The Rizalian Trees

Of the many books written about Philippine Hero Dr. Jose P. Rizal, very few have focused on his family history, and none have dedicated more than a few lines about the family backgrounds of the women associated with him. The Rizalian Trees: Lineages of Jose Rizal and His Love Interests aims to discuss in more detail the genealogy of Jose Rizal, putting together all that have already been written about his family as well as many new information that address legends and misconceptions about the Rizals and their ancestry. Furthermore, this book is also the first of its kind to explore the interesting families of the nine women considered as Rizal's love interests. As part of their Philippine history and Rizal courses, most Filipinos memorized the names of Rizal's lovers: Segunda, the two Leonors, Consuelo, O Sei San, Getty, Suzanne, Nellie, and, of course, Josephine. Many of Rizal's biographers have touched on these women's interactions with Rizal and how they ended, with Rizal abandoning them and these ladies either marrying someone else or dying without loving another man. One of Rizal's nine love partners, Leonor Valenzuela, vanished from history, one died alone (Consuelo Ortiga y Rey), one remained a spinster (Gertrude Beckett), and the remainder married someone else.

Even those who married after Rizal left had short lives: Leonor Rivera only had one surviving child and died young giving birth to her second; Josephine Bracken married again but also died young and only had one child; Seiko Usui (O Sei San) married an Englishman and, like Leonor Rivera, only had one child; Suzanne Thill married late in life and has no known progeny; Nelly Boustead married and had two children before eventually divorcing her husband. Only Segunda Katigbak, often known as Rizal's puppy love, was an exception. Segunda had eleven children with Manuel M. Luz, a member of a wealthy Batangas family. Apart from Segunda Katigbak, who has a large family, the other Rizal women who married had only one or two children, and many died early. Is there a spell on Rizal's love?

The major purpose of this work is to annotate the current reputable sources on Rizal's genealogy in order to make sense of the many contradictions and anomalies surrounding his forefathers. The secondary goal is to create an early collection of the nine ladies of Rizal's lineages. Please keep in mind that this is not a biography of Rizal's ladies. The goal of this project is to look into Jose Rizal's genealogy and that of the ladies he adored. Also, this is only the beginning of a full-fledged exploration of these women's family histories in the future. For the time being, a genealogical sketch will suffice.