Although at that time, my mother was already 89 years old, she still had very sharp mind and I am sure that most of her accounts were very accurate. But should there be some inaccuracies, please rectify using the Comments box.

Please have a look at the following and kindly post a message below or at the Zamora Cayabyab Facebook page at http://facebook.com/zamoracayabyab so we can “get together” even if only online.

Thank you.
Romy

GORIO CAYABYAB & BRUNA SARMIENTO

On my father’s side: his parents were Gorio Cayabyab (from San Carlos, Pangasinan) and Bruna Sarmiento. Unfortunately, my mother could only remember Rufino Cayabyab as being a brother of Gorio Cayabyab.

The sons and daughter of Gorio Cayabyab and Bruna Sarmiento are:

1. Basilio (married to Marciana Santos)
2. Aniego (married to Bari Dantes)
3. Bruscio (married to Mauricia Sandoval)
4. Hilario (married to Pasing Mananquil)
5. Esteban (married to Lucila Capinguian)
6. Propitisa (married to Hilario Biag)
7. Rogaciano (married to Rosita Zamora)
8. Raymundo (married to Lucia Siron)
9. Monico (married to Sinang delos Santos)
10. Sotero (married to Serafina Zamora)

Although at that time, my mother was already 89 years old, she still had very sharp mind and I am sure that most of her accounts were very accurate. But should there be some inaccuracies, please rectify using the Comments box.

Please have a look at the following and kindly post a message below or at the Zamora Cayabyab Facebook page at http://facebook.com/zamoracayabyab so we can “get together” even if only online.

Thank you.
Romy

—–

GABRIEL ZAMORA & TEODORA BIAG

My mother could trace her roots only to her parents (she did not remember her grandparents, unfortunately).

Her parents are Gabriel Zamora, originally from Barrio Kapaya, Angeles Pampanga, and Teodora Biag of Barrio Lawy, Capas, Tarlac.

Gabriel’s siblings were: Francisca (married to a Biag), Jose, Narciso, Catalina (married to an Espinosa), Saturnina (married to Rufino Cayabyab), and Antonia (married to Simplicio Manaloto). Note: One time, my mother was also telling me that Apung Gabriel also had a brother named Vicente who was married to a Dela Peña of Barrio Manga. Perhaps someone can confirm this?

Teodora’s siblings were Simeon, Hilaria, and Marciano.

Gabriel and Teodora had nine children:

1. Leon (married to Caridad Dimarucut)
2. Atilano (married to Marcelina Canlas)
3. Eliseo (married to Demetria Dimatulac)
4. Rosita (married to Rogaciano Cayabyab)
5. Rosalina (married to Mariano Tiglao)
6. Mariano (married to Rosario Yalung)
7. Paula (married to Basilio Soliman)
8. Antonina (married to Servillano Guerrero)
9. Loriano (married to Sophia Sinanguinan)

Other children of Gabriel Zamora: Mando (married to Maria Quitalig) and Hilario (married to a Tanglao).

Up to now, there are still amongst us who think, because their family names sound and spell like Spanish, they are descendants of Spaniards – be these “conquistadores”, creoles, illustrados or other Spaniards of pre-American era.

We really don’t have anything against Spanish or anything related to Spain.

But wouldn’t be a great idea that we associate our family names with the richness of Philippine history like when Filipinos were ordered to take up family names based on an edict by Governor-General Claveria in 1849.

See this page – http://angkan.com/the-origin-of-family-names/

To join us, please click here. If you need to have a special page for your story like your family history, contact us and we will give you access to your own password-protected administration page.

This website is sponsored by way of advertisements and email sponsorships.

Sponsoring members create an email address using their family name (see list below) using an email service provided by Gmail / Google. As at 4 February 2010 5 January 2011, we provide each email address an allocated 7411 7662 MB space just like other Gmails.

Your email address will be something like YourName@Cayabyab.com. To avail of this service and be one of our email sponsors, please contact us.

Email sponsorship starts at $2.25 a month.

Notes: (1) Only one instance of an email address can be issued. Once a name is taken, it can no longer be used. (2) Please allow 24 hours for set up. (3) We accept name reservations for a discounted fee.

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Going over its pages, I thought the book looked impressive. It is just like an almanac with facts and figures about Tarlac. Town histories, town profiles, Tarlac’s contribution to Philippine history and politics, old photos of Tarlac landmarks, etc. Name it, the book appears to have all the answers!

Going over the history and profile of my hometown, Capas, I was surprised to find some kind of “origin” of family names of people whose families, or shall I say clan, dominate the township.

According to the book: “In the course of time townspeople of Capas where (sic) ordered by the Spanish authorities to change their family name of their own choosing on condition that such family name begins with letter ‘C’ (the first letter of Capas). Descendants of the early inhabitants still hold to this days (sic) such family names as Capiendo, Capuno, Capitulo, Capule, Capunpun, Cayabyab, Castañeda and Catacutan.”

I thought that part of the journal, if correct, is a very interesting piece of history. Unfortunately, the book does not have any source for that kind of information. I imagine that this is part of the Capas folklore that is, that part where it is claimed that families were ordered to adopt family names and their family names should begin with letter “C” to coincide with the first letter of the town. Even granting that is correct, still I could not find how that could be right. Wasn’t it that Capas for awhile was spelled with “K” and not “C”?

This business of family names and their etymology had fascinated me for many years now. Even before the Google era, I attempted to study how people attach names, family names included, to themselves. Based on what Renato Perdon wrote in his book, the list of surnames handed out by the Spanish authorities, compiled in a catalogue, were distributed to the natives for them to choose from. A number of those family names were Spanish names like Santiago, Santos, Ramos, etc. I am not too clear though if those who already had second names (second names would just be like nicknames or “bansag” like “di masupil” meaning cannot be overcome) were ordered to adopt the surnames listed in the catalogue. Apparently, they were not. Up to these days we still have native family names like Cayabyab (originally, spelled as ka yabyab, meaning fellow rice pounder), Dimagiba (meaning, indestructible), Sulit (meaning, redeem or compensated), etc.

This means that the natives were not ordered, or given the option, to select family names starting with letters equivalent to the first letter of their village or township. At least, I have not encountered any historical account that was the case.

Considering also that most Cayabyabs are based in San Carlos, Pangasinan which according to my late father that is where he came from, I find it with great difficulty to accept the accuracy of the Tarlac history journal.

But who knows, the writer of the Capas chronicle might just be right. Which means, that is a new “historical find” and history should therefore be re-written to accommodate the new information.

I’m not sure. I haven’t ventured into tracing my family tree. Should I undertake a genealogical study of my family name’s origin.

After reading Mr Renato Perdon’s account of how Filipino family names came to usage, I don’t think I have the resources.

Mr Perdon in a chapter of his book Brown Americans of Asia wrote that when Governor-General Narciso Claveria was the head of the Spanish colonial government, he issued on November 21, 1849 a decree called Catalogo Alfabetico de Appelidos (Alphabetised Catalogue of Surnames) which mandated the adoption of surnames.

“The decree was to correct the capricious habit of Filipinos to adopt the names of saints that resulted in the existence of individuals having the same surnames, athough unrelated. This habit also caused confusion that “hindered the implementation of regulations governing the administration of justice, public service, finance and public order. Claveria also noted that because of the situation, it became impossible to prove the degree of blood relations between parties to a marriage.

“The catalogue of family names also adopted names from the vegetable and mineral kingdoms, geography, arts and others. Pages from this catalogue were sent to all provincial governors who distributed them to the mayors of various towns. Every town, in accordance with the number of families within its jurisdiction, was assigned a number of surnames arranged according to letters.

In spite of the rigidity of implementing the decree, accidents happened. In some places, only a few pages of the catalogue arrived. This is the reason why, even today, in many towns of the Philippines, there are people whose surnames almost all begin with a letter A, others B and so on.”

Mr Perdon, a historian, curator, teacher, and cultural heritage consultant, concluded: “Without knowing both the old and the new surnames, it would be impossible to record a family tree beyond 1849.”

Where would this leave us now?

I’m not sure. One thing is sure, though. Whether we like it or not, we, Filipinos, have to live with the consequences of this historical accident.

But, if you are really desperate to have an Anglo-Celtic surname, by all means— do so. In Australia, it takes only a deed poll to do that.

Romy Cayabyab is the publisher of emanila.com

05072000

Posted: 12 Apr 2006 (emanila.com/pilipino/)

Re-posted: 23 July 2007

Updated: 8 December 2009

We mentioned to all emanila.com members and users that our online translation service is not in Tagalog but in Filipino (Pilipino).

It has now become obvious from Mr Renato Perdon’s “The Making of a National Language” why it is so. While Tagalog is the basis of the development of Pilipino (now Filipino) in the 70s, the fact still remains that the latter is a language on its own. The two are distinct and different from each other.

Tagalog still remains Tagalog. Filipino (Pilipino) on the other hand consists of words integrated from the various Philippine dialects as well as from foreign languages.

For example, consider the following figures:

Based on Mr Perdon’s research, the official dictionary issued in 1991 by the Commission on Filipino Language had about 55% of the words integrated into Filipino coming from the major dialects in the Philippines, namely: Bicol (301 words), Cebuano (526 words), Hiligaynon (564 words), Ilocano (122 words), Kapampangan (51 words), Pangasinan (82 words), Old Tagalog / Tagalog (8,463 words), and Samar-Leyte (459 words).

There are also 328 Tausug words, 222 words from the Maranao dialect, 99 words from Maguindanao, 23 words from Samal, 16 words from the Tingian, 12 words from Isneg and another 12 words from Tagbanua.

On the influence of foreign languages, Mr Perdon has also reported that:

Spanish words account for 5,210 words followed by English (1,907), Chinese (232), Malay (176 words), Latin (70), French (46), Sanskrit (29), Arabic (28), German (25), Mexican (20), and Japanese (13).

There are also 7 words each from the Indonesian and Italian languages, 2 words each from the Argentinian, Australian, Hawaiian, Javanese and Swish languages. One word each came from Aztec, Czechoslovakian, Finish, Greek, India, and Russian languages.

Such is the vibrancy and dynamism of Filipino as a language. We will not be surprised if these days, the number of English words have increased. For how do you translate the contemporary words, especially those related to the Internet and other areas of information technology, in Filipino?

Has anyone started looking for the exact equivalent of the following common words: Internet, modem, web site, browser, email, upload, download, hyperlink, toolbar?

We will not be surprised to know that in Tagalog there are none! But in Filipino there are. The equivalent words are the native words — except that these are spelled in a manner that is distinctly Filipino! Example? Try web sayt for web site, brawser for browser, and tulbar for toolbar.

(This article was originally posted Dec 3, 2002 at emanila*plaza, emanila*pilipino)

Romy Cayabyab is the publisher of emanila.com

Source: Philippine Studies at emanila

We started this site more than a year ago, but we did not get the chance to put it to high priority. Hopefully, 2010 would be different.