1. Home town of Dr.

Jose Rizal - José Rizal was born on June 19, 1861 to Francisco Rizal Mercado y
Alejandro and Teodora Alonso Realonda y Quintos in the town of Calamba in Laguna province. He had
nine sisters and one brother. His parents were leaseholders of a hacienda and an accompanying rice
farm held by the Dominicans.

2. The parents of Dr. Jose Rizal - His parents, Francisco Engracio Rizal Mercado y Alejandro (1818–1898)
and Teodora Alonso Realonda de Quintoswere prosperous farmers who were granted lease of a
hacienda and an accompanying rice farm by the Dominicans. Rizal was the seventh child of their eleven
children namely: Saturnina (Neneng) (1850–1913), Paciano (1851–1930), Narcisa (Sisa) (1852–1939),
Olimpia, Lucia (1857–1919), María (Biang) (1859–1945), José Protasio (1861–1896), Concepción
(Concha) (1862–1865), Josefa (Panggoy) (1865–1945), Trinidad (1868–1951) and Soledad (Choleng)
(1870–1929).

3. The Rizal Children

- SATURNINA (1850-1913)Eldest child of the Rizal-Alonso marriage. Nicknamed Neneng. Married Manuel
T. Hidalgo of Tanauan, Batangas.

- PACIANO (1851-1930) Only brother of Jose Rizal and the second child. Studied at San Jose College in
Manila; After his younger brother’s execution, he joined the Philippine Revolution and became a combat
general, he retired to his farm in Los Baños, where he lived as a gentleman farmer and died on April 13,
1930, an old bachelor aged 79. He had two children by his mistress (Severina Decena) –a boy and girl.

- NARCISA (1852-1939) The third child. Her pet name was Sisa; married Antonio Lopez at Morong; a
teacher and musician.

- OLYMPIA (1855-1887) The fourth child. Her pet name was Ypia; Married Silvestre Ubaldo; died in 1887
from childbirth.

- LUCIA (1857-1919) The fifth child. Married Mariano Herbosa of Calamba. He died of cholera and was
denied Christian burial because he was a brother-in-law of Dr. Jose Rizal.

- MARIA (1859-1945) The sixth child. Biang was her nickname. Married Daniel Faustino Cruz of Biñan,
Laguna.

- JOSE RIZAL (1861-1896) The second son and the seventh child. The greatest Filipino hero and peerless
genius; his nickname was Pepe. During his exile in Dapitan, he lived with Josephine Bracken, Irish girl
from Hong Kong. He had a son by her, but this baby boy died a few hours after birth. Rizal named him
“Francisco” after his father and buried him in Dapitan. He was executed by the Spaniards on December
30, 1896.
- CONCEPCION (1862-1865) The eight child. Her pet name was Concha; she died of sickness at the age of
three. Her death was Rizal’s first sorrow in life.

- JOSEFA (1865-1945) The ninth child. Her pet named was Panggoy. She died an old maid at the age of
80.

- TRINIDAD (1868-1951) The tenth child. Trining was her pet name and died also an old maid at the age
of 83.

- SOLEDAD (1870-1929) The eleventh child. The youngest child married Pantaleon Quintero.

4. The ancestry of Rizal:

a. Who is Domingo Lam-co

- A Chinese immigrant and business tycoon Don Domingo Lamco (Chinese name: Cue Yi-Lam) of Laguna
was the great-great grandfather of Jose Rizal. Lamco is originally from Amoy China who came to the
Philippines in the mid 17th century. This is where he met his wife, Inez de la Rosa daughter of Agustin
Chinco an immigrant trader from Chuanchow.

To prevent conflict and hostility with the Spanish authorities, he decided to dropped the name Lam-co
and adapted a Spanish surname. As merchants they chose the name "Mercado" because it means
market. Lamco started the businesses of the Mercado clan. He was a successful entrepreneur in spite of
the discrimination experienced by Chinese traders from the Spaniards.

In June 1697, Lamco was baptized in the Catholic church of Manila's Parian Chinese ghetto and moved to
Biñan, Laguna. He was 35 years old at the time. His financial state improved in Binan and he became a
Chinese community leader. Lamco's son Francisco Mercado and grandson Juan Mercado married
Chinese mestizas and both served as distinguished mayors of Biñan for five terms.

b. Who is Lakan-Dula

- 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.

c. Who is Eugenio Ursua

- Eugenio Ursua, a descendant of Japanese settlers, who married a Filipina named Benigna.

d. Who is Francisco Mercado

- Francisco was a “mestizo sañgley” (Chinese mestizo) who was born and reared in Biñán, La Laguna. His
great grandfather, Lam-Co, was a Chinese immigrant from Fújiàn in China. His parents were Juan
Mercado and Cirila Alejandro. He studied in Colegio de San José, a grammar school in Manila (what is
now Intramuros) where he studied Latin and Philosophy (later, in 1875, the school became a part of the
Universidad de Santo Tomás).

At the age of 29, he married Teodora Alonso Realonda of Santa Cruz, Manila. They had 11 children: nine
girls and two boys, one of whom was Dr. José Rizal, our country’s foremost national hero. In 1849, the
family adopted the additional surname Rizal in compliance with the Clavería Decree.

The family resided in Calambá, La Laguna where the Rizal patriarch became a wealthy “inquilino”
(tenant) of the Dominican-owned Hacienda de San Juan Bautista. He, together with the aid of his eldest
son Paciano, was able to rent almost 380 hectares, one of the largest leased lands of the hacienda. In
order to gain more profit, Don Francisco partitioned the lands and leased them out to lesser tenants.
This enabled the family to live a prosperous and comfortable life, thus giving the Rizal children more
time and focus toward education.

e. Mercado

f. Ricial