Family Stories

FAMILY STORIES

1993 Recollections of Carlos Corrales Quisumbing

Born September 9, 1910 Died January 15, 1996

The eldest son of Emilio Arguelles Quisumbing and
Maria Corrales Quisumbing

Quisumbing family name explained.

THE RAMIREZ LINE

Collated by: Chief Genealogist (03-15-2007)
All, we need to link the Ramirez Line to any of the Q lines and/or to Vicente directly. In August 2005, Jan Marc Quisumbing who writes for the Filipino-Asian Bulletin managed by his father Manny Jr and then-living uncle Bert Q (of the II Honorato/III-1 Emilio/IV Manoling Line) received a note from a reader who directed her relative to us. Emails went back and forth between Bert, another 1st cousin Chuchi, the newly found Q relative, and me. Let me share with you the highlights:

From Lu: My name is Lourdes Francia Aguirre- Ordonez. I married into an Ordonez family (from Bacoor, Cavite). I really do not know how it all connects but my mother, Gloria Ramirez-Aguirre left me a very vague story. It will be wonderful if somebody can help me retrace everything since my mom passed away 5 years ago. I have 2 boys (22 & 21 years of age) and we live in Long Beach, California.

My mother was born in Goa, Camarines Sur and grew up in Oas, Albay. These are towns in the beautiful Bicol Region. Although born in the Bicol region, she always mentioned that she is partly Visayan. As a young kid, I thought this was so because she married my father Jose S. Aguirre, who is also partly Visayan (Cebu.) When I got a little older (probably between the ages of 16 & 18) and understood more about the birds and the bees and the ABCs of life, I really got curious. This is what I remember my mother telling me. Her grandfather moved to Albay in the Bicol Region before World War II. She heard stories about her grandparent's house being stoned by the locals because they had a Chinese sounding last name (Quisumbing), so they had to change it to Ramirez (last names in Oas starts with an "R").

I remember her saying that they came from that part of Ilo-Ilo where pansit molo is popular but I recall her saying the town's name is La Paz ( Is there such a place or is the place called Molo?). She has mentioned visiting a relative (an aunt or an uncle) at a printing press called "La Panayana Press"?

Is there anyone of you who might be able to put the puzzle together? I am my mother's daughter, so just like her, I was born and raised in Bicol but I can feel the Visayan blood running through my veins. Some people like to know their roots but unfortunately not everyone gets lucky to find them.

I was born and grew up in Naga City, still in the Bicol Region. My great grandparents had the name changed from Quisumbing to Ramirez when they moved to Oas because of the stoning incident.

From Chief Genealogist:

This is the best I could do. If A is of the 1st generation, he would be a sibling of the original Vicente. Could he be an offspring of Vicente that we do not know anything about? I am using A-B-C instead of the traditional I-II-III until we can link Lu and her grandfather to a II Line. It may be that we could also start another Vicente branch.

A. ??? Male QUISUMBING AKA RAMIREZ & _______
Moved to Albay before WWII
Changed name to Ramirez
Came from Iloilo (town of La Paz?) where pancit molo is made

B. Father of Gloria: ______ Ramirez

C. Gloria Ramirez & Jose S. Aguirre
Gloria: Born in Goa, Camarines Sur; d. 2000
Raised in Oas, Albay
Jose: From Cebu
Gloria has a relative who owned a printing press (La Panayana)
D. Lourdes Francia (Lu) Aguirre & _______ Ordonez
Long Beach, CA
Born and grew up in Naga City.
E-1: Son 22 years of age
E-2: Son 21 years of age

C. Pedro Ramirez--brother of Gloria
Kansas

The mystery remains unsolved.

III-5 EDUARDO ARGUELLES QUISUMBING of the II-2 Honorato Line
Photocopy from IV Dory Arguelles of the II-7 Sebastian/Fernando Jr Line
Scanned by V Blue Boy Quisumbing of the II-2 Honorato/Emilio/Carling
Line
Submitted by Chief Genealogist

Dedication to Atty. Norberto "Doy" J. Quisumbing

PROUD TO BE Q: Tracing the QUINK STORY
Compiled by: Cora Quisumbing-King (October 2007)
As the story goes, Lolo Paquito (II-01 Honorato/III-4 Francisco Arguelles Quisumbing) invented Parker’s Quink (a short version of Quisumbing Ink). I first found out about this from my Chemistry teacher in College. Other Qs may have been told this “Proud to be Q” information by their parents. The direct descendants of Lolo Paquito know this as part of their Q story and legacy.

Chuchi Luspo Constantino had a tall green bottle that indeed shows the name Quisumbing Ink. It is now in the hands of Albert Quisumbing. Chuchi has been trying to get documentation from Parker. Her deductions: Although we don't have the document to support that the ink manufactured by Lolo Paquito became Parker Quink, Parker also can't really contradict us if the Qs claim Quink was an invention of Lolo Paquito.

In a letter to Chuchi dated 2/10/98, Mary Hughes-Greer (Parker archivist) writes that her research of Quink did not yield the name of Francisco Quisumbing (Lolo Paquito). She wrote further that Quink was first developed by an outside laboratory and later in the Parker laboratories. The name of the outside laboratory has not been verified by Parker although the “outside laboratory chemists” worked 32 months on Quink. This is something we Qs do not understand-- why Parker can't verify the laboratory. Per Chuchi, Parker was a pen company established in 1888 and introduced new pens almost every two years and out of the blues in 1931 introduced Quink.

Per Vising Quisumbing who spoke to Vicky Yaptinchay Quisumbing (granddaughter of Lolo Paquito), all the family knows is that the patent (?) was sold with the condition that the QUINK name be kept. Apparently, there were no royalties.

Note the following information:

1923 Lolo Paquito established Quisumbing Ink products

1931 Parker introduced Quink

1934 Lolo Paquito established Quisumbing School of Technology

Additional information on Lolo Paquito can be found in his family tree and on Who’s Who in the Philippines (by Franz J Weisblatt, 1940, p.148. Publisher: McCullough).

Our Purpose in Life: Lolo Pio and Lolo Emilio
Edited by: Cora Quisumbing-King (11-14-2007)

Our purpose in life

By Manny Quisumbing, Jr.

The secrets to long life

Most , if not all, of us want to live long and healthy lives. How to do it is the the big question.

My Lolo Pio ( my mother’s father) lived up to 94. His formula to his ripe old age was to drink Vino Kulafu, smoke Liwayway cigarettes and read Bisaya. Every time he gets his P60.00 pension ( back in the 60’s that was a lot of money) I would bring his pension check to his favorite sar-sari store to cash it and pay for whatever vales he made during the month. I would then give him the change and my lolo would give me P1.00 tip. One peso was a lot of money for a 10-year old then!

My Lolo Emilio ( my father’s father) also died in his 90’s. I don’t remember how old he was when he died but I am sure my cousins Cora Quisumbing-King and Chuchi Luspo-Constantino would know perhaps even the time and day when he died and whether it was raining or not when he went up to the heavens. The two are the historians in our family.

My lolo Emilio’s way of living a long life was to write letters to the government officials on how to preserve our water sheds and environment. He was so far ahead of his time.

My lolo Emilio was a hydraulics engineer and a visionary. He was a “water expert” and was already concerned about the water supply of Cebu City as early as in the 50’s. He knew that water would be a problem when the city grows.

Here is a side note of my lolo Emilio. He was one of the first scholars ( they were called pensionados) sent to the United States by the Philippine government back in the early 1900’s ( did I get this right, cousins?). He graduated from Cornell University in upstate New York. He did not speak English, only Spanish and Greek but on his way to the US ( the boat trip took over a month) he learned English and was speaking it like a native when he landed in the New York harbor.

So, it is difficult to say which one works in living a long and healthy life. My two grandfathers lived very differently yet they were in their 90’s when they finally kicked the bucket.

In this day and age, how do we live to a ripe old age?

A wise old man once told me that living to a ripe old age is easy. Other than eating healthy food and regular exercise there are two important things to do and these are be a witness for God and help children, especially the poor.

God needs soldiers to fight His battles and to spread His word so he will definitely keep you on earth as long as possible.

God has a special spot in His heart for children. If you help children, especially the poor, he will make you live long and because if you die no one will take care of God’s children. They will also pray to God to keep you alive as long as possible because if you die no one will take care of them.

Honor, love and respect your parents. This fourth commandment is in the Bible and it is written that if you keep this commandment God will reward you with long life.

Now that you know the “secrets” of how to live a long life in this world it is your turn to make these secrets known to all your friends and relatives and to the whole world.

A Tribute to Engineer Emilio Arguelles Quisumbing 1885-1976

A Filipino Pensionado of 1903

By Jose R. Quisumbing 1942-2007

Remembering Pop_Part I, this is a compilation of memories of our father/grandfather.
Remembering Pop_Part II, the latter written by Pepito before he died last year.

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