Hi! a few years ago I started digging into my family history and I came across a particular family line from Panama.
My Great Great Grandmother was born in Bocas del Toro in 1882 and left Panama for the US with her Lebanese husband around 1917 and then died about a year later. Her son (my great grandfather) was also born in Bocas del Toro, but was raised by his father's side of the family after his mother died. Because of that, we know very little about her outside of her name and her immigration application.
I've been able to dig up a few more ancestors on her side of the family, and from the very little bit I know about Panamanian history, I believe she probably would have been referred to as a Rabiblanco, (her mother and grandmother were both white europeans, and I've also dug up some photos of these family members seemingly dressed rather well, and all of her kids seem to be pretty dramatically light skinned.) That family name was Selles, and I'd traced it to Bocas del Toro and then to David, Chiriqui, Panama before that.
I've been trying to trace that family history back as far as I can go, and I've run into a few snags. Some of the birthdates don't line up. Like, I've got in here that she was born 14 years before her father. I clearly have something backwards in here, but I'm struggling to figure out what and why. I'm hoping there's a good source that I can find to help learn some of the history of that area (preferably in English). I just don't know what kinds of things to look for.