Baleten-on Surnames circa 1800's

Back at the National Archives of the Philippines in 2010, I was tempted of scanning the renowned Catálogo alfabético de apellidos of Governor General Narciso Claveria (©1849). The limited time and the objectives of my visit however prevented me from taking that detour. 

 For those who are not familiar with it, the Catálogo is a book published in 1849 that covers all the surnames used in the Philippines. It was published as an effort to address the complexity of collecting taxes by mandatory assigning surnames to those who until that time were still without one . The way it was implemented was however compelling as it was strictly imposed by the local authorities. Thus, the offshoot is noticeable in many a community, take for instance in our town, Balete. 

 Balete, Capiz was established in 1804 according to the book, Historia Geografica, Geologica y Estadistica con Datos Geograficos, Geologicos y Estadisticas de las Islas de Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao y Jolo, y los que Corresponden a las Islas Batanes, Calamianes, Balabac, Mindoro, Masbate, Tigao y Burias, situadas al n.so. y s. de Luzon published in 1876 by Imprinta de Ramirez y Giraudier for Don Agustin de la Cavada y Mendez de Vigo. It had a population of 3,089 by the time of the Philippine Census of 1870 of which the author was the officer tasked of administering the census. At that time, Balete had eleven barrios spread out in its land area of 15,525 hectares. The typical Baleten-on apellidos in the barrios were noticeable and one can readily discern which part of Balete a soul came from by the mere knowledge of his surname.
  • Aranas, Ambrocio, 
  • Bantigue, Bautista, Borromeo,
  • Calizo, Casong, Celestino, Concepcion, Cortes, de la Cruz, Cuadernal, Cual, Cuare, Cuasto, Cuaterno, Cuatriz, 
  • Dandoy, Dimo, Dominguez,
  • Eliserio,  
  • Felipe, Feliciano, Fernandez, 
  • Gallardez, Garmino, Guanco, 
  • Juanico, 
  • Lachica, Legaspi, Lumio, 
  • Morales, Morio, Murillo,
  • Ocampo, Oquendo,
  • Pariñas, Pastrana, Peres, Prado,  
  • Quitong,
  • Rebenito, Recidoro, Rodriguez, del Rosario, Ruiz
  • Tambong, Tafalla, Tullo,
  • Villones,

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