The Families of Old Bicol

June 1, 2010 at 1:48 pm (19th century Filipino Art, Architecture, Design and Decoration, Domestic Travels, Family Traditions, Filipino Art, Random memories, The Bicolanos, The Global Crowd, The Manilenos)

[ I wonder if I can get dear ol’ Sonny Tinio — Filipiniana scholar par excellence Manuel Imperial Tinio Jr. — to help me with this… ]

CENTENERA.

ESCUDERO.

FUENTEBELLA.

GARCHITORENA.

IMPERIAL.

According to the patrician historian Martin Imperial Tinio, Jr.:

“The Imperial oral tradition says that the family is descended from 2 brothers shipwrecked in the San Bernardino Strait in the early 17th century and landed in Manito. The story is probably true a most of the land in that town belongs to the Imperials. They eventually moved down to Daraga, Albay and one is said to have migrated to Baao in Camarines Sur. Luis Dato, a UP historian said that he saw a baptismal record of an Imperial in Baao Church dated 1635. When I was going to work on the Imperial Family Tree in the 1990s, the church records were no longer available as the whole church had been burned. The present records we have of the Legazpi Imperials date from the 1790s, same as that of those in Naga. I’m still working on trying to connect all the Imperials in the country, including the ones in Ilocos and Aklan. I have already connected the ones in Batanes, who were originally from Naga. Incidentally, the Imperials in all the provinces were already cabezas in the late 1700s. My great-great-grandfather, Don Sinforozo Imperial became Gobernadorcillo of Daraga in 1850 and Gobernadorcillo of Legazpi in 1852. All his sons became officials of Legazpi and Albay towns in the late 19th century, while his daughter, Theodora, married Gen. Ludovico Arejola, the commander of the revolutionary forces in Camarines Sur.”

JAUCIAN.  The Jaucian family were originally from Jaro, Iloilo.  They transferred residence to Bicol because of their increasing involvement in the “abaca” hemp export business.

According to Martin I. Tinio, Jr.:

“The Jaucian Family is descended from Domingo Jaucian a sangley cristiano who was baptized in Molo in 1801, the same year that Domingo Consing, progenitor of the Consing Family of Molo was baptized. The parish priest at that time was an Araneta, said to be the progenitor of the Araneta clan.

Domingo’s presumed grandson, Mariano,(I still haven’t really determined the connection as I haven’t completed my research of the Molo baptismal records) migrated to Daraga, Albay and married a Bicolana. Accompanying him were his cousins and in-laws who founded the Anson, Locsin and Yulo families of Albay. These families intermarried among themselves for almost a century, just as they did in Iloilo. Mariano’s grandson, Cirilo, became the richest man in Bicol at the turn-of-the-century and was called ‘The Abaca King’ of Bicol. He was the first Capitan Municipal of Guinobatan in 1894, when the title of Gobernadorcillo was changed to that upon the promulgation of the Maura Decree of 1893. In the confidential report to the Alalde Mayor or Provincial Governor of the parish priest regarding the qualifications of the candidates for the election of gobernadorcillo in the late 1880s, the current parish priest stated that Balbino Jaucian, youngest brother of Cirilo, was the richest man in Daraga. He served as gobernadorcillo for 2 terms and refused to serve another. Andres, another brother who migrated to Libmanan, Camarines Sur, also became the biggest landowner and the richest man in that town, the largest in the proince after Naga. He also became Capitan of Libmanan. The Jaucian family was the biggest landowning family in Albay and was considered the richest in Bicol until the mid-20th century.”

JORDANA.

URSUA.

Acknowledgments:  Filipiniana scholar nonpareil Martin Imperial Tinio Jr.;  former Press Secretary during the Ramos and the Estrada administrations Rodolfo “Rod” T. Reyes.