Grandma Pam was born in the Nandacan barangay of Bautista, right across the Agno River from Bayambang, where Great Grandma Heliodora was born. In the 1800s, Ilokanos were migrating from their narrow coastal territory of Ilokos into Pangasinan due to colonization-induced overpopulation, environmental degradation, socio-economic dislocation from native crafts to field work, extraction and exploitation, and forced labor in church constructions.
Map of Ilokano migrations by the American geographer Marshall McLennan from 1980.
So, it’s likely our family migrated from Ilokos during this 1815-1850 period to Bayambang.
The name Bayambang is thought to either come from a Pangasinan word meaning waterlogged/matubig/flood-prone (which makes sense considering its proximity to the historic Mangabol Marsh ephemeral lake and wetland), or from the word balangabang which is the the indigenous name of the Bauhinia orchid tree that used to thrive in the area.