I’ve been working exclusively with the records of Achada in the Azores for the last month. I’ve worked from the 1870s back to the early 1700s. I’m getting a snapshot of spelling conventions and how things change over time. It’s interesting to me to see how widely used the letters x, y, and z were…
Category: Azorean Roots
Can you make out this Azorean first name?
I hope there are some knowledgeable Azorean/Portuguese researchers reading this post today. I’m researching the baptismal records for Achada, Nordeste, Sao Miguel Island, Azores. The year is 1718. Today I came across an entry which may or may not be related to my Almeyda/Almeida line. For the life of me I cannot make out the…
It was bound to happen
I’ve gone through many pages of the baptismal and marriage books for Achada, Nordeste. Some pages are better than others. Up until now I’ve avoided finding a match that was unreadable. Until now. Looks a bit like one of the better fragments from the Dead Sea Scrolls, doesn’t it? It’s a baptismal record for the…
I thought that was a Native American name!
Often times while researching, I’m humbled by my lack of knowledge of word roots and naming traditions. Several years ago while working in Azorean records, I came across a name that made my laugh. Geronimo! I don’t know why, but I really thought this was a Native American name. There is the famous Apache, Geronimo,…
Abstract Sheets: Portuguese Baptismal Records
Once I became familiar with the patterns in the baptismal records for the village I was working in, I no longer needed to transcribe it word for word. To make my life easier, I developed an abstract cheat sheet with the terms in Portuguese to help me find them in the document. This is my…