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Years ago, I came across a passport entry for a family emigrating to Hawaii. It was for my great grandfather’s cousin, Florinda. I combed through Hawaiian records looking for a trace of Florinda, but never found one. I gave up and moved on. Years later, I got some DNA matches pointing to Pacheco cousins in Hawaii. Now I know what happened to Florinda.
Florinda Among The Maria’s
Florinda was confusing to research. Her surname seemed to fluctuate making it difficult to pinpoint how to research her.
But, thank goodness she was named Florinda and not Maria. Maria’s are dime a dozen in Hawaii. There are only a handful of Florindas.
Florinda came from the Azores Islands. She was born in a village previously name Fenais da Vera Cruz on Sao Miguel Island. It’s now called Fenais da Ajuda.
Florinda was my great grandfather’s cousin. Just like him, she made her way to Hawaii. She left with her baby and chaperoned by her uncle. She was going to meet her husband who was already there.
It’s Important To Have the Right Surname
Portuguese surnames, you give me so much grief! These Pacheco kin of Fenais da Vera Cruz went by many names: Pacheco Lindo, Pacheco Grande, Pacheco Elizardo, just plain ol’ Pacheco, but sometimes Algravia, Algrava, and Algarva (don’t ask me where that one comes from).
Florinda was a Soares de Mello, but they were also Soares de Macedo. It all depended on what record you were looking at.
Her husband was Manoel de Sousa. Or was he?
At some point, he took the surname Sousa Medeiros. This is where my problems started. I was looking for Sousa or Souza. I shouldn’t have been.
DNA Provided The Missing Clue
I spent a lot of time trying to pick up their scent in Hawaii. I failed.
Then, I got a couple of DNA matches who were clearly related in some way. They were related to all my friggin’ Pacheco cousins. How could there be Pacheco cousins I didn’t know about?
These people were really good about DNA testing. I matched 7 of them on two testing sites. It drove me nuts that I didn’t have enough information to connect them to my tree.
When AncestryDNA opened up tree preview for non-subscribers. I went back to all those DNA matches and I saw all I needed to. They had the surname Soares de Macedo in their trees. I cross checked the Ancestry matches to the FTDNA matches. I’ll be damned! Those folks had Soares de Macedo, too.
Florinda would have been my great grandfather, Theodoro Pacheco’s, first cousin. Her mother, Joanna Gertrudes Pacheco and Theodoro’s father, Jacintho Pacheco, were brother and sister. That means these DNA matches were close enough to sort out this tangled web.
Theodoro Pacheco, from a group photo ca 1904, Kilauea
Research Proved The Connection
I wanted to be sure these were the right people. Not that I don’t trust people, but too many times I’ve found one person copying another and carrying the same mistake across multiple family trees.
I decided to follow them in obituaries. It sounds bad when I put it that way! But, I needed to build out the families of my matches to make sure I was attaching them to the right ancestors.
One obituary after another had that same name: Florinda. I was perplexed though. Why didn’t I find her in Hawaii?
It’s because I was looking for the wrong surname. I had been looking for Florinda Souza when all that time she was under Florinda Medeiros.
Let’s look at how they were recorded in the census…
1910 Census De Souza Medeiros —–, Florinda The census enumerator seems conflabbered as to what Manoel’s name is. They wrote out his compound surname instead.
The person who transcribed the record decide that the surname was Desouza.
Manoel is indexed as Me?Erios Desouza. Florinda is indexed as Floriada Desouza.
Now, let’s look at the 1900 Census. Manoel is deceased by this point. Medeiros, Florinda ——, Mariana ——, Francis ——, Joe ——, Flora ——, Bessie ——, Jacinth The family was recorded under Medeiros. This is the surname I should have searched for in Hawaii. All the records after this point gives their surname as Medeiros.
I now know what happened to Florinda. She lived out the rest of her life on Maui. She owned property after her husband died. Perhaps Manoel and Florinda did well for themselves. Hopefully, one of the descendants can tell me the rest of her story.
She had at least 11 children who married into the Freitas Phillips, Feiteira, and Perry families. And, thank goodness, the descendants did a whole lot of DNA tests!
Have you found a relative through DNA who migrated to Hawaii or elsewhere that you had given up on finding? If so, tell us about it in the comments.
3 thoughts on “Florinda Made It To Hawaii After All: A DNA Success Story”
Great story. Not in Hawaii, but I found a huge previously unknown branch of my wife’s family living 50 miles away from her home as a result of DNA matches with 3rd cousins. These are helping to expand the story and understanding of the family’s departure from southern Italy 120 years ago.
Bill, Isn’t it amazing how we can uncover these new lines when we combine DNA and genealogy research? We can gain so much when we reach out to cousins.
We to have been searching for a Florinda! She is my great great grandmother who came to Hawaii from St Michels. Her husbands name was Frank. Their last name we are completely unsure of. Some records show Lechandro always a middle initial of P (Pacheco). Although in a 1930 census with my great grandparents lived Florinda but her name was listed (Flora Alexander). We can’t find any birth records for any of their children or themselves. We also can’t find death records. It’s very hard when you don’t know what name to look for. No marriage record. So we are very unsure of her maiden name. We have crossed some records with a maiden of Souza but now thinking that may be your Florinda and not ours. Also one record that says maiden name of Mattos. Still nothing concrete! It has been a very exhausting search.
Great story. Not in Hawaii, but I found a huge previously unknown branch of my wife’s family living 50 miles away from her home as a result of DNA matches with 3rd cousins. These are helping to expand the story and understanding of the family’s departure from southern Italy 120 years ago.
Bill Greggs
Bill, Isn’t it amazing how we can uncover these new lines when we combine DNA and genealogy research? We can gain so much when we reach out to cousins.
We to have been searching for a Florinda! She is my great great grandmother who came to Hawaii from St Michels. Her husbands name was Frank. Their last name we are completely unsure of. Some records show Lechandro always a middle initial of P (Pacheco). Although in a 1930 census with my great grandparents lived Florinda but her name was listed (Flora Alexander). We can’t find any birth records for any of their children or themselves. We also can’t find death records. It’s very hard when you don’t know what name to look for. No marriage record. So we are very unsure of her maiden name. We have crossed some records with a maiden of Souza but now thinking that may be your Florinda and not ours. Also one record that says maiden name of Mattos. Still nothing concrete! It has been a very exhausting search.