The eight Martinez Serrano siblings in 1892 immediately after the death of their mother. Maria the ninth was an infant so she was not included in the photo. Ignacio is seated in the lower left-hand corner. (photo: Maria Antonieta)

Ignacio was born on March 12, 1886.  This means he was born after his sister Julia (1884) and before his brother Miguel (1888).  This puts his birth during the period of Dr. Martinez’ first exile.  This date of birth comes from his WWII Draft Registration card and his Social Security Death Record shows the same year of birth.  We believe that this is the date that should be accepted because:

1. He must have known his true age.
2. If he was caught falsifying his age on a draft registration the punishment could have been severe: imprisonment.
3. He was 56 years of age in 1942.  At his age, reporting a different age would not have significantly affected his susceptibility to being drafted.
4. In the family photo taken in 1892 he looks like a 6-year-old and he looks older than his brother Miguel and younger than his sister Julia.

NOTE: Links to supporting documents are at the bottom of this page.

The assistance of Maria Antonieta Marcillo in answering questions relating to Ignacio and the family is gratefully acknowledged.

At the University of Pennsylvania

In a 1983 letter from the Archives of the University of Pennsylvania, the Archivist stated that Ignacio had “…entered the Dental School in 1909, repeated his first year in 1910-1911, took his second year in 1911-1912, and his final year in 1912-1913 but [he] did not successfully complete his course and did not receive a degree.”. This letter was in response to an information request from Maria Antonieta Marcillo 

There is an Ellis Island record showing that Dr. Martinez had traveled to the US, arriving precisely at the critical point in time at which his son Ignacio had been unable to graduate (June 1913) and he told the immigration official that he was going to see “Professor J. William White” in Philadelphia. There is a web page about this professor on the University of Pennsylvania Archives Website.   He had been born in the same year as Dr. Martinez (1850) and received his MD and PhD degree in the same year (1871) that Dr. Martinez had received his MD Degree at the University of Pennsylvania.  He had distinguished himself with with a long career at the university and a year earlier (1912), this former classmate had been named a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania.  It is obvious that Dr. Martinez certainly needed to see what could be done to help his son Ignacio so it’s a foregone conclusion that he would have wanted to talk to this highly influential former classmate  about it but there are no family records or traditions about what actually transpired on this trip.

He was also asked about when he had previously entered the US and he told the immigration official that he had made a previous trip to the US in 1910, – that’s when Ignacio was having to repeat his first year of Dental School.  So it’s obvious that he had made two trips to the US to check up on his son Ignacio who was having difficulty.  Since both trips were before completion of the Panama Canal it means he would have taken a steamer to the Pacific side of the Isthmus of Panama, then crossed the isthmus by train and boarded another steamer on the Carribean side for the journey up to New York.  Note also that in 1913 he is known to have been in exile in Chile so the journey would have originated from Chile, not from Ecuador.  Dr. Martinez’ youngest child was also born in this eventful year.  Dr. Martinez’ son Ramon must have known about this trip (or trips) to Philadelphia because a genealogical document produced by his daughter-in-law Margaret Yarnall in 1992 – with considerable input from Ramon – makes this statement about Ignacio: “Father visited him in Philadelphia”.

Isthmus of Panama showing the path of the Railroad (black/white line) and the new canal (red) completed in 1914. (image: CC_BY_SA))

In all this time we know that Ignacio had been shouldering the burden of an intense dental studies program at a world class university and having to hear, late in 1911, of the sudden collapse of the Alfaro government in Ecuador …the government in which his father had played such a leading role.  Then, just a few months later he would have heard the news of a civil war in Ecuador where three power centers were claiming to be the rightful government authorities …followed by the barbaric events of the “tragic month” of January 1912 when the body of Eloy Alfaro was dragged through the streets by an angry mob amid shouts of “long live religion”, “down with freemasons”, “down with foreigners”.   This was the body of a man with whom his father had been collaborating for decades ever since they had first met while both of them were in exile in the late 1880’s in Peru; a close friend of the family.  And then he would have heard the news of his father slipping out of the country with his life in extreme danger embarking in the guise of a fireman on a clandestine journey into a three year exile, leaving behind his young wife with their five children, one of whom would die at the tender age of eight years just a few days after her father’s exit.  All of this while trying to maintain the requisite level of focus and concentration expected during a rigorous Dental Studies program at a leading university.  In 1913 he would have been about 27 years of age.

Miguel’s Marriage

Just two months after Dr. Martinez’ arrival in Philadelphia another important event was taking place.  Miguel Serrano, who was a sibling of Dr. Martinez’ first wife Rafaela Serrano, had been living in Washington DC where he was employed at the US Government Printing office.  We don’t know if Dr. Martinez met with or visited this former brother-in-law.  in August of 1913 he married a 37-yr-old widow named Estelle Dove Kennedy (born 1876). Her maiden name had been Estelle Dove Foreman. She had been born in Baltimore, Maryland to a large family of at least seven children. She had married Thomas Robert Kennedy in June 1897. Bride and groom were both 21yrs of age. Shortly thereafter she gave birth to two daughters Adaline (1899) and Evelyn (1901). Her husband died a few years after the birth of the second daughter.  By the time of the 1910 Census she shows up as a widow living alone without the adolescent daughters (perhaps they were with a relative …we don’t know). She would have been about 34yrs of age in 1910. And three years later, in 1913, she married Miguel who was three years older.

Ignacio after his time at University of Pennsylvania

This is the house of Miguel and Estelle (leftmost). Ignacio lived here for many years. We don’t know if he continued living here after Estelle’s death in 1950. It’s a 2200sf townhouse built in 1917. (from a Google StreetMaps screen grab in 2021)

So after 1913 we do not hear of Ignacio for four years until he registered for the draft (WW1) in 1917.  That was also the year of his father’s sudden untimely death in Ecuador.  Now both of his parents were gone and unlike all of his siblings he had been gone from his native land for eight years.   Ignacio at that time was living at 617 Webster Street, (DC) just a few blocks away from the house where he would later be living with his Uncle (his mother’s brother).  He said he was employed as a clerk working for “M Goldberg” (some unknown employer).  Just two years later, in 1919, his name shows up in a DC City Directory placing him at the same address as his uncle Miguel: 621 Upshur St. NW and working as a “clerk”.  But then a year later, in the 1920 Census, Ignacio is not listed as residing with his uncle Miguel and his wife Estelle. We don’t see another record for Ignacio until 1935 at which time a DC City Directory lists him as living at the Upshur St. address of his Aunt Estelle and working as a packer (“pkr”) for Woodward and Lathrop, a very large department store located just three miles from his aunt’s home. Meanwhile the 1930 Census also had not listed Ignacio among those residing with his aunt Estelle (her brother and three “lodgers” were living there at that time however) and it showed that Estelle, by that time, was a widow. So Miguel had died sometime in the 1920’s. He would have been 47yrs of age in 1920.

Ignacio’s place of employment: the DC Woodward and Lothrop store circa 1910.

The 1940 Census shows Ignacio to be living at the Upshur Street address with his aunt, “Estelle D. Serrano” and employed as a shipping clerk in a department store.  Estelle’s brother Samuel, who was one year older than she, is also listed as living there at that time along with two “roomers”.

The next record is Ignacio’s 1942 Draft Registration record.  It shows him to be still living and working at the same places as he was for 1940 the census.   Located just about four or five blocks from his downtown DC place of employment were:  The White House, the Washington Monument, Smithsonian National museum, etc.

Ignacio’s last communication to the Family and death of Estelle

Ignacio’s last communication to the family was a letter written to his beloved sister Julia who was just about a year older than he was (the letter was dated March 1949).  He reports that he is in poor health, that he has some kind of itchy rash that makes it difficult for him to sleep which in turn affects his ability to perform on his physically intensive job.  He expresses his deep longing to be with the family whether “here or there” and how much he misses his beloved older sister Julia.  He sends greetings to all his relatives and assures them that he has not forgotten them. At that time it would have been forty years since he last departed his native Ecuador.  We might assume (but we can’t be sure) that he was still living with his aunt in the years since the 1942 draft registration that shows him to be living there; but he doesn’t mention her in the letter.

Nineteen months after this last letter from Ignacio his aunt Estelle died (October 10,1950).  We don’t know where Ignacio was living at that time or in the decades remaining.

Death of Ignacio

Ignacio lived to the age of 89.  He died in Washington DC in February 1975. Nothing is known about his place of residence at the end of his life.  Since his year of death comes from a Social Security Death Record we can assume that he collected at least some social security income during his years of presumed retirement.

Revisiting Ignacio’s birth and childhood in historical context

Ignacio’s birth had come at a critical time for the Martinez family. In 1883, three years before he was born, a new president had come to power – Jose Maria Caamaño. Ecuadorians who favored a theocratic system of government saw Caamaño as their candidate of choice – Caamaño made it very clear that he intended to continue the work of converting Ecuador into a theocracy where freedom of conscience would be non-existent. Dr. Martinez was a leading physician but he felt motivated to do something about the ominous turn of events in his country. So in November of 1885 he started publication of a small newspaper designed to expose the insidious dark forces that were afoot in Ecuador. This newspaper was “El Perico” (The Parakeet) and it soon rose to become the most popular newspaper in Guayaquil. There would be no insults against political figures, just birds and metaphorical characters conversing about matters of consequence. He enlisted the help of a talented poet to assist in this effort – a Frenchman named Pepe Lapierre. Initially the government did not bother him. But there were other people in Ecuador who opposed Caamaño and unlike Dr. Martinez, some of them were violent. One day in early February 1886, a group of them attempted to kidnap the president and before it was over one of his aides and a few policemen were killed. This resulted in a general crackdown against anyone considered to be an opponent of Caamaño. It was in this crackdown that Dr. Martinez was exiled from the country. Meanwhile his wife was very pregnant. Just weeks later in early March 1886, she would give birth to a baby boy – it was Ignacio. Exact dates of departure and travel details are uncertain but we know that ultimately the family including this sixth child would be together in his exile which would last for about two years until the accession of president Antonio Flores Jijón in 1888. Then four years later in 1892, Dr. Martinez’ wife Rafaela would die giving birth to her ninth child Maria leaving the six year old Ignacio without a mother. Four years later his father would marry again and the ten year old Ignacio would find himself in the position of having to accept a stepmother.  We can only guess at what might have been going through his mind eighteen years later when he was far away in Pennsylvania hearing about the collapse of the Alfaro government, the murder of Alfaro himself and his father exiled yet another time with his life in even greater danger. .

The mystery of Miguel’s place of birth

Note that in this account we are assuming that Miguel was a brother of Dr. Martinez’ first wife Rafaela Serrano y Ruiz.  This assumption is based on Margaret Yarnall’s statement in her genealogical document that Miguel was one of two brothers who visited the newly-orphaned children of Dr. Martinez and his second wife Maria Teresa Del Pozo sometime after her death in 1920. Margaret’s document also mentions that he was employed at the US Government Printing office in Washington DC. So when documents list Estelle as Ignacio’s “Aunt” we assume that her husband Miguel (who shows up on documents as being employed at the US Government Printing office in DC) was this same sibling of Rafaela.  But we can’t explain why his place of birth is always listed as “Spain” in the various documents – instead of Ecuador.  No one in the family had knowledge of a sibling of Rafaela having been born in Spain.

We can’t ride across the Isthmus of Panama with Dr. Martinez today but we can take a “virtual” ride on the Panama Canal Railway. Are you ready?   Let’s go! …