SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2013

Tracing FPJ's American Ancestry Through Online Sources

When we begin our search for our family history we mostly start with the internet. Although I personally do not advise using
the world wide web as the FIRST step in genealogical search there have been many people who barely had to do anything
anymore in terms of family history research as their family had already been researched by someone else. This usually
happens also to many of my clients whose ancestors are from Argao; within a week or two they would already be presented
with a complete genealogy of their family and thus they no longer have to go through all the difficulty of searching for old
records themselves.

As the 2013 election season begins in earnest I cannot help but think back to 2004
when the late King of Cinema, Fernando Poe, Jr., was almost disqualified from running for the presidency due to a "dubious"
citizenship and how easy it would have been to establish his family tree using the internet at that time. It all started on
January 9, 2004 when Victorino Fornier filed a case with the Commission on Elections asking the body to disqualify FPJ on
the ground that he was not a Filipino citizen. Although the Philippine Supreme Court eventually ruled in Fernando Poe, Jr.'s
favor in March of the same year, there were several key materials that a genealogist would have been able to help FPJ's
camp with if only they had consulted a family historian. One record that was not presented was the marriage record of
Bessie Kelley Poe's parents, Auther E. Kelley and Marta Gatbonton. This single record would have added more weight to
Poe's defense of his citizenship because here was a clear record of the Pampango roots of FPJ. Marta Gatbonton, FPJ's
maternal grandmother, was a pure Filipina born in Candaba, Pampanga, and a quick search using the
LDS'sFamilySearch website would have shown those who questioned Poe's citizenship all the Filipino line they needed
through the Gatbonton side of the family. And if they wanted more, one of the evidenciary materials FPJ's camp showed was
a certified copy of Lorenzo Pou's death certificate which is also available online.
At any rate, all that is in the past. Despite the question of his citizenship, there is no doubt that FPJ's maternal family, the
Kelleys, had a very long and interesting history that goes back as far as the 1640s in County Clare, Ireland. Here, at last, is
the story of FPJ's American family.
The Filipino Kelleys
Despite the obvious non-Filipino sound of the surname, the Kelley line of FPJ has been in the Philippines since at least
1910. Thus, for all intents and purposes they were already Filipino. FPJ's grandfather was named A.E. Kelley; his first name
has always been in question as some records have listed him as Auther and others as Arthur. His grandson, Mahar
Mangahas of the Social Weather Stations (SWS), in an article wrote that it was always Auther and never Arthur, and in a
communication with him also emphasized that it was Auther. Another grandchild, a sister of FPJ, also emphasized that their
grandfather's
real
name
was
Auther,
and
not
Arthur.

We know that Kelley had been in the Philippines due to the earliest
reference that could be found of Auther E. Kelley in the 1910 US Population Census. Here we see Poe's grandfather
assigned in the American Military and Naval forces in Camp Keithley located in Dansalan, which is now in Marawi City. The
census listed him as single and coming from Missouri. We next see his name in official records in 1918 in his World War I
registration card. In this form he is listed as permanently living in Luray, Clark County, Missouri and that his birthday was on
January 4, 1886. He was listed also as a fireman and worked in the fire department in Manila. Finally, he listed an "Ida
Kelley"
as
his
nearest
kin.
Aside from these two records I still had barely enough to go on. So, on a hunch, I searched for his name in Philippine
records and was surprised to see that his marriage record was already encoded in FamilySearch. And, true to what is
already available in some websites, his wife was indeed Marta Gatbonton. The marriage record of Kelley and Marta gives us
more information in terms of Poe's family. Here, we have the names of both Kelley's and Gatbonton's parents, although like
Kelley, his parents' names are also abbreviated as W.E. Kelley and I.J. Kelley (which was most likely the Ida Kelley in his
registration form).

Auther Kelley and Marta Gatbonton had several children, one of which was Bessie G. Kelley (though some say her name
was Elizabeth, and Bessie clearly is a variant of Elizabeth, the family said that her legal name was Bessie). Bessie was
married to Fernando Poe (again, in a communication with the family, they confirmed that Fernando Poe, Sr. had no Allan in
his name), who was a famous actor during the early cinema era in the Philippines. Their children were Elizabeth, Ronald
Allan (Ronnie or FPJ), Fernando II (Andy), Genevieve (Jenny), Fredrick (Freddieboy), and Evangeline.
I initially thought it would be easier now to trace Auther E. Kelley's roots in the United States as I already had his parents'
names, but I was flabbergasted to see scores of Idas in the Missouri and surrounding areas who were married to W. Kelleys.
After making the search parameters stricter (W E Kelley with a spouse Ida J. from Missouri) I was rewarded with the only
W.E. Kelley who had an Ida J. wife. These were William E. Kelley and Ida J. Kelley, who appeared in the 1910 census with
their children. So, we now have the immediate family of Auther E. Kelley. His younger siblings were Jesse J. Kelley, Anna S.
Kelley,
Maggie
A.
Kelley,
Albin
A.
Kelley,
Ruby
M.
Kelley,
and Fred
D.
Kelley.
12-Generation

Family

Tree

in

One

Day

After an hour of using various search strings in FamilySearch I found the marriage record of William E. Kelley and Ida J.

Kelley (nee Swisher). And so this led me further to other censuses (1880 and 1850) in the United States, until I hit a deadend
with
the
grandparents
of
William
and
Ida.
I was also afraid to go further than the generation of this couple's grandparents because although I had fragments of records
connecting Poe's grandfather to this couple, there was no clear and direct evidence that Auther E. Kelley was indeed their
son. So on another hunch I did several searches online for obituaries of the children of William and Ida Kelley, who would all
have died in the years after 1910. Again, this hunch paid off because I was directed to a website called FindAGrave where
the burial of one Ida J. Swisher Kelley was listed. Briefly, Find A Grave is a resource for anyone in finding the final disposition
of family, friends, and famous' individuals. Its mission is to find, record and present final disposition information from around
the world as a virtual cemetery experience. Find A Grave memorials may contain rich content including pictures, biographies
and more specific information. Members can leave remembrances via virtual flowers' on the memorials they visit,
completing the virtual cemetery experience. Thus, this website is actually a goldmine for genealogy enthusiasts. While not
everyone is lucky enough to find their relatives here, the growing popularity of the site makes it possible for more data to be
added
every
day.
In this Ida Kelley's Find A Grave memorial it was mentioned that she was the widow ofWilliam Emery Kelley (W.E. Kelley!)
and the surviving children mentioned were similar to the list of children in the 1910 census. And, best of all, one of the
mentioned children was an Arthur E. listed as living in Manila, Philippines. There was no longer any doubt that this was
indeed
the
family
of
Fernando
Poe,
Jr.
After this, the family tree just began to unravel by itself. I clicked on the memorial of Poe's great-grandfather, William E.
Kelley, which then led me to the name of his parents, William G, Kelley and Anna E. Lollar. The site for William G. Kelley
further added that he served as a scout in the in the 14th Missouri State Militia Volunteer Cavalry, Company G during the
American Civil War. This cavalry later became the 8th Missouri State Militia Cavalry, where in Company L, he served as a
blacksmith and a farrier. He also served in this capacity with Company I, Missouri Volunteers and was honorably discharged
on April 12, 1865.

Rev. Benjamin Kelley and wife Sarah Thorpe, FPJ's great (3X)-grandparents.
William G. Kelley's parents were Benjamin H. Kelley and Rebecca S. Thorpe. It thus would seem that serving in the military
was something of a tradition in the Kelley family, as William G.'s father Benjamin Herndon Kelley also served in the military;
he served in the War of 1812. Records show Benjamin Kelley serving with in the 13 Regiment (Gray's) Kentucky Militia and
four
other
sons
of
his
also
served
in
the
army
in
one
capacity
or
another.
Benjamin H. Kelley's father was another Benjamin Kelley, and it was this ancestor that has been written more about in the
history books. Accoring to the book A History of Kentucky Baptists From 1769 to 1883: "Benjamin Kelley was of Irish ex
traction, and the name was originally written O'Kelley. His grandfather was the only child of Irish parents, and was born on
the Ocean, as his parents were emigrating to America. In his teen years he was taken prisoner by indians, though later an
old indian woman adopted him as a son and he stayed with the Indians for about 6 years. He was later able to escape with
the help of his adoptive mother and was able to return to his family in Virginia. He became a Baptist preacher of strong
persuasion, as well as a good English scholar, engaged in teaching for at or over 30 years and was minister to four
churches,
performing
marriages
in
Ohio
County
and
Daviess
County
in
Kentucky.
These amazing facts about the Kelley family were all found in the Find A Grave website and I immediately encoded the

names of Poe's ancestors in a free genealogy software called Family Tree Builder. The reason I shifted to this software once
again, as opposed to my preferred softwares as mentioned in a previous post, is that its latest version has dramatically
improved and its SmartMatching feature allows one to be alerted of possible only family trees which may be similar to yours.
So I was able to trace Poe's grandfather, Auther E. Kelley, back to his great-great-grandfather Rev. Benjamin Kelley. Only a
few generations, but this was still more than anything else ever traced on FPJ's family before.
And then, after encoding all the names of ancestors and relatives of Auther E. Kelley in the database I received several
notifications on SmartMatching that there were similar family trees available on the Kelley's online. And after looking at these
trees and verifying their relationship to the one I made I was given more than what I first set out to do: four more additional
generations
of
the
Kelley
family
tree.
It would seem that the Reverend Benjamin Kelley's parents were John Kelley and Ann Margaret Rush. This couple made
quite a headline back in the day when they were accused of living in adultery. Of course, it would soon be made clear that
this accusation stemmed from the fact that the couple belonged to the Quaker group, who were being persecuted in the
colony by the members of the Church of England. Despite their hardship, their relatives never abandonned them. Ann
Margaret's family banded together and even paid their "security" or a sort of bail. The harassment against their family only
ended four years later after they were required to pay 500 pounds of tobacco or 50 shillings. Had they been unable to pay
that particular amount, the punishment according to law would have been 25 "lashes well laid on" her bare back.
John Kelley's father, Edmund Kelley, and grandfather, John Kelley, were the first two American-born Kelleys in the United
States. It was the first John Kelley's father, James O'Kelley, who first came to the United States. He and his wife Hannah
George were both natives of County Clare, which is located in the Mid-West Region and is also part of the province of
Munster in Ireland. Since they came to Virginia in the early 1600s they can then be considered as part of the waves of
migrants
from
the
Old
World
who
braved
the
New
World
in
search
of
a
better
life.
On a personal level I enjoyed this exercise of tracing FPJ's family tree because I had once more proved another amazing
resource in genealogical research: the use of the internet. I was able to begin FPJ's family tree through FamilySearch, which
gave me three generations of Kelleys starting with his grandfather, A.E. Kelley. From FamilySearch I jumped to Find A
Grave which gave me an additional two generations of the Kelleys. And, thanks to the vast collections of family trees in
Family Tree Builder I was able to connect another four generations of the first Kelleys in the United States, ending with
Ronald Allan "FPJ" Kelley Poe's great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, James O'Kelley, who was from
Ireland.

In hindsight, the detractors of FPJ who questioned his nationality were the ones who did not understand the concept of
nationhood and love of country. FPJ's Spanish grandfather, Lorenzo Pou, could have returned to Spain after 1898 but
instead he remained in the Philippines and died as a Filipino, as listed in his death certificate. On his mother's side, FPJ's
American grandfather, Auther E. Kelley, could have returned to the United States after the US gave back our independence.
Instead, he decided to remain in the country where he had served in the army since at least 1910. And if those detractors
could have looked back into FPJ's American ancestry, they would have seen the amazing traits of his bygone ancestors:
men and women who braved the unknown and harsh new world to start a new life, later becoming respectable ministers and
founders of churches, and then much later fighting for their country in various wars throughout their nation's history.
I was never much of an FPJ fan, finding much of his movies too cliche. But when one looks at the commonality of the
themes of his films one finds a surprisingly large amount of movies about justice; justice for the oppressed and the poor and
the defenseless, so much so that the Filipino masses began to see him as a hero of the masses. Perhaps subconsciously
he produced and starred in movies that showed him in ways that were very similar to the actions of his Kelley ancestors.
Whatever what-ifs in history, Ronald Allan "FPJ" Kelley Poe certainly had an amazing family tree. And he led an equally
amazing
life
that
has
definitely
left
a
mark
in
the
Filipino
psyche.
For

fuller

family

tree

of

Fernando

Poe, click

here.

_________________________________________________________

Main
1.
1850,
1880,
1910
US
Census
Records
2. Philippine Marriage and Death Records in Manila, Philippines
3. Find
A
4. John
&
Ann
Kelley
5. The
Kelley/Gordon
6. FPJ Disqualification Case G. R. No. 161434 - March 3, 2004
Posted by Todd Cabrera Lucero at 8:03 AM No comments:

Sources:
from FamilySearch
from FamilySearch
Grave
case
Website