Was Jose Rizal a Descendant of Lakandula?

Once every few years the question "Was Rizal descended from Lakandula?" pops up. There are just a few scholarly works in recent years that claim this and so far none have been able to prove this claim.

Taken from Austin Craig's book

In more recent references to Rizal's claimed descent from the great Tondo ruler, there is always a consistency that this descent was through his mother, Teodora Alonso. The book Jose Rizal's Immortal Legacy states that "Teodora Alonzo Rizal, was a descendant of the last Malayan king, Lakandula" (Rivera, 1997) while another book, Sa Ningas ng Apoy: Si Rizal ang Dakilang Manunubos ng Kalayaan Henyo, Makabayan, Bayani at Martir (1861-1896), states that . . ."the heroism of Dr. Jose Rizal is inherited from his family and that his strength and courage is from his ancestor Lakandula" (Ramos, 2001). An older reference to this claimed ancestry can be found in The Maranao, which said "Way back in 1571 A.D., the Manila Bay area, the banks of the Pasig, the shores of Batangas were predominantly the site of Muslim communities. A confederation of barangays in Manila area was once ruled by Muslims - Rajah Soliman and Rajah Lakandula from whome Dr. Jose Rizal, the Great Malayan Filipino, is said to have been descended" (Saber and Madale, 1975).

Obviously, these references to Lakandula simply make a passing reference to the alleged connection between Rizal and the great king. It is interesting to note that Jose Rizal, while interested in genealogy at an early age, never mentioned his supposed descent from Lakandula. He was, however, interested in the ancient Tagalog nobles, as attested through his unfinished novel or story, The Ancient Tagalog Nobility and Sinagtala and Maria Maligaya. The latter story tells the story of twins Sinagtala and Maligaya whose mother, Isabel, was the granddaughter of Lakandula (Ocampo, 2008). 

The earliest reference by a renowned scholar with regard to Rizal being a Lakandula descendant was made by American author Austin Craig. In his book Lineage, Life, and Labors of Jose Rizal, Filipino Patriot, he wrote that all branches of Teodora Alonso's family tree were richer than that of her husband's and several names of these related families belong among the descendants of Lakandola, as traced by Mr. Luther Parker in his study of the Pampangan migration...(Craig, 1914).  He later elaborates on this connection in a 1928 article in the Philippine Education Magazine where he wrote that the Castro connection of the Alonsos, though no longer verifiable, ran back to the old Bisayan rajahs of Manila, the family of Rajah Matanda, Soliman, and Lakandula (Craig, 1928). Unfortunately for Austin Craig, he also does not have any irrefutable proof of how Rizal descended from Lakandula. 

Austin Craig's 1928 article on Rizal's lineage

In recent times, it would seem that scholars and historians have accepted that without further proof, one cannot continue this claim. However, there is a need to point out that in the online commercial genealogy and social networking website Geni, the master profile of Jose Rizal can be traced back to Lakandula definitively (see illustration below as taken from Geni):

Fake Descent of Rizal from Lakandula

While Geni is an interesting and a helpful site to many genealogists whether amateurs or experts, the illustration above of Rizal's descent from Lakandula is one of the website's downsides. The relationship as shown above is clearly not just erroneous, but very illogical and impossible.

First error: assuming that the Alonso line of Rizal is related to Lakandula simply because Maria Poloin, Lakandula's only daughter, married a man named Alonso Talabos. Obviously, those who connected Maria Poloin to the Alonso family did so using the flimsiest connection between the last name Alonso (for the family of Rizal's mother) and the first name Alonso for Lakandula's son-in-law. 

The second error in this tree is the alleged son of Maria Poloin, Jose Alonso. Where did this person come from? Austin Craig's painstaking tracing of Jose Rizal's family tree showed that the earliest traceable Alonso was Don Gregorio Alonso who died in 1794. He was Rizal's great-great-grandfather. The family tree of Lakandula as reconstructed by the late Luciano P.R. Santiago clearly does not show a Jose Alonso as one of Maria Poloin's children. In fact, she and her husband Alonso Talabos only had daughters, who were Juana Malay and Monica Bina. So, this Jose Alonso is very clearly an anomaly.

The final and most obvious error in this online connection is the generational anomaly. Simple math and a whole lot of logic would show us that there is no way that Rizal was separated by only 7 generations from Lakandula. As seen in the generation chart below, even when Lakandula had married and had children when we was 40 years of age, the timeline would still not allow for Rizal to be just 7 generations away from Lakandula. So it would mean, and it would also completely invalidate the above family tree, that Lakandula would have to have been in his 60s when he married if we want to force the 7-generation gap between Lakandula and Rizal. So very obviously, the connection of Rizal to Lakandula in Geni is not only wrong, it is misleading to many people who believe in the website. The connection was made using flimsy and illogical connections and is bereft of concrete evidence.

So, once again, we ask the question. Was Rizal a descendant of Lakandula?

It is unfortunate that the complete set of archival documentation on Lakandula's, Matanda's, and Soliman's descendants in the archives have been lost or cannot be retrieved for now. But what we have for the moment does not show the Alonsos in any of the branches of the Lakandula family tree. 

So, the answer to above's question is simple. No one can really tell. And until evidence is found, no, Rizal WAS NOT Lakandula's descendant.

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References:

1. Filomena V. Rivera. Jose Rizal's Immortal Legacy. Manila: National Book Store, 1997.
2. Victor C. Ramos. Sa Ningas ng Apoy: Si Rizal ang Dakilang Manunubos ng Kalayaan Henyo, Makabayan, Bayani at Martir (1861-1896). Manila: Rex Bookstore, Inc., 2001.
3. Mamitua Saber and Abdullah T. Madale. The Maranao. Manila: Solidaridad Pub. House, 1975.
4. Ambeth R. Ocampo. "The Ancient Tagalog Nobility" and "Sinagtala and Maria Maligaya". Makamisa. Manila: Anvil Publishing, 1992.
5. Austin Craig. Lineage, Life, and Labors of Jose Rizal: Filipino Patriot. Manila: Philippine Education Company, 1913.
6. Austin Craig. "Rizal's Lineage Typically Filipino", The Philippine Magazine (formerly Philippine Education Magazine). Manila: Philippine Education Company, Inc., 1928, pp. 11, 67-68.
7. "José Protacio Alonso Realonda Mercado Rizal (1861-1896)" <https://www.geni.com/people/Dr-Jose-Rizal/6000000003219874928>. Geni. (August 1, 2008). Retrieved July 12, 2019.
8. "Bunao Dula (1503 - 1575)" <https://www.geni.com/people/Lakan-Dula/6000000010556125071>. Geni. (December 29, 2009). Retrieved July 12, 2019.

Remembering the Unhappy Josephine Bracken

Rizal's Wandering Swallow, Josephine Bracken

One of the most misunderstood women in Philippine history is Josephine Bracken, otherwise known as Mrs. Jose Rizal. The National Hero himself referred to her as his dulce extranjera and Errante Golondrina (the wandering swallow). Her role in Rizal’s life was not always the romantic ideal that we would have wanted for our greatest hero. Some writers and historians have tried to paint her in the most unflattering of ways. Several have alleged that she was an illegitimate daughter of an Irishman in Hong Kong and a Chinese woman and that her relationship with her step-father, George Taufer, was more than father and daughter. It does not help that even among the educated and respected writers politicians, such as Austin Coates who claimed in his 1968 biography of Rizal that Josephine was illegitimate and of mixed race, and the late Sen. Raul Roco who implied in a keynote lecture at a National Conference in Cebu City that Josephine was a bar girl whose relationship with her foster father was probably far from innocent!

Naturally, much if not all of these allegations is untrue. In the book The Philippines and Round About, With Some Account of British Interests in These Waters by Sir George John Younghusband of the British-Indian army, she was described as "the daughter of a sergeant in the British service, an Irishman who, when his term of service had expired, had settled down at Hong Kong. Miss Bracken was born at the Victoria Barracks, Hong Kong, and her mother dying soon afterwards, she was adopted by a kind couple named Tauffner, who took her to Manila with them and reared and educated her."

In Austin Craig's Lineage, Life and Labors of Jose Rizal: Philippine Patriot, Josephine is introduced to the readers through her step-father, George Taufer: "he and his wife, a Portuguese, had adopted and brought up as their own the infant daughter of a poor Irish woman who had died in Hong Kong, leaving a considerable family to her husband, a corporal in the British Army on service there."

These books are two of the earliest references we have of Josephine Bracken, and though no names of her parents are mentioned here these validate Josephine Bracken’s own short autobiography where she stated:

Rizal's carving of Bracken

“My mother is a native of Ireland and was married to my father on the 3rd of May 1868 in Belfast, Ireland.  My father’s name is James Bracken and my mother’s maiden name was Elizabeth Jane MacBride.  We were five brothers and sisters, Charles, Agness, Nelly, Francis and myself Josephine.  Charles was born on the 10th of April 1869.  Agness was born in Malta on the 14th May 1873. Francis was born on the 2nd of June 1875 and died on the 1st April 1875.  Nelly was born at Gibraltar on the 21st July 1871 and I was born in Hong Kong at the Victoria Barracks on the 9th of August 1876.  My father is a corporal and detachment schoolmaster of a detachment at Pembroke Camp.  My mother died on the 2ndof September 1876 after giving birth to me.  After the loss of my beloved mother I was then removed to the care of a (illegible) laborer until her burial.  As my father is a military he could not attend to all of us especially for me being so very small he gave me to a family to be adopted.  The kind and benevolent couple Mr. and Mrs. Taufer took very good care of me until I was seven years old.  Unfortunately at that age was when my adopted mother died.”

Of course, some historians have also cautioned us that this supposed autobiography of Josephine is nothing but a forgery, though the source was most likely Josephine or even her father.

At any rate, the whole point of this article is not the Irish roots of Josephine Bracken, which has already been superbly discussed in another blog under the title The Story of Josephine Bracken andthe Proof of her full Irish Origins.

Josephine remarried to Vicente Abad after becoming a widow. Though many Abads of Cebu claim Vicente as an Abad of Barili, Cebu, existing records show otherwise. This particular Abad family was of creole origin, unlike that of the Barili Abads who were, by the time of Josephine’s and Vicente’s marriage, already classified under the indio racial category. Because the surname is pretty common in the Spanish peninsula and there is also no conclusive documentation proving that the Abad last name of Barili is not from the Claveria decree, at this point Vicente Abad has to be considered as not related to the Abads of Barili, Cebu.

Vicente Abad was the third son and fourth child of Vicente Abad and Maximina Recio. Because records consistently describe the children of Vicente Sr. and Maximina as creoles or mestizos and Vicente Sr. as a Spaniard, then it is logical to assume that Maximina was an india or a mestiza herself.

Vicente Abad, Sr. was hired by the Spanish colonial government to oversee the tobacco industry of the colony, being considered as one of the foremost experts in the tobacco industry. In 1885 he was named chief technical adviser for the Compania General de Tabacos de Filipinas, a position he held until the Philippine Revolution when he decided to return to his country of origin, eventually dying in Zaragoza, Spain, in 1900.

Vicente’s eldest child, Clodoaldo Abad y Recio, was born in Cebu on September 7, 1865. He graduated with a medical degree from the University if Santo Tomas in 1890. He distinguished himself in the medical field and served in various government posts during and after the Spanish regime in the Philippines. Clodoaldo was followed by the only girl in the family, Victoria, who was born in 1868. Then she was followed by Jose Mario Abad y Recio, who was born in Loon, Bohol, on January 19, 1871. He obtained a BA in Pharmacy in 1892 from the University of Santo Tomas and, like his older brother, also distinguished himself in his chosen field.

The youngest in the family was Vicente Abad, Jr. who was born in Cebu in 1876 and obtained his degree in Pharmacy in 1896. He was an agent of the Tabacalera Company, just like his father, in Hong Kong, and it was there where he met Josephine Bracken later married her on September 15, 1898.

Their marriage produced one child, Maria Dolores Bracken Abad, born on April 17, 1900. But even this birth was shrouded in controversy. Early articles written about Bracken's only surviving child were also full of questions, with some alleging that due to her very Filipina visage she was probably not Abad's child but probably Rizal's. However, considering Rizal died in 1896 and Dolores was not born until 1900, these speculations were simply nothing but speculations and laziness on the part of the researchers to actually check primary records. Even the simple checking of the dates would have saved these so-called historians from speculating nonsense.

Whatever the case, Dolores B. Abad married an Ilokano, Salvador Mina, son of Juan Mina and Isabel Lamadrid, on April 4, 1926, in Manila. Her marriage record clearly indicated Josephine Bracken and Vicente Abad as her parents. From this marriage, 2 sons and 2 daughters were born. One of Dolores’s grandsons, Macario Ofilada Mina, wrote Errante Golondrina, an honest and well-researched biography of Josephine Bracken.

An incomplete family tree of Josephine Bracken (click to enlarge)

In one review of Errante Golondrina, the reviewer wrote: “The Rizal family, and others, roughly elbowed Jose's 'poor Josephine' aside in an indecent haste to grab whatever was left of his estate. And therein lay, in some ways, an even greater tragedy. In Rizal, among the noblest men of his, or any other race, Josephine had seen the face of what the Filipino could be. In the actions of Rizal's family and others she saw the Filipino unmasked, as they actually were, not Rizal's Filipino. (Filipinos) are not what I thought them to be, I took them to be like my husband, but I see that I am deceived,” wrote an embittered Josephine from Hong Kong. Rizal's name and his books have been quoted repeatedly since his death, his story is known to every schoolchild, yet the country of Rizal's imagination is as unborn as the child he and Josephine almost had. In their story is the sad story of the Philippines.”

Indeed, what a sad life Josephine Bracken lived. Today, as the country celebrates Rizal’s martyrdom, let us also remember the life of the woman who remained by his side until his death. Josephine Bracken’s life was sad from the very beginning. In Rizal’s company she finally found some happiness, only to be cut short by Rizal’s death. Her story and Rizal's indeed is a sad story of the Philippines.

Click here to view Josephine's family tree.

Sources:

1. George John Younghusband. The Philippines and Roundabout, with some Account of British Interests in these Waters, London: Macmillan, 1899.
2. Augusto de Viana. A Glimpse into the Life of Josephine Bracken, April 10, 2013.
3. 1911 Ireland Census, National Archives of Ireland, accessed December 28, 2014
4. Austin Craig. Lineage, Life and Labors of Jose Rizal: Philippine Patriot, Austin Craig
5. Erlinda K. Alburo. "La Dulce Estranjera", SUMAD: Essays for the Centennial of the Revolution, Cebu, 1999.
6. The story of Josephine Bracken and the Proof of her Full Irish Origins.
7. Gene Cabrera. Josephine Bracken: Her Struggles and Her Last Days, July 2, 2011
8. The Life and Times of Josephine Bracken, November 12, 2003
9. Various records accessed from FamilySearch (marriage record of James Bracken and Elizabeth Jane McBride, marriage record of Maria Dolores Abad and Salvador Mina, baptismal record of Charles Breakin (Bracken), death record of Victoria Abad y Recio).
10. Manuel Artigas y Cuerva. Galeria de Filipinos Ilustres: Biografias a Contar Desde las Primeros Tiempos de la Dominacion Hispana, de los Hijos del Pais que en sus Respectivas Profesiones Descollaron ơ Hayan Alcanzado alguń Puesto de Distinción en Sociedad, Manila: Imp. Casa Editora "Renacimiento", 1917-1918.
11. Macario Ofilada. Errante Golondrina: The Life and Times of Josephine Bracken. Manila: New Day Publishers, 2003.

Incest, Endogamy, and Issues of Consanguineous Marriages

A group of students in Manila doing a research on incest in the Philippines recently communicated with me asking me to contribute any information I had on cases of cousin marriages that I have encountered in my genealogical work. I was particularly interested to assist them because it dawned on me when I got the email that in the years I have been writing about genealogy I have not really written extensively on cases of incest, though in my opinion I prefer the term consanguineous relations or marriage or even endogamy because these are more sanitized and less loaded terms. Thus, this article will serve two purposes: one, it is to explore and consolidate cases of cousin marriages in Philippine society and, two, it is to serve as my contribution to the study of these students who requested for my help.

The practice of marriage between relatives is something old and common in all cultures of the world. The taboo then and now is not necessarily attached to the idea of marrying a relative, per se. Rather, the clear disdain that people attach to consanguineous relationships or marriages is when two very close relatives have a sexual relationship that produce an offspring. This refers to relations such as father to daughter, son to mother, brother and sister, uncle to niece, aunt to nephew, or grandparent to a grandchild. These relationships have always been frowned upon by MOST cultures. The term incest itself is a clear description of how the people of the past felt about these relationships. It is derived from the Latin incestum which connotes impurity, unchastity, defilement, and pollution.  Other nations have similar if not harsher connotations for the term. Among the Chinese they used the term luan lun, which meant disorder and social relationship. The Indonesians use the term sumbang which means improper and repugnant. This gives us a clear idea of what most cultures thought of the idea of incest.

However, not all cultures viewed incest in a negative way. In Ancient Greece even their Gods and Goddesses practiced incest; Zeus certainly married his own sister Hera and had children with his other sisters. Other similar relationships were practiced by the other deities in the Greek pantheon, which gives us an idea of how the ancient Greeks viewed the practice. In the Judeo-Christian-Islamic traditions incest was obviously the only viable explanation for the first men and women on earth after God created the world. According to the Book of Jubilees, written by a Pharisee in 109 B.C., the first cases of incest happened in the family of Adam and Eve.

Other than the sons Cain, Abel, and Seth, Adam and Eve also had daughters Awan and Azura plus nine other sons. Further, Cain married his sister Awan and Seth married his sister Azura. Seth’s and Azura’s son and daughter, Enos and Noam, also married each other while their own son and daughter, Kenan and Mualeleth, also married one another. It was only in the next generation with Kenan’s son Mahalalel that the incest became slightly less closer. He married Dinah, a daughter of Kenan’s brother Barakiel, thus making them first cousins. This practice was repeated in each generation until reaching Noah who married his own first cousin once removed Emzara, whose mother Rake’el was the daughter of a brother of Noah’s father. Even the famous Abraham and his wife Sara were half-siblings, coming from the same father but from different mothers.

 

Whether these were actual marriages or not it cannot be denied that most ancient cultures practiced endogamy, or marriage within the tribe or clan. For one thing, this was expected as there were very few people in the world at that time and thus their choice for a mate was extremely limited. Second, many ancient cultures also associated religious beliefs in their marital practices.  As described in Anne Rice’s book Queen of the Damned, “amongst many ancient peoples the royal blood went only through the female line. Since no male can ever be certain of the paternity of his wife's child, it was the Queen or the Princess who brought with her the divine right to the throne. This is why Egyptian pharaohs of a later age often married their sisters. It was to secure their royal right.” This was particularly true with the last dynasty of Egypt, the Ptolemies, where at least 15 cases of inbreeding were documented.

Ptolemy, one of Alexander the Great’s generals, declared himself Pharaoh of Egypt. The first documented incest in the dynasty was between Ptolemy’s daughter, Arsinoe II, who first married her half-brother Ptolemy Keraunos. Later, she married her full brother, Ptolemy II Philadelphos. The last ruler in the dynasty was the famed Cleopatra VII, who married her brothers Ptolemy XIII and Ptolemy XIV. After her death the dynasty came to an end. Of course, the case of the Ptolemies was not necessarily duplicated in other ancient cultures. In most other cultures the closest consanguineous marriages were between first cousins.

Consanguineous marriages are not limited to other countries. As seen in our history many personalities also practiced inbreeding of varying degrees. The families of Lakandula, Matanda,and Soliman practiced consanguineous marriages which were encouraged by their exclusivity as a select group of native principales. Of course, these three rulers also practiced family marriages. For instance, Rajah Muhammad Matanda and his wife were first cousins, both being the grandchildren of Sultan Bolkiah Shah of Brunei.

Then there was the case of Jose Rizal and his great love Leonor Rivera. The two have always been described as cousins though nothing documented exactly how there were related. Although some books have written that the relationship was through the Mercado and Rizal lines others have postulated that in fact the relationship was through Leonor’s mother’s side of the family. Of course, Rizal and Rivera were never married. However, a first cousin marriage did occur in the Rizal family with the marriage of Emiliana Rizal and Antonio Rizal Lopez, who were first cousins. Emiliana was the illegitimate daughter of Paciano Rizal with Severina Decena while Antonio was the son of Paciano’s sister Narcisa and Antonino Lopez.

Among our presidents several consanguineous marriages have also been documented. President Manuel L. Quezonmarried his first cousin Aurora Antonia Aragon; their mothers, María Dolores Molina and Zeneida Molina, were the daughters of Jose de Esparragosa Urbina and Brigida Molina. 

Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, Jr.’s parents, Benigno S. Aquino, Sr. and Aurora Aquino Aquino, were related, albeit already third cousins. Benigno Sr.'s great-grandfather, Hilario Aquino, was the brother of Aurora's great-grandfather. 

DILG Secretary Mar Roxas's maternal grandparents, Jose Amado Araneta and Ester Araneta, were fourth cousins, sharing a common descent from Don Vicente Araneta y Sta. Ana.

Perhaps the most recent case of consanguineous marriage between personalities was between former Presidential son Juan Miguel “Mikey” Macapagal Arroyo and Angela Arroyo Montenegro. Mikey’s father, former First Gentleman Jose Miguel “Mike” Tuason Arroyo and Angela’s mother, Charito Rosario Arroyo, are first cousins and grandchildren of former Senator Jose Maria Pidal Arroyo. Second cousins marrying each other seems to be a tradition among the Montenegros as Angela’s father Herman Montenegro’s father and mother were also second cousins.

In the modern world, laws have been enacted and cultural taboos attached to the practice of marrying or having relations with very close relatives. One necessary basic knowledge for genealogists to have is on the terms used in describing relationships between and among members in a family.

The first relationship terms are pretty straightforward: starting from ourselves, we call those above us our ancestors; beginning with mother and father (parents), grandparents, great-grandparents, etc. Going down we call these people are descendants; beginning with our sons and daughters (children), grandchildren, great-grandchild, etc. Going sideways we call these people our siblings (brother or sister).

Of course we have the siblings of parents, who we call aunts and uncles and if going further up we just add the word “great” before aunt and uncle, and another one for every generation going up. The sons and daughters of these uncles and aunts are called cousins.

In order to distinguish between allowable and prohibited marriages most nations have established the basic laws of consanguinity where varying degrees of relationship define who one can marry. The concept of degrees of relationship – identifying how many degrees you are related to another person – can best be visualized by counting your familial connection to somebody.

For example: to know how many degrees related you are to your parents, you just need to count from yourself then go up one step, thus reaching your parents, making them your first degree relatives. To know your relation to your first cousin, for example, you have to go up to your parents first (1^st degree), then up to your grandparents (2^nd degree), then down to your aunt or uncle (3^rd degree), until reaching your first cousins, who are your 4^th degree relatives. See the chart below for better understanding:

So this means that while you call your first cousin your FIRST cousin, he or she is actually your FOURTH degree relative, your 2^nd cousin your 6^th degree relative, 3^rd cousin your 8^th, and so on. Marriages in most countries are thus defined by how many degrees related you are with your prospective mate. 

According to a 2012 article inEthical Technology published in the website of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies worldwide attitudes on cousin marriages differ considerably. Ethiopia's Orthodox Christians have the most prohibitive laws on consanguineous marriages: it bans marriage between relatives up to 6th cousins. They believe that if you share a common ancestor in the paternal line within 6 generations then you are still brothers and sisters, thus prohibited from getting married.

South Korea prohibits cousins marrying up to 3rd cousins; Taiwan, China, and the Philippines up to first cousins. In the United States there are 31 of the 50 states that ban first cousin marriage. Elsewhere, like in Europe and South America, consanguinity generally isn’t banned though the incidence is relatively low. The article also continues to show the places where cousin marriages are prevalent: Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia are the most consanguineous regions in the world, largely due to its general acceptance, even preference, in Islam. In India, the Muslim rate of cousin marriage is 22%, with the rate nearly doubling to 40% in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan, noted earlier, is the world leader in consanguinity with around 70%; Saudi Arabia is 50+%; Iran and Afghanistan are 30-40%, Iraq 33%, Egypt and Turkey 20+%, and Qatar 54%.

It is estimated that there are about 1.1 billion people in the world today who are either married to cousins or the children of cousins and that, throughout history, approximately 80% of all marriages have been to first or second cousins. That is why if you look at your pedigree chart especially during the 16 to 1400s you will see a repetition of names of ancestors; cousin marriage leads to a phenomenon called pedigree collapse. In an ideal pedigree chart you should have two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, and so on. Each generation should have double the number of ancestors from the previous generation. However, if your parents are first cousins, for example, then you would four grandparents but only six instead of eight great-grandparents as both your parents share the same grandparents. Pedigree collapse happens more and more in the early years of civilization. The farther you are in the family tree, the smaller the number of people in the place where your ancestors were from, thus necessitating the marriage between relatives.

One reason for all the fuss and interest in cousin marriages is the possibility of producing children with genetic disorders. I don’t want to go into the details of genetic disorders, but for the sake of discussion here are some of the possible genetic diseases and problems that may be passed on to children of consanguineous couples at a higher rate: schizophrenia, congenital heart defects, pulmonary stenosis and atresia, cystic fibrosis, cystinosis, nephronophthisis, spinal muscular atrophy, albinism, achromatopsia, hearing disorders, central nervous system anomalies, congenital anomalies, physical handicaps, mental retardation and malignancies, added risk of infant and child mortality.

In the end, I believe in two things when it comes to consanguineous marriage: one, there are always unexplainable circumstances that lead people to fall in love. Whether they are aware of their blood relation or not is beside the point. Sometimes, when love comes knocking no amount of taboo can discourage two people from pursuing their relationship. Second, if two people push through with marriage despite the knowledge of a close blood connection then they should be responsible enough to have genetic counseling in order to determine what possible genetic diseases, if any, their offspring may have.

______________________________________

Sources:

1. Sheila L. Ager, Familiarity Breeds: Incest and the Ptolemaic Dynasty, The Journal of Hellenic Studies Vol. 125, (2005), pp. 1-34.
2. Kelly Trumble, The Library of Alexandria, USA: Clarion Books, 2003.
3. The Book of Jubilees
4. Anne Rice, Queen of the Damned, USA: Ballantine Books, September 13, 1989.
5. Luciano P.R. Santiago, The Houses of Lakandula, Matanda, and Soliman (1571-1898): Genealogy and Group Identity, Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society, Volume 18, No. 1, March 1990.
 6. Querijero-Molina Genealogy Page
7. Ambeth Ocampo, Rizal Without the Overcoat, Manila: Anvil Publishing, Inc., 1990.
8. Evelyn Z. Macalran, Mikey A marrying his Cousin? No Problem, Manila Standard, Dec. 11, 2001.
9. Sandy Araneta, Church says no bar for Mikey Arroyo to marry Second Cousin, Philippines Star, December 11, 2001.
10. Abe Florendo, ANGELA: GMA AN IDEAL MOM-IN-LAW, The Philippine Star, February 21, 2002.
11. Aquino Geni Page managed by Danica Yap
12. Familia Araneta Genealogy managed by Oscar Araneta
13. Hank Pellissier, Cousin Marriage - 70% in Pakistan - Should it be Prohibited?, Ethical Technology, Ma6 26, 2012.
14. Steve Sailer, Cousin Marriage Conundrum, The American Conservative, January 13, 2003.

Tracing Rizal's Ancestry through Austin Craig's Book

For the very lucky few, the journey to one's genealogical past may be discovered with just one book.

Books have been produced throughout the centuries to chronicle the lives of families famous, infamous, or even the ordinary. Some bygone member or members of families were smart enough to research and preserve their genealogies for a variety of reasons. Whatever their purpose, those who descend from these families are lucky because the bulk of the research has already been done for them.

In the Philippines, however, this isn't as common. For one thing the subject of genealogy is not as popular among the population and the concept of writing a book about a family is not also a common practice. But again, for those lucky enough to have relatives who have done the research then searching secondhand bookshops, public libraries, and online bookstores and other sources is worth it.

Today, in celebration of Jose Rizal's birth, I decided to show how his genealogy was discussed thoroughly by just one book.  Although Rizal's family tree is a fascination of many researchers and history buffs, and books like Lolo José: An Intimate and Illustrated Portrait of José Rizal (written by Asuncion Lopez Bantug, a grandniece of Jose Rizal), Rizal without the Overcoat (by Ambeth Ocampo), and José Rizal: Life, Works, and Writings (by Gregorio Zaide) have extensive discussions about Rizal's family history, no one has written a more comprehensive genealogy of the National Hero than Austin Craig's Lineage, Life and Labors of Jose Rizal, Philippine Patriot: A Study of the Growth of Free Ideas in the Trans Pacific American Territory.

This New Yorker is considered one of the very first biographers of Rizal. He arrived in the Philippines  on July 25, 1904. He taught under the Bureau of Education, and worked in various places: Lubang Island; Calapan, Mindoro; and finally in Manila where he taught in Philippine School of Arts and Trades, the Philippine Normal School, Manila High School, the University of the Philippines, and the University of Manila. He held the Rizal professorial chair at the University of the Philippines in from 1912 to 1922 and was considered one of the experts on Rizal. 

His book begins with Rizal's Chinese ancestor, Domingo Lam-co, whom he described in the book as a sort of leader among the various Chinese migrants who left their country for a better life in the colony. He was said to have had a certain prestige among his own people (from Chinchew) as shown by his leadership of those who later settled with him in Biñan, Laguna, as well as the fact that he acted as godfather, which suggests that he was above the ordinary standing. Craig wrote that this prestige was because of his marriage to the daughter of an educated Chinese, an alliance that was not likely to have been made unless he was a person of some education, and education is the Chinese test of social degree. Lam-co was baptized in the Parian church of San Gabriel on a Sunday in June of 1697, hence his name. His age was given in the record as thirty-five years, and the names of his parents were given as Siang-co and Zun-nio. 

(Although some researches have given Lam-co's real name as Cue Yi-lam and have claimed that he belonged to the Cua clan of south China, being one of the descendants [a 19th generation descendant, in fact] of Shu Du, the 5th son of Zhou Wu Wang, the political genius who started the Chou dynasty, there is nomention of these facts in Craig's book.)

Domingo Lam-co married Inez de la Rosa whose father was Agustin Chinco, also of Chinchew, a rice merchant, who had been baptized five years earlier than Lam-co. His baptismal record suggests that he was an educated man. Agustin Chinco's parents were Chin-co and Zun-nio and he married Jacinta Rafaela, a Chinese mestiza of the Parian, who was the daughter of a Christian Chinese and a Chinese mestiza. Aside from Inez, Agustin Chinco's other children were Magdalena Vergara, Josepha, Cristoval de la Trinidad, Juan Batista, and Francisco Hong-Sun.

Domingo and Inez's only surviving child was named Francisco, and this son was the first to use the last name Mercado. He was already a grown man when his mother died. Domingo followed a few years later.

Francisco Mercado lived in the hacienda of St. John the Baptist at Calamba where there was a great dam and an extensive irrigation system which caused the land to rival in fertility the rich soil of Biñan. He only married on May 26, 1771, rather later in life than was customary in Biñan, though he was by no means as old as his father, Domingo, was when he married. His bride, Bernarda Monicha, was a Chinese mestiza of the neighboring hacienda of San Pedro Tunasan, who had been early orphaned and from childhood had lived in Biñan. They had two sons, Juan and Clemente. A well to do man, his name appears so often as godfather in the registers of baptisms and weddings that he must have been a good-natured, liberal and popular man. He died in 1801.

Francisco Mercado’s eldest son, Juan, built a fine house in the center of Biñan, where its pretentious stone foundations yet stand to attest how the home deserved the pride which the family took in it. At twenty-two Juan married a girl of Tubigan, who was two years his elder, Cirila Alejandra, daughter of Domingo Lam-co’s Chinese godson, Siong-co.

Juan later changed the status of his family in the tribute list from mestizo sangleyes (Mestizo Chinese) to indios. As Craig put it, Juan must have felt that four generations after Domingo Lam-co qualified them already as indio and not Chinese anymore. Juan's children were Gavino, Potenciana (who never married), Leoncio, Fausto, Barcelisa (who became the wife of Hermenegildo Austria), Gabriel, Julian, Gregorio Fernando, Casimiro, Francisco, Petrona (who married Gregorio Neri), Tomasa (later Mrs. F. de Guzman), and Cornelia, the belle of the family, who later lived in Batangas. Francisco was Rizal's father.

A year after his sister Potenciana’s death, Francisco Mercado married Teodora Alonzo, a native of Manila, who for several years had been residing with her mother at Kalamba. Though Craig found the paternal line easy to trace, he felt that Teodora Alonzo's was unfortunately not so easily traced.

Her father, Lorenzo Alberto Alonzo (born 1790, died 1854), was said to have been “very Chinese” in appearance. He had a brother who was a priest, and a sister, Isabel, who was quite wealthy; he himself was also well to do. Their mother, Maria Florentina (born 1771, died 1817), was, on her mother’s side, of the famous Florentina family of Chinese mestizos originating in Baliwag, Bulacan, and her father was Captain Mariano Alejandro of Biñan.

Lorenzo Alberto was municipal captain of Biñan in 1824, as had been his father, Captain Cipriano Alonzo (died 1805), in 1797. The grandfather, Captain Gregorio Alonzo (died 1794), was a native of Quiotan barrio, and twice, in 1763 and again in 1768, at the head of the mestizos’ organization of the Santa Cruz district in Manila.

Lorenzo met Brigida de Quintos while he was a student in Manila, and that she, being unusually well educated for a girl of those days, helped him with his mathematics. Their acquaintance apparently arose through relationship, both being connected with the Reyes family, and soon they were married. They had five children: Narcisa (who married Santiago Muger), Teodora (Mrs. Francisco Rizal Mercado), Gregorio, Manuel and José. All were born in Manila, but lived in Kalamba, and they used the name Alonzo until in 1850 when, with their mother, they adopted the name Realonda in accordance with the Claveria decree. This latter name has been said to be an allusion to royal blood in the family, but other indications suggest that it might have been a careless mistake made in writing by Rosa Realonda, whose name sometimes appears written as Redonda. This is also similar to the common belief that the Rizals changed their last name Mercado to Rizal as they were farmers, that the surname Rizal came from the Spanish ricial, which means green fields. However, ricial does not seem to appear in the Catalogo Alfabetico de Apellidos but there is Risal, which is very likely the original surname but was made to look better -- hence Rizal.

Brigida de Quintos’s death record, in Kalamba (1856), speaks of her as the daughter of Manuel de Quintos and Regina Ochoa. The most obscure part of Rizal’s family tree is the Ochoa branch, the family of the maternal grandmother, for all the archives,—church, land and court,—disappeared. So the only sources for this line's history are the ones told by elderly people.

The first of the family is said to have been Policarpio Ochoa, an employee of the Spanish customs house whose son was Estanislao Manuel Ochoa, with the blood of old Castile mingling with Chinese and Tagalog in his veins. He was part owner of the Hacienda of San Francisco de Malabon and one story says that somewhere in this family was a Mariquita Ochoa, of such beauty that she was known in Cavite, where was her home, as the Sampaguita of the Parian.

There was supposedly a Spanish nobleman in Cavite in her time who was deported for political reasons and it was said that this particular noble was the Marquis de Canete.

To make a long story short, this nobleman fell in love with Mariquita but because of his political color he was not allowed to marry Mariquita. Thus, she became a common-law wife. One of their children, José, had a tobacco factory and a slipper factory in Meisic, Manila, and was the especial protector of his younger sister, Regina, who became the wife of attorney Manuel de Quintos. A sister of Regina was Diega de Castro, who with another sister, Luseria, sold chorizos and tiratira, the first at a store and the second in their own home, but both in Cavite, according to the variations of one narrative.

Manuel de Quintos was an attorney of Manila, graduated from Santo Tomás University, whose family were Chinese mestizos of Pangasinan. The lawyer’s father, of the same name, had been municipal captain of Lingayan, and an uncle was leader of the Chinese mestizos in a protest they had made against the arbitrariness of their provincial governor.

All the branches of Teodora Alonzo’s family were much richer than the relatives of her husband; there were numerous lawyers and priests among them—the old-time proof of social standing—and they were influential in the country.

Some historians, and this includes Austin Craig, have hinted that Jose Rizal was a Lakadula descendant through Teodora Alonzo, but as there has not been archival documentation for this then it remains nothing but a legend.

The book goes on to chronicle Rizal's life and death, but suffice it to say that this book is indeed the first of its kind to explore comprehensively Rizal's genealogy. Until today, it remains perhaps the most authoritative of the National Hero's family tree.

Imagine how easy our genealogical quest would have been if we all had someone like Austin Craig to have researched our family trees for us.

To view Jose Rizal's family tree, click here.