Genealogy, History, Heritage, How To
I don’t know how this got passed me. I was web surfing the other day and found that the Portuguese Genealogical & Historical Society of Hawaii now has a website. You can visit them at: PGHSH. The website includes information about their current location, hours, and contact information. If visiting the society in person, be…
How would you define your Portuguese ancestors who went to Hawaii? You might start by calling them Azorean, Madeiran, and Portuguese. You would call them Caucasian, wouldn’t you? But, would you call them White? Those who controlled Hawaii’s business and political interests in the 1870s did not. The Portuguese who went to Hawaii were officially…
The desire to link people of the same surname from the same region is strong. After all, how many families with the same surname in a small Portuguese village? The problem is that Portuguese surnames are fluid, they evolve, they come out of thin air (or so it seems). Five children might use five different…
Genealogy is challenging. Portuguese genealogy has challenges all it’s own. Have you fallen into these pitfalls and misconceptions along your research trail? If so, you’re not alone. I bet we’ve all made similar mistakes. The important thing is to learn from them, then learn how to get around them. Let’s see this list of 10…
This is part 4 of the series the Problem with Names in which I discuss some of the difficulties surrounding Portuguese names. In this article, I tackle inconsistency. It can be the more confusing part for many genealogists to learn that their ancestor wasn’t all that hung up on their name or the spelling. The…