(Please read Chapter I)

Searching for one’s roots in the internet does have gratifying experiences as well as frustrations. No matter how helpful websites on ancestry and genealogy may seem, it does not contain an eloquent data or facts that may lead the researcher to ultimately obtain its objective, the search for links from the unrecorded past events. Especially so if the surname is not common compared to the most American and European surnames that are abounding in the websites mentioned above.

Moreover, some websites may mislead the user too. For example, one site indicated that the surname Alcoran comes from Alcorn which means “the corn”, whose origin was believed to be from Ireland where vast corn fields were grown. Thus, it leaves an impression upon the researcher that Alcoran means “of the corn”, entirely moving away from its historic meaning, the Koran or the Qu’ran, the Islamic Holy Book. However, if the user searches further the links of the same website, it will find a record of old real estate titles and contracts executed or signed by a person whose surname is Alcoran and not Alcorn.

It is not customary or common for a person who executes a legal document to miss spell his surname. Therefore, if a person signed “Alcoran” in all his legal documents, it was his intention to sign “Alcoran” and not “Alcorn”. Signing or writing of one’s signature is a spontaneous and automatic habitual act of a person, what is written there indicates a valid descriptive act of what the person intents to write. Henceforth, titles and contracts signed by James Alcoran of North Carolina, USA were signed by James Alcoran, bearing his surname Alcoran and not Alcorn. Thus, other legal documents bearing signatures of Alcoran were executed by an Alcoran and not an Alcorn. Nevertheless, it is still a jigsaw puzzle how the Alcoran reached North Carolina in as early as the 18th century. As simply stated, if the researcher doesn’t have the patience of an ant… he would stop searching.

Finding other Alcorans brings joy as well as disappointments. We encounter negative biases along the way due to differences in culture. So expect the unexpected… Not all Alcorans may welcome intrusion to their quiet life, although most admittedly long to learn more about the mystery behind the strange surname. Others may doubt your intentions especially because the researcher comes from a country that has been stereotyped negatively in the international community. The Philippines has been notoriously branded as Mail Order Bride Capital of the World; A poor third world Country; Country of Domestic Helpers: Internet Cyber Sex Trade Capital of the World and many others that would equate the Filipino into something less impressive. Even if the Filipino has empowered itself by making a mark in the global labor force, this has not erased the bad imaged that has marred the Filipino. So it is no wonder why others may question the motive of the researcher, whether it is merely to defraud others, to solicit financial help from Alcorans of USA, UK and other European countries as well.

In one of my internet sojourn, I run across some Alcoran’s from UK. I befriended Stephen “Steve” Alcoran, a song writer, artist and musician. His features resembled that of our late father and our late uncles from Zamboanguita, Negros Oriental, Philppines. To me it was a miraculous encounter. At once there was an unspeakable fondness towards each other like finding a lost kin. We had common enthusiasm to know more about each other and share what memories are left of our ascendants. We shared astonishing similarities in interest…the arts, music, literature including common ailments. It was fascinating. But what was strikingly distinct is the love of the Alcoran’s to discuss whatever topic under the heat of the sun. The love of discourse and argument is an innate passion for an Alcoran. But, as the Alcorans in us were unveiled… so was the Alcoran’s temperament too. Fondness turned to contempt! Relentlessly doubting each other’s motive, the quest for the veracity of facts, led each other to refrain from keeping in touch.

“Sir Steve”, as I fondly call the English Alcoran, is an English gentleman worthy of respect! I understood his initial doubts. We all are “doubting Thomases.” Ironically however, his doubts challenged my interest to discover whatever facts that is available to track down anything that relates to an Alcoran, whether thru folklores, theories, hearsays, or whatever data that would fill in the gaps. And I wouldn’t mind if I go back to the point where I started, e.g. old picture, old notes, stories retold and retold, dusty history books, old libraries and surfing in the internet interactive websites.

Trying to recall stories that I heard in my childhood and collaborating this with photos was difficult. One of my law professor at Silliman University Law School, now Judge Cresencio Tan, use to tell us jokingly, “If you want to do something, think of funny thoughts and everything will just pop into your brain.” So indeed I tried to remember the jokes and funny incidents of my childhood. Lo and behold… the “skirt” which I later knew was the kilt, a skirt-like garment which my great grandpa wore in his old picture which was also described vividly by our father and uncles. I laugh at it. I thought he was gay. They said he use to carry a bag with many protruding long and short sticklike whatever that produces certain sounds… I learned later that it was a musical instrument called a bagpipe. Why was he in those garments and why was he holding that weird thing? Those were my queries. Our uncle Pio Alcoran, the last to live the longest among the elderly Alcorans said, those pictures were taken from where our great grandpa came from, which is so far away. I would frown at those remarks; to me it was like telling us that he came from outer space! I never ask him those questions again.

Sometime in the History of the Philippines, during the illustrious Spanish regime, Narciso Clavería y Zaldua became governor general of the Philippines on July 16, 1844 until December 26, 1849. During his reign, he made it a policy for natives to adapt Spanish surnames on November 11, 1849. This brought about chaos among Chinese and other nationalities doing business in the islands. They had to follow the law, circumvent it or be imprisoned. Alcoran was one of those surnames that were used to escape being disenfranchised by many. Thus the inhabitants had no choice. Until this date, Spanish surnames proliferate in the Philippines but most of these surnames could not be the basis of ancestral or genealogical study. In fact this could lead to miss appraisal on lineage.

I met some Alcorans today who couldn’t remember how they got the surname. One of them however was so cooperative to reveal that his surname was just assigned or given to them to protect them from the Spaniards. I find this gesture admirable and honorable rather than dismissing the use of Alcoran as an accidental fact of history. My great grandfather was not only a gentleman exemplar but also a hero in those days when he has to save people’s lives and their future by allowing families to adapt his surname. That although, what he did may have given this researcher some problems in the documentation of events, his humane character leaves greater Honor to the surname Alcoran, a legacy to those who have used and will continue to use it without compensation or monetary rewards to the bonafide heirs of this unique surname.