I think there must be some genealogy law that for certain people the more information you compile the less it all seems to fit together. Today, I’m working on Maria dos Anjos Bonita who married Jose de Ponte. And, now that I’ve pieced the family together, I have more questions than answers.
Maria was the daughter of Manoel Antonio Bonita and Maria Jacintha of Ribeira Quente, Povoacao, Sao Miguel Island, Azores. Until today, I thought that Maria had migrated to Hawaii with her parents on the City of Paris in 1884. That was until today.
I have had very little luck placing Maria on Kauai. I found two census records that were probably her. Both showed the family in Kilauea, which is where they should have been. I have found a marriage record for one of the daughters, which seems to fit.
Yet, the census records I found complicate things. The 1900 Census shows the couple married in 1878 with three children born in “Portugal” (general designation for Portugal, Azores, and Madeira).
This does not mesh with the immigration information that I have. I have Maria coming to Hawaii with her parents, not her husband and children. Also, the age is off. I have her born in 1865, the census 1858. I’m not that worried about the age, though if my birth information is correction, Maria was only 13, 14 when she married. Again, not a big deal for this era.
It is possible that Jose was married twice. That would explain a lot. The children’s ages wouldn’t be an issue then.
I know as well as you do that errors abound on the census. Kauai was small in 1900 with a limited number of Portuguese families. Kilauea was tiny. There is only one Ponte family living there in 1900.
So, I’m not ready to say that the census records are not the right people. Then again, I’m not ready to say the census is right.
I probably should be looking for a bread crumb trail at this point.
