Marcello Fabila was born in 1869, in Dancalan, Antique, Panay Island, Philippines. Born from parents Hildephonso Fabila and Josephia Delgato, Marcelo was the youngest of ten children. He had worked as a pearl diver on the luggers for 3 years before being a catechist.

He joined the early missionaries of Yule Island’s Catholic Diocese in the Bereina District of the British New Guinea in 1898. Marcello worked as seaman on St. Andrew, the mission ship.

While working as a catechist, he met a Yule Island girl Raurau Ke’e, and married her in 1901. They had three children—Mika (Michael) Marcello, Kala (Salvatore) Marcello Fabila, and Juliana. Kala later married Ligouri, one of the daughters of Manilaman Nicholas Albaniel. Sisters Micheline and Leoncia, the narrators, traces their Filipino lineage to both their parents.

Another Manilaman, Gregorio Torricheba, came to Papua New Guinea in the 1890s, and was believed to be born during the mid to late 1860’s. He was a Catechist teacher, planter, and printer, who later married Lele Saula from Sideia Island, Milne Bay Province. They had five children—Emmanuella (b. 1903), Matthia (b.1904), Prudence/Podentio (b.1907), Pedro (b.1908), and Josephine (b.1910).

Pedro married Katie, another daughter of Nicholas Albaniel and together, they had five children. One of the children, Emmanuel, married Mary Monica Ali, the parents of Ryan Emmanuel Torrisheba, one of the narrators. Ryan’s Manilamen ancestors are from both sides of his parents, the Albaniel and Torrisheba family line.

After Gregorio’s death in 1910, his widow, Lele, married Francis Castro, also a Manillaman who was a catechist and boat builder from Panay Island, Antique Province.