That sound you heard? That was my DNA imploding. It was the moment I realized that my great grandparents who married in Hawaii were cousins. Distant cousins, but cousins none-the-less. I’m Off on a Tangent As many readers know, I have ancestors from the Azores Islands. I was working in the records for the village of Achada on my Mello line and became interested in a man named Manoel Pacheco de Rezendes. I wondered if Manoel was related to my…
Randy’s latest Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge over at GeneaMusings.com asks us to write about our ancestor who had the most children. It’s funny because I’ve been working on the line of my most prolific ancestor, Miguel do Monte who had 21 children. Who was Miguel do Monte? Miguel is my 6th great grandfather. He was the son of Bartolomeu da Costa and Barbara de Paiva. He was born around 1690 in Achadinha, a village on the island of Sao…
Would you like to understand more about your Azorean heritage? Do you have an interest in all things Portuguese? Or, are you a fan of folklore and fables? Then, you might be interested in a volume by Elsie Spicer Eells titled “The Islands of Magic: Legends, Folk, and Fairy Tales from the Azores”. This is my review. A Collection of Very Short Stories There are 34 stories in this collection. Many of them are less than 5 pages. It’s the…
Curious thing about Portuguese surnames. They are inconsistent at best and downright frustrating most of the time. Surname research is out of the question because you can’t depend on any consistency. I shouldn’t have been surprised that Josefa de Mello’s surname turned out to be completely different than the name on her son’s marriage record. Why I Couldn’t Find Josefa de Mello in the Parish Records Let’s take a walk into the Azores Islands parish records, shall we? Joam de…
I didn’t plan on researching the whole village. No, really. I didn’t. I started out following the trail of my great grandmother, Maria (de Braga) Pacheco Smith, in Maia like a good genealogist. Maia is a village on Sao Miguel Island in the Azores. I found more ancestors and added more lines. I found the siblings and added them. I found their children and noted them, too. Then, I met a woman who might be related to Maria. We…