Today I want to focus on something I have not seen quite often in Puerto Rican genealogy (at least on my end while researching), which are adoption and or orphaned children. Interestingly enough, my own great-grandfather was orphaned by the age of 13, having lost his father at 9 years old and his mother at 13 years old. This seems to have been the catalyst for him to move from Salinas to San Juan, in order to live with one of his paternal aunts. However, because by the 1940 census he was of adult age, he does not appear as “adopted”, if not he was already living with a family as their “servant” – serving as their chauffeur.
So in this post I want to write about the biographical information I have on Zoilo Dávila Santiago, a 1st cousin 4x removed who by the age of six had lost both of his parents.
Zoilo Dávila Santiago
To understand Zoilo’s life we need to look at various records tied to him and that of his parents in order to better understand under what circumstances he ended up orphaned. To begin looking at Zoilo’s life, we can turn to his marriage record to find out the name of his parents.
In his marriage to Elena Rodríguez Camacho the 12 October 1921, Zoilo was listed as the son of Pedro Dávila and Isabel Santiago, both white, natives of Maunabo, and deceased. His wife Elena, was the daughter of Juan Rodríguez and Carmen Camacho, white, natives of Yabucoa, married, and residents of Maunabo. Zoilo Dávila Santiago was listed at 24 years old (birth year estimated 1897) and Elena Rodríguez Camacho was the same age.
Since Zoilo and Elena were married one year after the 1920 census, they would appear married for the first time in 1930. What is interesting here is that Zoilo was listed as “Cruz Dávila Santiago”, however his wife’s name is the same (Elena Rodríguez) and they are living with three of their children: Feliciana Dávila Rodríguez, Pantaleón Dávila Rodríguez, and Vidal Dávila Rodríguez.
The next step was finding out more about Zoilo’s childhood and his parents in order to find out what his life was like before his parents passed away.
Pedro Dávila &
Isabel Santiago
Zoilo’s parents were Pedro Dávila and Isabel Santiago – who married in Maunabo the 27 December 1880. Pedro Dávila was the son of José Manuel Dávila and María González, while Isabel de Santiago was the daughter of Escolástico de Santiago and María Monserrate Quiñones. Both were natives of Maunabo and residents of said parish (San Isidoro Labrador).
If you have read my blog before, this is the same Dávila family with roots in Coamo who ultimately came from San Juan del Puerto in Andalucía, Spain. José Dávila Manuel and María [Agustina] González were my 4th great-grandparents, and said José Manuel was the grandson of his Spanish grandfather likely his namesake, José Manuel Andrés Dávila García.
Unfortunate circumstances
It seems that Pedro and Isabel’s marriage was unfortunately plagued by death before their own untimely death. Pedro and Isabel had seven children that I have been able to find in the Maunabo church records. These include: María de los Ángeles Dávila Santiago, María de la Cruz Dávila Santiago, Juan Ángel Dávila Santiago, Zoilo Dávila Santiago, Cruz Dávila Santiago, Elvira Dávila Santiago, and Francisco Dávila Santiago. At least five of their seven children did not make it to adulthood. Below we can find their births and deaths in chronological birth order.
- María de los Ángeles (born: 30 Oct. 1885; died: 10 May 1888) 2 years old
- María de la Cruz (born: 14 Sep. 1887; died: 1 Aug. 1892) 4 years old
- Juan Ángel (born: 2 Oct. 1889; died: 16 Mar. 1904) 14 years old
- Zoilo/Cruz? (born: 28 Oct. 1896; died: 25 Dec. 1940) 44 years old
- Cruz/Zoilo? (born: abt. 1895-1897; died: 1 Sep. 1899) abt 2 years old
- Elvira (born: 16 Feb. 1889; died: 16 Aug. 1903) 4 years old
- Francisco (born: ??; died: ??) unknown
Above we can see that most of the children died around the age of 2-4 with the exception of Juan Ángel who died at 14 years old and Zoilo (who later appears as Cruz, more on that in a bit) at the age of 44 years old. We do not know when Francisco died and I am still searching for him in the Maunabo records; however, it seems he was still alive by 1903 when he appears in both of his parents’ death records.
Zoilo or Cruz?
Something that caught my eye while researching Zoilo Dávila Santiago is that occasionally (and for most of his life) he appears as “Cruz Dávila Santiago”. When he married, he used the name Zoilo but as we saw in the 1930 census record, and we will see in other census records, he always used the name “Cruz”. Even we he died in 1940, he appeared as Cruz. What is interesting is that he did have a brother named Zoilo who seems to have been born around the same time as him but died as an infant in 1899. Could it be that the family switched around or mistook their names and Zoilo ultimately ended up as Cruz? Until we find Cruz’s baptism record we will not truly know for sure what happened here. In 1910, he appeared as “José de la Cruz” and likely this is his full name at birth.
We do, however, have a baptism for Zoilo Dávila Santiago born the 28 October 1896 and baptized 14 November 1896. His godparents were Nicolás Dávila and Petronila Rodríguez. Here, we can confirm Zoilo’s parents as Pedro [Santos] Dávila and Isabel Santiago, as well as his paternal grandparents José Manuel Dávila and Agustina González and maternal grandparents Escolástico Santiago and Monserrate Quiñones.
Below we can track Zoilo “Cruz” Dávila Santiago via the U.S. Federal Census records in which he appeared in between 1910-1940. We have already seen the 1930 census record but I will include it again for continuity’s sake.
1940 Census Record
1930 Census Record
1920 Census Record
1910 Census Record
We can notice that Zoilo in 1920 and 1910 lived in the same barrio of Matuyas Bajo in Maunabo except he lived with the family of Vicente Laboy/Lebrón and his wife María Asunción Lebrón Quiñones. In 1920 he was listed as “hijo adoptivo” (adopted son) while in 1910 he was only listed as “sobrino” (nephew).
Given the surname Quiñones, I wonder if Zoilo (who appears with the name José de la Cruz Dávila Santiago) was truly a nephew (likely to María Asunción given her surname) or if he was a distant relative and was taken in by the family upon the deaths of Pedro Dávila and Isabel Santiago. I would have imagined that his godparents would have taken him in but by 1911 Nicolás Dávila González is deceased and due to “old age”, so likely Vicente and María Asunción stepped up to the task of raising Zoilo/Cruz seeing as he might have had little options.
Losing his parents
Zoilo who lose both of his parents in the year 1903 – first his mother in February 1903 and shortly after his father in May 1903. When Isabel died it mentioned the following children: Francisco, Juan, Cruz, and Elvira (the four children who would have been alive when she passed away). Her death was listed as “caquexia palúdica”.
When Pedro Dávila González died in Calabazas, Yabucoa, Puerto Rico (ultimately where my Dávila family would settle, interestingly between 1902-1905 it seems that Maunabo was attached to Yabucoa before it became its own municipality again). It mentioned his wife as “Carmen Quiñones” and that he left behind two children Juan and Francisco. Interestingly enough Elvira and Cruz were both still alive but somehow not mentioned. Seeing as how his wife was listed as “Carmen” and not Isabel, I wonder how well the person knew Pedro’s family when he died. Pedro’s death was listed as “anemia”.
I had no idea what “caquexia palúdica” was so I looked it up. Below is some information I was able to find on it.
You can see above that caquexia (cachexia in English) is tied to “paludismo” which at the root is Malaria. The above sentence states that “caquexia palúdica is the term used for the manifestations of chronic malaria”.
Tracing the deaths of their children it seems that three were affected by a similar disease seeing as their deaths also marked “caquexia palúdica” (for María de la Cruz Dávila Santiago and Zoilo Dávila Santiago) or simply “paludismo” (for Juan Ángel Dávila Santiago) as the cause of their deaths. Matuyas Bajo is nestled between Patillas and Yabucoa, however I wonder if rates of Malaria were higher in Maunabo given its proximity to the sea (and the likely hood of more mosquitos?) in the south. I do not find this cause of death often in archival records so it’s interesting to notice here in this family.
Zoilo’s sister, María de los Ángeles Dávila Santiago, died enteritis while his other sister, Elvira Dávila Santiago, died from asepsia.
Conclusion
Zoilo “Cruz” Dávila Santiago died the 25 December 1940 in Matuyas Bajo, Maunabo, Puerto Rico also from paludismo (malaria). He lived to be 44 years old. From his marriage with Elena Rodríguez they left behind six children:
- Felícita Dávila Rodríguez
- Feliciana Dávila Rodríguez
- Pantaleón Dávila Rodríguez
- Vidal Dávila Rodríguez
- Dominga Dávila Rodríguez
- Anastasia Dávila Rodríguez
I do wonder what Zoilo’s life was life as he was not raised by his parents or even immediate family members. By the time his parents died in 1903, both his paternal and maternal grandparents who have also been deceased. He had many uncles/aunts on his paternal side of the family from my Dávila line, but it is possible that they too were suffering from hard times and potentially were not be able to feed another child.
Ultimately, I do not know what kind of life Zoilo had; these are the stories that usually genealogical documents can not tell us. It seems that a least one of Zoilo’s children lived into the early 2000s, so I do wonder if they knew the stories of their father before he passed. Elena Rodríguez Camacho passed away the 8 May 1976 in Maunabo, Puerto Rico so it is very likely that she transmitted the stories of her husband to their children.
Hopefully, one of their descendants finds this post and can fill us in on Zoilo’s upbringing in Maunabo!
Congratulations for a very very interesting article. ‘ll share with my family, w/Yabucoa roots. Hopefully, this story will find one of Davila’s
I imagine how difficult is to track it
Wonder if PRA and PRERA (1930 Fed government programs) have records and data that can help.
Learning so much with your stories. Thank for sharing and Keep Pushing!
Blessings
Leave it to you to find all that information! I have not experience that but I did send you a private information on What’s Up interesting find. Thank you so much for sharing.