ESPANA : SIGLER : TABERNER : TAPPANA : TAPPANNA : Genealogy Query


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Date Posted:

24-Aug-2004

Surname(s):

ESPANA : SIGLER : TABERNER : TAPPANA : TAPPANNA

Query Text:

Searching for information about Carlos de Espana, Consul of Spain to New Orleans, 1846-1850. He was "set up" by Cuban annexationist newspapers for allegedly kidnapping a fugitive Cuban jailor, Juan Francisco Rey (Garcia), in July 1849. Possibly the annexationists were trying to create an international incident to provoke a government-sanctioned U.S. invasion of Cuba to make it a slave state. Due to conflicting court testimony, the grand jury finally threw out the case against the Consul However, Pres. Taylor withdrew his diplomatic privileges (Jan. 4, 1850) and he left New Orleans about Jan. 15, reappearing in Havana, Cuba, a few weeks later. He was still there shortly before the Lopez invasion. What happened to him? What happened to his wife and two sons? On a the passenger list of the ship Street (Capt. James B. McConnell) when the family arrived in New Orleans, Sept. 1846, Consul Carlos de Espana was 40, his wife (name unreadable) was 28, elder son Carlos/Charles was 10/11, and younger son Guillermo/William was 8. (Sons' names were written both ways.) We believe the Consul was Carlos de Espana y Taberner, brother of Enrique de Espana y Taberner, later the governor of Puerto Rico. I am trying to discover whether the Consul's elder son Carlos is my great-grandfather, Charles Edward Tappana (b. 1835 or 1836 in Spain; d. 1906, Seligman, Mo.). C.E. Tappana lived in Missouri at least from about 1856 on. He appears on 1860 Cass Co., Mo. census in father-in-law's household (William W. Day), but with name spelled Tappeny. Shortly before this, he sold land with wife Nancy, but surname on land documents was spelled Tappiano and Tappaino. He had ads in the Liberty Tribune (Clay Co., Mo.) Sept.-Nov. 1856 as a travelling photographer (spelled Tappana and Tappanna), but his place of residence then is not known. He later resided in Newton County and Jasper County, Mo., in addition to Cass Co. He was in the Union Cavalry Mar.-Aug. 1861 but ws discharged due to illness (hepatitis). His wife Nancy died in Feb. 1862 in Spring Hill Kansas of smallpox, and in May 1863 he married young Mary Melissa Sigler in Iowa (Siglers had also lived in Cass Co.; all may have left due to government evacuation for Civil War), and had 10 children. We know nothing about C.E. Tappana before 1856 except that he came in through New Orleans, was brought by parents, changed his name (don't know former name), may have had a brother, parents left the boys with friends or relatives (possibly of the mother) and went back to Spain intending to return, but were never heard from again and were assumed killed. One family story says C.E. Tappana's father was accused of a crime but was not guilty. Parallels have led us to research Carlos de Espana as the possible missing link in that branch of our family tree. Thanks for any info. you can provide to help us complete our genealogy. --Marilyn (Tappana) McCroskey Professor, Southwest Missouri State University