A catalogue for civil administration
On 21 November 1849, Governor-General Narciso Clavería ordered the distribution of a surname catalogue to provincial officials. The decree set out procedures for assigning surnames, retaining some existing names and preparing family registers. Its stated purposes included clearer records for government, taxation and parish administration. Decree: preamble and articles 1–4, 16 and 22 ↗
The decree’s second article directed provincial officials to allot surnames to towns by letters, in proportion to their families. Later articles required relatives living elsewhere to be informed of an assigned surname and directed officials to record both new and earlier names. Decree: articles 2, 7 and 12–14 ↗
Find the book and the printed page
Google Books identifies its digitized edition as the National Archives’ 1973 reprint, from a University of Michigan library copy. Apelyido’s openly licensed transcription gives printed page, column and row positions. Those printed numbers are the locators used in this surname directory. Google Books — Catálogo alfabético de apellidos ↗ · Apelyido — Source and credit ↗
- Search your written surname and its documented variants in the surname finder. Open the finder →
- For an entry with a Catálogo record, note the exact spelling, printed page, column and row.
- Open the linked digitized edition and compare the printed spelling. Check nearby entries when the old type is hard to read.
- For family research, use the place and relatives already documented in your family records to choose the next register to consult. The decree’s register instructions record earlier names as well as newly assigned ones. Decree: articles 7 and 16 ↗
Letters and towns: documented examples
CulturEd’s account gives two examples from Albay: surnames beginning with B in Tabaco and with S in Polangui. These illustrate the local patterns described alongside the decree’s letter-based distribution procedure. CulturEd — Batas Claveria ↗
| Town | Surname initial |
|---|---|
| Tabaco, Albay | B |
| Polangui, Albay | S |
Text, transcription and reuse
The original 1849 text is in the public domain. The linked Apelyido transcription is licensed CC BY 4.0 and credits the National Archives’ reprint, Google’s digitization and the Filipinas Heritage Library scan. This directory cites positive transcription matches with their page positions and links to the digitized edition. Apelyido — Licence ↗ · CC BY 4.0 ↗