Comments on “Tales from my Grandfather”

Michael Asumen so that's where my father name comes from...very interesting....
Constancio S Asumen Jr
I'm not sure whether he knows it or not. But wittingly or unwittingly he upheld the tradition with FlorenLy and ElCon.

Rommel O. Asumen
Papa told me a different story. Asumen came from Inabanga, Bohol. Moved to Surigao during the Dagohoy rebellion.


Constancio S Asumen Jr
Well, your Papa's story probably is closer to the truth considering that he was some 12 years older than me. What's good about that angle is that it's easy to research the Dagohoy rebellion as it is part of written history.

So we can reconcile the chronology with grandpas believed age and story, as I learned it and told here.

Do you volunteer to do the leg work? ...
This post was made urgent by Uriko’s (Newton Mark Constantine Rodriguez) intimations that he and his father are researching the Asumen ancestry and discovered some “Jewish blood” in our ancestry. I consider that angle nonsense and told him so. In the first place being “Jewish” is not a matter of ethnicity but of religion.

Anyway, I’m glad to learn of your interest on the matter. Stories orally transmitted are bound to contain inaccuracies here and there. I just hope that we can establish a coherent, preferably verifiable version sooner than later before everything is muddled to oblivion.

Constancio S Asumen Jr The name Inabanga does ring a bell. It is something I kind of heard ever so often as a kid but not quite sure of the context

Rommel O. Asumen Papa was able name relatives who still lives in Inabanga. I have met some of them in Cebu.

Constancio S Asumen Jr So were they Asumen or Alonggi?

Rommel O. Asumen
No.i am trying to recall. Let me make a quick call to Cebu.

Constancio S Asumen Jr
Somebody in Facebook even opined that the Asumen's came from Mindanao then migrated to Bohol. I dismissed it as without any basis in fact because of the way we were confined in Claver to the Bol-anon speaking community.

Rommel O. Asumen
Papa told me that our last name was Quinones. And during the Dagohoy rebellion Lolo changed to Asumen. Papa told me that all bolholanos with spanish names were persecuted. How i wish i wrote all this in a log book.

Constancio S Asumen Jr Now that does not make any sense at all. Didn't you suspect that Asumen is Spanish? Third person plural or second person of the verb aumer (to assume as in assume responsibility) or alternately asumir, a rare version of to dawn,or something such; it's been some time since I had Spanish conjugation lessons.

Constancio S Asumen Jr You can still research it now. Just be careful about your sourcing in the internet. E.g., I'm hesitant to take Wikipedia as gospel.

Mildred O. Asumen
as i could remember with Papa, we were from Quiñones clan, our forefathers changed it to Asumen. ASUMEN is an invented name which iis derived from the influential family of Osmeña - moved the "a" and removed "o" for easy traceability since our great grandfather was one of the trusted leaders of Dagohoy from Inabanga. Even Lola Abing told me that story before...

Michael Asumen I learned from you guys....i like this discussion....very interesting

Elcon Asumen Acumen sounds cool to me

Constancio S Asumen Jr The Osmeña angle that Mildred brought up kind of drags us into the penumbral margins of nobility. Be careful when you get too far above the hoi polloi. It can get dizzyingly unnerving up there. At least with the Alongi's we are much closer to earth. I could not recall a famous Alongi in history. Not that I demure from any claim to fame, so to speak.

I do recall in the transition from 1st to 2nd grade there was a debate in the family with tatay asserting that we were used to be registered as Asunem instead of Asumen. That some school teacher bungled it up somewhere.
The question before the house was shouldl we let the mistake of NEM instead of MEN stand or shouldl we endeavor to move mountains and effect a restoration. I recall it was decided that there was already too much in the public record with MEN and there really was nothing much to be gained with NEM. So tatay decided to let it be

The point relevant to Mildred's angle here is re-arranging the component alphabets to the name. I recall that chatter when I was in 1st grade but nothing much came of it.

It's worth pursuing though, especially with the preponderance of available information in cyberspace.

Suggestion: with all the esoteric angles being introduced here, maybe we are better served if you post them as comments to the blogpost. In that way the thread is consolidated in one location. Just a thought.

Mildred O. Asumen this is first time i have heard of alongi... names that came out from Papa was more of the Sempron of Inabanga... this is the side which he has contact at least of the roots in Bohol. One thing one could do is make research in Inabanga to find out our roots, the family history...

Constancio S Asumen Jr The Simpron connection is more consistent with my recollection. I used to overhear Nanay Orin's (as all of my siblings used to call grandma Asumen) reminiscence of events in Inabanga with evident nostalgia. Even Tay Ignacio in Iligan, who is Tatay's first cousin, used to sprinkle his reminiscence with Inabanga.

I understand there is a planned reunion of the 2nd generation Asumen’s slated to take place in Bohol next year. Maybe it will be an opportunity for the 2nd generation to dig out the roots and document it for posterity.
Sounds like a worthwhile project, if anybody asked me.