Al- surnames of Carcar

Al- surnames of Carcar

Throughout the country, when talk comes around to how surnames were given out in the implementation of the Claveria Decree, the conventional wisdom was that a letter was supposed to have been assigned to each town, many times resulting in the surnames of the town to all start with the same letter, a fact that Bureau of Records Management Director Domingo Abella himself acknowledged, citing the Bicol region in his 1973 introduction to the National Archives publication of a copy of the catálogo de apellidos. So, what I discovered for Carcar came as a pleasant surprise.

Despite the preponderance of surnames in the town that start with “Al-“, Carcar did not exactly follow that alleged pattern, like what probably happened in Oas, Albay, where the “R” surnames reigned supreme.

As a matter of fact, aside from the Al- group, Carcar surnames follow several other alphabetical groupings: Bar- (Baran, Bargayo), Cam- (Campaña, Camingao), Can- (Canencia, Canarias), Day- (Dayonot, Daytec), Em- (Emnace, Empleo), Fan- (Fano, Fantilgoni), Gel- (Gelle, Gellicania), Gem- (Gemperoso, Gemal), Gen- (Genobisa, Genave), Lao- (Laoc, Laoronilla), Lap- (Lapingcao, Lapinid), Man- (Mancera, Maniscan), Mang- (Manguiran, Manguroban), Nav- (Navares, Navarro), Oa- (Oaper, Oacan), Qui- (Quijano, Quijoy), Rem- (Remo, Remolado), Sat- (Satira, Satorre), Tang- (Tangarorang, Tangcay), and maybe others.

But on the list below, the Carcar surnames that do start with “Al-“ therein include only those that already appeared in the earliest books, surnames that we may claim – assume — to have been originally given out in Carcar. Thus, nowhere in it are many other Al- surnames, found and even plentiful in Carcar at present, but which seems to have been later arrivals. This means the owners must have received the surnames from their own hometowns and not in Carcar.

Some of these later-arrivals would be Albarracin, Albrando, Alcarez, Alfeche, Alferez, Alforque, Alicaba, Alicaway, Aliño, Alquizola, Alquizalas and many more.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are Carcar comers but who’d arrived before the Claveria decree of 1849 and we can presume, using the alphabetical criteria, that they’d also received their surnames in Carcar and, so, these families are included on this list. These families would include some mestizos Sangleys from Parian (Alcorcon, Alcudia, Aldocente) the Alegrado from Cebu City and Aldave from San Nicolas, as well as the Bohol families (Aldemita, Aleguin, Aleguiojo, Alemios, Aleonar, Alfafaras, etc. the last which cannot be found in Carcar any longer).

Most of these Al- families originated around the old localities Mulag, Mantaoñgon, Cabancalan, Cabongcolan of what is now Guadalupe, that area straddling Carcar and Barili. Because of which historical basis may have given rise to the thought (common in Carcar):  Are all Al- families related?

But I wouldn’t venture so far as to say: yes, all of them. In fact, we can immediately eliminate from the kinship those Al- families in the above paragraph, they whom we can categorically determine to have originated from outside Carcar.

And what about the rest? Of course, maybe. After 4 generations, people would have lost track of their pedigree (except to say “maybe”  — pariente kunó) and even if the residents of one big area may actually have been the fourth or fifth generation descendants of a single couple who originally transplanted themselves there in the mid-1700s, who knows now, but this very lack of genealogical memory could have had resulted in the town officials (priest, gobernadorcillo, cabezas) assigning different (but all starting with Al-) Claveria surnames to these individuals in 1850. Even if they may have been just one family. As to the obviously older families — Alcos, Alcoseba, Alcover, Alcuesar, Aldaya, Aledo, Alegado, Alegarbes, Alejado, Alesna, Aleson,  etc., etc.  — who can now say?

	present	old	catálogo	voters
1	Alcachupas	Alcachupas	Alcochofas	8
2	Alcain			8
3	Alcesto			24, Alcisto 2
4	Alcomendras	Alcovendas	Alcobendas	9
5	Alcontin			104
6	Alcorcon			32
7	Alcordo			117
8	Alcoriza	Alcorisa	Alcorisa	33, Alcorisa 1
9	Alcos	Alcos	Alcos, Alcuz	82
10	Alcoseba	Alcoseba	Alcoceba	135
11	Alcover			278, Alcober 2
12	Alcoy			26
13	Alcudia			34
14	Alcuino	Alcuyno		4
15	Alcuirez	Alcuiris	Alcuiriz	60
16	Alcuitas	Alcuetas	Alcuetas	13
17	Alcuizar	Alcuesar	Alcuezar	119
18	Aldave			51
19	Aldaya			105
20	Alde	Alde	Aldi	22
21	Aldemita	Aldemeta	Aldelmeta	10
22	Aldevera			46, Aldevita 1, Aldivera 1
23	Aldipolla	Aldepolla	Aldipolla	4, Aldepolla 1, Aldepuela 1, Aldepuella 1
24	Alduesa			23, Aldohesa 2, Aldojesa 2, Alduhesa 3, Alduheza 1, Alduiza 3
25	Aldueso	Aldueso	Alduezo	30, Alduezo 7
26	Alecha			25
27	Aledo			77, Alido 1
28	Aledon	(none)	(none)	66, Alidon 4
29	Alega			7
30	Alegado			360, Alegada 10
31	Alegam	Alegam	Aligam	8
32	Alegarbes			160, Alegarbez 1, Aligarbes 1
33	Alegrado			115
34	Aleguin	Aleoguenz	Aleoguenz	14
35	Aleguiojo	Alegueojo	Alegueojo	93, Aleguijo 1
36	Alejado			101
37	Alemios	Alemeus	Alemeuz	33, Alimeos 1, Alimios 1
38	Aleñar	Aleñar	Aliñar	1, Aliñar 1
39	Alentiojo	Alenteojo	Alentejo	26, Alintiojo 2
40	Aleonar			172
41	Alerre			8
42	Alerta	Alerta	(none)	2
43	Alesna			329, Alisna 2
44	Alfafara			94, Alfarara 1
45	Alinsugay	Alinsugay	Alensogay	39
46	Aliser	Aleser	Alescer	122, Aleser 36, Alesir 2, Alicer 4
47	Alison	Aleson	Aleson	204
48	Allera	Aleyra	Alera, Allera	43
49	Alvarado	Albarado	Albarado	46
50		Aldocente	Aldosente
51		Alentado	Alentado
52		Aleranera	Aleranera
53		Alesla	Alesla
54		Alfafaras	Alfafaraz
55		Alinbubuyog	Alembubuyog