Lakan Genealogy: Brunei to Batangas?

Kissing Cousins? The Laurel family's claim to be descended from the
Brunei royal family cannot be substantiated.

When the late Salvador "Doy" Laurel ran for president in the 1992 election I was fascinated to read in a Newsweek article that the Laurels of Batangas claim descent from a certain prince who was supposedly the eldest son of the Sultan of Brunei. I was unable to get a personal copy of that article and for many years since I started doing other people's genealogies in 2000 I have been trying to get my hand on that article, if only to refresh my memory about the Laurel family tree.

I was finally able to reread that article online some years ago and this is the gist of the Laurel genealogy:

The first "Laurel" in the Philippines was said to have come from Brunei in the 15th century. This man was named Gat Masungit and he was the eldest son of the Sultan of Brunei who refused the crown as he felt that court life was not to his taste. Due to his love of adventure and travel he escaped his father's plans for his future and sailed to the unknown seas, eventually ending up in Panay. Later, he and his followers went to Luzon where they eventually ended up founding the settlement that now encompasses the province of Batangas. Later it is said that he had a son named Gat Leynes. It was Gat Leynes's eldest son who first became a Christian, and was later baptized as Miguel de la Cruz. He led his own people against the Spaniards and championed their cause. In his old age he wished for a peaceful life and was advised by a friar to change his name, perhaps a gesture of sorts that he wanted to change. He finally agreed to take on the last name Laurel, which the friar said was to make him live his remaining years in peace and honor.

When I first read this family tree I was awestruck and could not find the words to describe how amazing the Laurel family tree seemed to me then. Later, by sheer coincidence, I got hold of the Brunei family tree and I found the first chink in the Laurel family history - there just isn't any factual reference to this so-called eldest son of the sultan.

Most write-ups available online on the Laurel genealogy claim that Gat Masungit, the alleged eldest son of the Sultan of Brunei, came to the Philippines in the 15th century, way before the arrival of the Spaniards. Which would only mean that Gat Masungit should be referenced in the Brunei Royal Genealogy in the years 1400 - 1500. The following are the Sultans of Brunei within the mentioned timeframe and the corresponding notation from the Brunei royal genealogy:

1. Paduka Sri Sultan Muhammad Shah, the first sultan. He had one son, Pangiran Muda Hassan, who died before him.

2. Paduka Sri Sultan 'Abdu'l Majid ibni Hassan ibni al-Marhum Sultan Muhammad Shah, grandson of #1 and son of Pangiram Muda Hassan. He died in 1406 and had one child, a daughter.

3. Paduka Sri Sultan Ahmad, brother of #1. He died in 1425 and had two daughters.

4. Paduka Sri Sultan Sharif 'Ali Berkat, married Putri Ratna Kusuma, the eldest daughter of #3. His eldest son succeeded him.

5. Paduka Sri Sultan Sulaiman ibni al-Marhum Sultan Sharif 'Ali Berkat, eldest son of #4. 

6. Paduka Sri Sultan Bolkiah Shah Alam ibni al-Marhum Sultan Sulaiman, eldest son of #5.

The genealogy of the rulers of Brunei, similar to those of other ruling families, is carefully kept and updated and as the list of rulers of Brunei above shows us there was an obvious direct succession from father to eldest son. Nowhere is there a mention of a son, eldest or otherwise, who fled from Brunei to seek his own fortune. The list does mention, several times, marriage between the ruling family of Brunei and Sulu's royal family. There were also mentions of the Lakans of Luzon. Both of these topics (Sulu Sultanate and Manila's Lakans) will be dealt with in future articles.

Clearly, the story of Gat Masungit does not fit in any of Brunei's carefully kept genealogies. For further research into the Brunei royal genealogies see Amin Sweeney's "Silsilah Raja-Raja Brunei" and Hugh Low's "Selesilah of the Rajahs of Brunei". A detailed genealogy can be found in the Royal Ark, maintained by Christopher Buyers.

The second problem in the Laurel genealogy is the mention of Mguel de la Cruz becoming Miguel Laurel. If he were the grandson of Gat Masungit as the legend claims then he could not have been able to switch names and then pass on this last name to his descendants. As the grandson of Gat Masungit he was probably born in the middle of the 16th century, centuries before the Claveria decree. Furthermore, the family tree of the Laurels in a website maintained by the Laurel Memorial Foundation shows that Miguel Laurel, who married Tomasa Pimentel, was the grandfather of Sotero "Teroy" Laurel, whose marriage to Jacoba Garcia produced Jose P. Laurel, the President of the Philippines during the Japanese Occupation. Clearly, this Miguel Laurel could not have been the grandson of Gat Masungit, the alleged eldest son of a Brunei sultan.

However, despite the chinks in their ancestry, what we do know of the Laurels that can be verified through records is still amazing. Before he became the President of the Philippines in 1943 Jose P. Laurel's father, Sotero Laurel, was one of the signatories of the Malolos Constitution. Among his children, Jose Laurel, Jr. became a member of the Philippine National Assembly and a Speaker of the House of Representatives; Jose Laurel III was an Ambassador to Japan; Sotero Laurel was a Senator; Salvador Laurel, before becoming Cory Aquino's vice-president, served as a senator from 1967 to 1972. Many of his grand and great-grandchildren are well known in the arts, theatre, fashion, and television.

Genealogy 101: The Value of Civil Vital Records

In a previous post I discussed extensively on the value of canonical, or church, records, especially those left by the Spanish friars. Without a doubt more than 90% of my genealogical research has been through church records. I have been able to extend most of my family lines from 8 to 14 generations because of the help of baptismal, marriage, and death records from the churches where my ancestors were baptized, married, or buried.

I always knew there was something to be discovered from government civil registrations - births, marriages, and death records still but done in the municipal or city registrar's office - but I have never been excited enough to look at these records. Only recently have I been able to see their value: for information about more recent ancestors, like a grand or great-grandparent, these civil records may not have enough data like those of the Spanish-era church records but they still fill in some gaps. And that is what's important; tracing family trees is like a detective job. You have to look at every possible record to get a clearer and more complete picture of your family.

As an example of the value of civil records let me use one maternal and one paternal great-grandparent to illustrate my point.

My great-grandmother Anacleta Birondo Lucero

Since my grandfather was still alive for many years when I started doing my research I was lucky enough to get a lot of details about his mother - my great-grandmother - Anacleta Birondo de Lucero. Nanay Tita, as she was known to the family, died at the prodigious age of 93. My family has always told me she died due to old age, and since I had all the details about her life and death I never really bothered looking at her death record. Recently I finally had the chance to check her death record, and I was surprised at the cause of death listed in her death certificate (see below). Though it is obvious she died from cerebral apoplexy (or stroke) and this can be due to her old age, what I find really interesting is the mention of the 30-minute interval from the onset of her stroke to her death. When I write her biography I can at least write with confidence that she suffered very little when she died. This tiny piece of record has given me the final data I need to write my Nanay Tita's biography.

A portion of my great-grandma's death certificate showing cause of death.

My great-grandfather Alejandro Mercado Cinco

Again, I was lucky enough that my dad's mom, Beatriz Cinco Sales, was still around (and still is) when I started to do my paternal genealogy. Although I had very little luck getting more than 5 generations on my paternal grandmother's tree I got a few more data from church records. The snag I hit was when I started tracing her dad's side of the family. My great-grandfather, Alejandro Cinco, was born in Tanauan, Leyte but the church records there were all destroyed by both time and war. So for many years I only had his name and a little information I got from my grandmother. Later my grandmother's older brother sent me a letter giving me a few more details about the Cinco family. I finally got a name for his parents - Luciano Cinco and Gregoria Mercado! At that time that was enough for me. But when I started to learn the value of getting actual documentation as proof of my research I looked far and wide for any mention of his parents. Finally, by a stroke of luck I got hold of his death record (see below). We always knew his birthday was in February but no one could remember when in February, exactly. So when I got his death certificate I finally added a little more detail into my great-grandfather's record. His certificate shows, finally, the name of his mother and father and his date of birth. Validation, at last!

A portion of my great-grandfather's death certificate.

I guess what I am trying to say is this: all records matter. Though some records are obviously more detailed than others there are still some things that even a detailed record may not reveal, only to find this information in another, seemingly useless record. For a clearer, more complete research one should look at all types of records.

Cebuano Families: The Herreras

Uy Herrera descendants: Bohol Vice-Governor Julius Ceasar F. Herrera
and former Senator Ernesto "Boy" F. Herrera.

Since it is Labor Day in the Philippines I could not think of anything better to write than the ancestry of former Senator Ernesto F. Herrera, a champion of labor law.

The surname Herrera is a feminine version of the Spanish male noun herrero, which means “blacksmith”.

The Herrera family of Bohol and Cebu are relatively new comers to the Philippines, having arrived in the islands in the late nineteenth century.  However, after only less than two centuries’ stay in the Philippines, they have already established themselves to be a respectable and hard-working family.  The family is Chinese-Filipino in origin, and the first Herrera in Cebu was a pure Chineseman.  Records show that the Herreras arrived from the town of Leonque in the Fujian Province of China in the 1870’s.  

The leader of this family was the famed Uy Mayan, or Uy Maguan, who is now known as the first Chinese consul in Cebu City.  After being baptized into the Catholic faith, he took the additional surname HERRERA in honor of his baptismal sponsor, who was an alcalde-mayor of Surigao.  Thus, after becoming Christianized he became Lucio Uy Herrera.  His brother, Julian, and cousin, Uy Tua, also took the surname Uy Herrera, which was later simplified into Herrera during the American period. Despite this he was invariably listed in records as Lucio Uy, Lucio Herrera, Lucio Herrera Uy Mayan, and Lucio Herrera Uy Singchiong.

Don Lucio Uy Herrera distinguished himself as one of the prominent Chinese in Cebu City.  He was one of the three (the other two being Don Julian Paulin and Don Nicasio Chiong-Veloso) Chinese Dons who parlayed their local commercial success into social and political prestige within Filipino society.  He and his family were big property owners and had haciendas in Cebu City and in the town of Medellin, Cebu. In the 1891 Guia official of importers and exporters he was listed as having 45 employees, quite a large number at that time. After Jose Rizal was executed the Katipuneros in Cebu City intensified their preparations for the planned revolution. The revolutionaries' headquarters was at the house of Don Lucio Uy Herrera himself. 

One of Don Lucio Uy Herrera's great-grandsons, Constantino H. Navarro, served as a mayor of Surigao City. Meanwhile, Don Lucio Uy Herrera’s cousin, Uy Tua, has produced many prominent and upstanding descendants, including his grandsons, Ernesto “Boy” Herrera and Julius Caesar Herrera, respectively a former Philippine Senator and present Bohol Vice-Governor, and a great-grandson, Ernesto Herrera II, the current Mayor Calape, Bohol.

A Partial Uy Herrera Family Tree

? Uy. 

Spouse:  [--?--]

├─? Uy 

│┐Spouse:  [--?--]

│┐├─Lucio Uy Herrera 

│┐│┐Spouse:  Carlota Jabonero

│┐│┐└─Jose Uy Herrera 

│┐│┐┐┐Wife:  Patrocinio Reynes Borromeo

│┐│┐┐┐├─Caridad Borromeo Herrera 

│┐│┐┐┐├─Rodolfo Borromeo Herrera 

│┐│┐┐┐├─Lisinio Borromeo Herrera 

│┐│┐┐┐├─Eterio Borromeo Herrera 

│┐│┐┐┐├─Jesus Borromeo Herrera 

│┐│┐┐┐├─Milagros Borromeo Herrera 

│┐│┐┐┐└─Helene Borromeo Herrera 

│┐│┐┐┐┐┐Husband:  Constantino C. Navarro, Sr.

│┐│┐┐┐┐┐└─Constantino Navarro 

│┐│┐┐┐┐┐┐┐Wife:  Guia Antionette Legaspi

│┐└─Julian Uy Herrera 

└─?? Uy 

┐┐Spouse:  [--?--]

┐┐└─Uy Tua Herrera 

┐┐┐┐Wife:  [--?--]

┐┐┐┐└─Sofio Herrera 

┐┐┐┐┐┐Spouse:  Narcisa Falar

┐┐┐┐┐┐├─Ernesto Herrera 

┐┐┐┐┐┐│┐Wife:  Nena Cuico

┐┐┐┐┐┐│┐└─Ernesto Herrera, Jr. 

┐┐┐┐┐┐├─Julius Ceasar Herrera 

┐┐┐┐┐┐│┐Wife:  Florenda Leyson

┐┐┐┐┐┐└─Emma Herrera 

┐┐┐┐┐┐┐┐Husband:  Alvin Baldado

_______________________________
Sources:
1. Uy Herrera blog (http://bright4us.blog.com/?p=9)
2. Gavin Sanson Bagares notes on the Uy Herreras
3. Borromeo family tree
4. Edgar Wickberg. The Chinese in Philippine Life, 1850-1898.
5. Rafael A. Bautista. The Bloody Palm Sunday of April 3, 1898. (accessed via the UMICH collection).
6. Cubillo-Gaudioso family tree