José Rizal’s family tree
Explore his parents, siblings, and selected ancestors, with portraits and source-linked relationships.
The Mercado–Rizal family
José Rizal’s family tree.
Explore José’s parents, ten siblings, and selected historical ancestors. Select a person to follow documented parent and child connections.
Family photographs & chart
About the family relationships
Names, birth order, parents, and partners follow the museum’s family display and chart. Added ancestors follow Austin Craig’s 1913 account and are cited in their profiles. Names differ between accounts; uncertain earlier maternal ancestry is not connected. The museum chart retains wider descendant branches. Concepcion is represented by her name because the display does not contain a portrait of her. Historical portraits are shown as held in the collection, without generated likenesses.
Historical documents and portraits
These small scans retain their surviving resolution. The chart is a historical document, not a complete or independently verified genealogy.
Names and relationships in this tree
- Francisco Mercado — Father · The paternal branch descends from Domingo Lam-co, a Chinese immigrant who settled in Biñan, as traced in Austin Craig’s 1913 account.
- Teodora Alonso — Mother · Craig describes her maternal lineage through Regina Ochoa as including Tagalog, Chinese, and Spanish ancestry. His discussion also identifies conflicting accounts of earlier ancestors; those uncertain connections are not shown here.
- Saturnina — Eldest child
- Paciano — Second child · brother
- Narcisa — Third child
- Olimpia — Fourth child
- Lucia — Fifth child
- Maria — Sixth child
- José Rizal — Seventh child
- Concepcion — Eighth child
- Josefa — Ninth child
- Trinidad — Tenth child
- Soledad — Youngest child
- Juan Mercado — Paternal grandfather · Craig identifies Juan as Francisco Mercado’s eldest son and the husband of Cirila Alejandra.
- Cirila Alejandra — Paternal grandmother · Juan Mercado’s wife. Names and ancestry follow Craig’s 1913 account; some later genealogies differ.
- Francisco Mercado (elder) — Paternal great-grandfather · Son of Domingo Lam-co; distinct from José Rizal’s father, who shares his name.
- Bernarda Monicha — Paternal great-grandmother · Craig records her marriage to the elder Francisco Mercado in 1771. Other accounts use different forms of her name.
- Domingo Lam-co — Paternal great-great-grandfather · Chinese immigrant ancestor described in Craig’s chapter II, which reproduces his baptismal record.
- Inez de la Rosa — Paternal great-great-grandmother · Wife of Domingo Lam-co, named in Craig’s account. Also commonly spelled Inés.
- Lorenzo Alberto Alonzo — Maternal grandfather · Craig identifies him as Teodora’s father, a surveyor and municipal captain of Biñan.
- Brigida de Quintos — Maternal grandmother · Craig cites her burial record as identifying her parents, Manuel de Quintos and Regina Ochoa.
- Manuel de Quintos — Maternal great-grandfather · Manila attorney identified by Craig as Brigida’s father.
- Regina Ochoa — Maternal great-grandmother · Craig names Regina Ochoa in Brigida’s burial record but explicitly describes conflicting accounts of Regina’s earlier ancestry. Those uncertain branches are not connected here.
- José Alberto — Maternal uncle · Teodora’s brother, identified in Craig’s account and Rizal’s memoir. Portrait reproduced in Craig’s 1913 book.
Historical source: Austin Craig, 1913, chapters II–III. Earlier maternal ancestry is disputed; names here follow this account, not a claim of a complete modern genealogy.
Family roots and ancestry
The Chinese roots of the paternal branch
Austin Craig’s 1913 account traces the Mercado line to Domingo Lam-co, a Chinese immigrant who settled in Biñan. Craig identifies his home as the Chinchew district and reproduces his baptismal record. This documented branch connects migration from China with the family’s life in Laguna.
The maternal branch: a more complicated record
Craig describes Regina Ochoa, Teodora Alonso’s grandmother, as having Tagalog, Chinese, and Spanish ancestry. He also distinguishes a recorded relationship—Regina and Manuel de Quintos as Brigida’s parents—from conflicting stories about earlier generations. Those disputed connections are not drawn as established links in this tree.
Reading historical ancestry carefully
These are historical accounts of family origins, not DNA estimates or ancestry percentages. Colonial terms such as “mestizo” described social classifications of their period and should not be treated as precise modern ethnic categories. Names, portraits, and appearance alone do not establish ancestry. Rizal’s family story belongs to Philippine history; heritage is not reduced to a single label.
Source: Austin Craig, Lineage, Life and Labors of José Rizal (1913), chapters II–III. This early biography reflects its period; the tree identifies the account used rather than presenting every lineage claim as modern consensus.
Explore the Rizal exhibition · Read his biography · Read and listen to the manga