Doing Filipino family history

To continue Family History Month, let us discuss the basics of starting one’s family history. Although many people wouldn’t bother starting their journey into their family history, usually claiming that it is time-consuming or expensive, with some even saying that the dead will not be of any use to the living anyway, those who are interested in starting it would soon find their lives changed forever.

There are at least three significant limitations that one must be aware of when tracing a Filipino family tree. First, the Philippines lacks a national database for records. There are websites one may visit to learn more about Filipino heritage, however, they are fragmented and lacking in detail. Additionally, there aren't any publicly-accessible census records or other state documents as there are in the US. Although these records do exist, they are not centralized. The National Archives of the Philippines, which is still in the early stages of digitization and making its documents accessible to the public, houses the majority of old records in the Philippines.

Second, the majority of Filipino families only began adopting formal last names in 1850, as required by a decree issued in 1849. This implies that even if a website or record is accessible for a family name that is similar to the researcher's, it does not necessarily follow that it will be helpful to him. Establishing beyond a reasonable doubt that the last name he is searching for is linked to the family indicated in the documents, websites, or other sources he may be looking at is a crucial yet essential first step for any Filipino genealogist.

A final important fact about Filipino genealogy is the recent implementation of the Data Privacy Act. This law, signed in 2012 and went into force in 2016, restricts access to documents containing personal information. In other words, despite the fact that there are currently few resources available for Filipino ancestry, the law has actually made them more difficult to find and less accessible. Prior to this, scholars could access millions of church and government records from the Spanish through American eras via the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints' family history website FamilySearch. However, access to these has now been restricted owing to legal concerns.

So, where to begin? Before planning to check online, interview as many relatives as possible as they would have their own stories about your ancestors and relatives. Finding them through social media is the fastest way to go. Most Filipinos in the Philippines belong to more than one chat group or family page usually on Facebook, so the first thing to do is search for relatives on Facebook and other social media channels. It has also been my experience that the older the relative, the more details one would get. Also, it is best to correspond with or interview family members still living in their hometown or home country as they tend to have the non-sanitized version of the stories.

Online lead searches are the final stage in Filipino genealogy. For Filipino genealogy, there aren't as many resources and references, thus one needs to be extremely precise and particular with their search criteria. Although they might not always present you with a lot of information, they might provide you with leads. Additionally, while looking for a potential relative or ancestor, make sure to mention their location and country of origin in addition to the name.

These initial online searches would sometimes yield existing family trees, family websites, and other information relevant to your search. Many ordinary Filipinos are now starting to search for their own histories. Hopefully, this interest will be sustained and more effort will be made to preserve Filipino Genealogy.