I want to know more about the Qing dynasty people who traded with the Philippines & who were called SANGLAYS in the Philippines. My grandmother is Maria Sanglay. She must be a descendant from the Sanglays of China. My mother, daughter of MARIA SANGLAY was born in 1900. She was the 3rd child. So my grandmother must have been about 23 or 24 years old when my mother was born. My grandmother Maria Sanglay & my grandfather Ignacio Petrache of the Bicol province owned lots of agricultural lands in Ligao, Albay in the Bicol province. They were very rich during their time. I saw the ancestral home in Ligao, Albay, made of stone & wood. And I saw the stone oven built near the house. which means they used to bake their own bread. And if they bake their own bread, there must have several servants to do the baking. My grandparents had 6 children. The above things I saw as a child of seven years during the Japanese occupation from 1942 until the American liberation in 1945. My grandmother was still alive then but already old. An old residence tax certificate called 'cedula' described her occupation as a PROPREITESS. This may may due to her vast land holdings.

I understand that those chinese, Sanglays in the Philippines during the Spanish rule, & who had converted to Christianity as ordered by the Spanish rulers, became the bankers & trusted merchants. And they were allowed to live anywhere in the Philippine Islands & allowed to purchase properties & also allowed to marry into the natives of the Philippines.

I want to establish my link & heritage to the Sanglays. Will anyone add more to my knowledge of the Sanglays? Do I have any blood relations out there through the Sanglay line?

I would appreciate very much to hear from my fellow Sanglays.