Josephine ABAD (née BRACKEN, aka Josephine Rizal) [1876-1902]

Submitted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on Mon, 08/29/2011 - 22:51
Names
Given
Josephine
Family
Abad
Maiden
Bracken
Alias / nickname
Josephine Rizal
Sex
Female
Status
Deceased
Born
Date
Birthplace (town, state)
Victoria Barracks
Birthplace (country)
Hong Kong
Died
Date
Cause of death
Tuberculosis

A friend, an historian of the Phillipine Revolution and the events leading up to it, would very much like to be able to locate Josephine Bracken's birth certificate and indeed if possible her grave. Her baptismal certificate is extant but that's that. There must surely have been a birth certificate too.

Josephine Bracken is significant because she was the wife of Dr Jose Rizal, the hero of the Philippines struggle against Spain. Her nationality is usually given as "Irish" but that is more correctly a descripotion of her ethnicity; she would have been a British citizen. 

She was born in Victoria Barracks on the 9th August 1876 to Elizabeth Jane Bracken nee McBride, wife of Corporal James Bracken. Her mother died soon after she was born and she was adopted by an American, George Taufer, who was an engineer with the Hong Kong Fire Department.

After the execution of Dr Rizal she took part in the Philippine Revolution then returned to Hong Kong where she married Vincente Abad; she died of TB on March 15th 1902 and is reputedly buried in Happy Valley Cemetery.

Can anyone help?

Photos that show this Person

Comments

Notes from Adam:

Have you tried this site? It's the best-researched writing on Josephine Bracken that I found when looking up George Taufer for my book.

http://brackenjosephine.blogspot.com/ 

Edit: Taufer was an engineer for the HK Fire Insurance Co.'s Volunteer Fire Brigade, not the Hong Kong Government Fire Brigade.

There's also a mention of Bracken in this thread: http://gwulo.com/node/6977

Josephine Bracken's great grand son, or great-great-grandson threough her adopted daughter did a rather well researched book called Errante Golondrina.

I know her birth certificate exists. I'm surprised nobody has ebefore.ver looked for it