As with many records that I find, I ended up with a whole set of questions that I didn’t have in the first place. This week I found my Gr Gr Grandmother’s baptismal record. It was a record I had search for many years.
Ana Jacintha (de Melo) Pacheco was born and baptized in 1835 in Achada, Nordeste, Sao Miguel Island, Azores. When I compare this to what I already know about Ana Jacinta, it leaves much to be desired.
Ana’s first recorded child was born in 1863. Her last in 1876. She got a passport in 1882 and left for Hawaii with all but one of her children. She died in Kilauea, Kauai, HI in 1902. I now have her baptismal record, passport, consulate log, ship manifest, and tombstone photo. That’s it. She somehow avoided the 1900 Census, so the only proof that she had lived in Hawaii is her tombstone.
What concerns me about the new document is a gap in years. Ana was born in 1835. By my counting, she was 20 in 1855. She should have been married around that time. Yet, I cannot find a marriage record for her marriage to Jacintho Pacheco or anyone else.
And, look at that gap. Son, Manoel, was born in 1863. There is another son, Antonio, possibly a year or two older or maybe a year or two younger, whose baptismal I cannot find. Counting from Ana’s birth to Manoel’s birth is 28 years. This is far too long for an Azorean woman to go without being married! And, then I am supposed to accept that she had a flurry of 7 children over a 13 year span. No, I’m not buying it.
So, what happened to Ana Jacinta between 1855 and 1863?. Where is she during the early years of her marriage? Did she marry Jacintho Pacheco around 1855 and have children that I have not come across yet? Did she marry someone else first? Was that person Antonio’s father? Where the heck are Ana Jacinta, Jacintho, and Antonio before 1863?
Though I have her baptismal record in hand, it doesn’t answer the original questions about her marriage. A search through the records for Achada between 1850-1863 has not turned up the marriage record. So, I am at a standstill once again. I am finding other family members. Maybe their records will have clues.
I have a couple of avenues to explore once the records become available…
1. I can search Fenais da Vera Cruz again to see if the marriage pops up. I don’t think I went as far back as 1855 when I originally searched because I thought Ana was born in 1840.
2. I can search nearby villages to see if they married elsewhere.
3. I can go through the bapstimal records for Achada to see if Ana Jacintha and Jacintho appear as Godparents. If they were living in the village, they should have been Godparents to Ana’s siblings’ children. This could help me pinpoint when they settled in Achada.
4. I can go through the marriage records to see if they were witnesses to any marriages. Again, this would be used to establish what year they settled in Achada.
It’s frustrating to find one of the documents I’ve been searching for only to find that it doesn’t lead to the other information that I need. As I only have three types of records available to me for this village (baptismal, death, and marriage), my research avenues are slim. It’s unusual for a couple not to stay in one village for their entire life. And, I’ve been told that it’s unusual for a couple not to live in the Bride’s village. Naturally, my ancestors would have to be difficult about it.
As I always say, if it is there I will find it. So be warned Ana Jacinta! I will find you!
