Do You Need Help with Your Portuguese Hawaiian Roots?
I haven’t posted this in awhile, so I thought I’d announce it again. I have an extensive database on Portuguese people who came to the island of Kauai.
If you are stuck with your Portuguese research on Kauai, I might be able to help. I will do a look up for free. If I find your people, there is a fee for the copying of documents and compiling of information.
The fee varies depending on how much information I have on the family. In some cases I only have one or two records on a family. In other cases, I have been able to go from the original immigrant to current generations.
Also, I will do look ups in Portuguese Hawaiian Memories, the Azorean Passport book, ship immigration indexes, and the census for all islands for a fee.
If you are interested in these services, please email me at: islandroutesATgmaildotcom
Bored Vicar or Political Commentary?
Earlier this week I had come across a page of notes and drawings in the middle of the death register books forfor Ogeu les bains, France. The time period was the 1773-1773.
Tonight, I was working in the baptismal records for 1761 and came across this page:
These drawings and the ones on the page 10 years later are by the same person, Jospeh Lapenne of Ogeu (aka Ogeu les bains). The entry above it is a typical baptismal entry. Catherine and Raymond Lapenne were the godparents–perhaps relatives of our Monsieur Lapenne.
There are math calculations on the page, the drawings, the reference to 1806, what looks like “Jesus Crist” on the right hand side.
Was he doodling out of boredom? Do these drawings represent the LaPenne family in some way? Was he making some sort of political statement?
I don’t supposed I’ll ever know. Just another one of those interesting things we find while doing research.
Unwed Mothers in French Records
Here we go again with the French women 
One of the most interesting things I have found in these French records is the amount of unwed mothers being recorded in birth records. They use the terms Fils Naturel and Fille Naturelle, meaning a male or female child born out of wedlock.
In the records the women are listed by their full name. And, in many cases their Father is the one who has presented the information to the recorder. Isn’t that intriguing? No one seems to be hiding the fact that Jeanne Marie has had her third child out of wedlock. Yes, 3! And, sometimes 5.
I’ve learned from a relative that in this region it was common for a couple to hold off getting married until they had the money to do so. I didn’t really see evidence of this in the records from 1800, but I do in the 1780s. In these records, after fils naturel, the fathers name is listed too! In this period it is more rare to see a child unclaimed by the father than claim by him. I have found a couple, not many, couples marrying several years later.
My own 4th great grandmother gave birth to at least two children out of wedlock. One was my 3rd great grandfather, Augustin. Her mother was the one who reported the births to officials. I believe her father was deceased by the time they were born.
I suspect where there is poverty people do what they need to do. It cost money to get married officially–even in 1780. I imagine that more often than not, the situation was the same for everyone so it wasn’t such a shocking thing to be done. Of course, Queen Victoria hadn’t yet made it on the scene and Victorian morals hadn’t spread across the globe.
Sure shakes up my notions about my seriously Catholic ancestors. I’ll need to revise my stereotypes once again.