but the unfortunate disappearance of many records. Due to weather, fire, insects, complete disregard toward old records, and the island’s history, many of the records are gone.

I am lucky to know where to look thanks thanks to my father, Luis Bayala Delgado. My father who is now deceased made sure he left me with plenty of information. His encouragement assisted me in discovering that there is only one Bayala family in Puerto Rico. This happened thanks to my 5th Great Grandfather, Miguel Bayala Gero. I am happy to share my research with my father before his passing on August 30th in 2011.

My father assisted me in understanding why names were not always exactly matching all the time. I came across this same issue on my maternal Dominican side many years prior. The reason stems from many of these homes existing in rural areas. Paved roads didn’t exist and didn’t make travel easier and education wasn’t made easily available.

My Roots – Swapping of Names

Due to the lack of paved roads, many didn’t venture into town to marry or even report births immediately. Many times, couples had common law marriage and sometimes married years later in a church. Lastly, law required that marriages include civil registration. Many never bothered to marry. Had I not known this, I would have never found records or my ancestors on census records.

I discovered that people arbitrarily swapped between their mother’s and father’s last names just like my Bayala line and many other lines did. My great grandmother, Manuela Diaz Morales, has been documented as Manuela Diaz Navarro in records. I was able to piece together by going through the many records and finding information on her and her parents. My great grandfather, Juan Bayala Montañez, identified himself as Juan Montañez. His birth occurred out of wedlock and it was not until many years later that documentation indicated that his father is Pedro Bayala Flores.

I suspect at some point his father, Pedro Bayala Flores (Carmona), officially recognizes him. He also recognized Juan’s, Petrona Bayala Montañez. I have located records where both used the Bayala last name and identifying Pedro as their father. Petrona’s death record identifies her as a Bayala. This is keeping in mind that their mother was unwed at the time of the baptism for both children.

Documentation for each child indicated, born out of wedlock, and registered using their maternal last name, Montañez. Through discussions with my father, he indicated that Pedro Bayala was his great grandfather, which lead to me locating Juan Montañez living with Pedro in 1910 on the 1910 US Census. The twist and turns of my direct line have been very interesting. 

Miguel Bayala Gero: A Genealogy Passage to Maria Ines Bayala Amaro

To think that my line almost ended being Montañez instead of Bayala is so mind-blowing and digging through these records provides a dynamic to my ancestry. I plan to post more on my Bayala research as it is complete in Puerto Rico. I’ve included only the marriage record within this post for my great grandparent along with both great grandparents’ civil birth records, baptism, and marriage records. The marriage record is located in Trujillo Alto’s Registro Civil de Matrimonio, Libro 5, Folio 72 (Civil Registration of Marriages, Book 5, Page 72).

I obtained an approximate death date for my great grandfather’s death date thanks to his daughter, my grandaunt, Maria Inez Bayala Amaro. Juan’s civil birth record provided a clue as it contains the year of death that Aunt Maria provided. His death record provided an estimated age and that assisted with locating his birth and baptism records. Aunt Maria was also able to inform me that Juan Bayala served during WWI.  I was able to obtain his draft records but was not aware that he served because he was older.  

Aunt Maria provided additional valuable information; an American flag draped over Juan’s casket. Thanks to her valuable information I was finally able to locate his death record.  Juan passed away at a hospital on August 3rd in 1956, his death reported by his second wife, Maria Amaro. I haven’t been able to locate an actual marriage record but have to assume it occurred as my understanding is that Maria Amaro was able to collect benefits for Juan Bayala’s service in the military.