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No More Descendants to Follow in my Mello Tree
When the records for Maia, Ribeira Grande, Sao Miguel Island came online, I was so excited. Finally, I would be able to fill in some gaps in my tree. One of my hopes was to find out if my ancestors,...
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CCA Finished Uploading Azorean Parish Registers
I got word through the Azores Google Group that the CCA has finished uploading the last parish registers for the island of Sao Miguel to the arquivo website. The last village added was Ribeirinha....
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52 Ancestors: #2 Goncalo Vaz Botelho, Descendant of a King
This is week 2 of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. This week’s theme: King. I am writing about Goncalo Vaz Botelho, descendant of kings and queens. In scanning the list I see the first connection is Fernando...
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52 Ancestors: Rosa Boteilho was a Tough Woman
This is my entry for the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge, week 3: Tough Woman. It’s not easy to flesh out the stories of Azorean women. You are dealing with baptismal, marriage, and death records....
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52 Ancestors: The Longest Migration
This is week 6 of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. The theme is So Far Away. I decided to write about my great great grandfather, Jozimas de Braga, who had the longest migration of them all. I should note...
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52 Ancestors: My Heart Belongs to Antonio Medeiros Cordeiro
It’s not what you think. The theme for the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge this week is Love. This can be interpreted in many ways. My heart belongs to Antonio Medeiros not because I have a weird...
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The Danger of Surname Research with Portuguese Ancestry
From time to time, I get asked whether I have a connection with someone. It usually goes like this: “I have Pacheco’s too. We must be related!” In the beginning, when we are naive, we don’t fully...
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SNGF: One of My Favorite Family Photos
This week Randy Seaver’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge is tell everyone about a favorite family photo. I have so many, I don’t know where to start! I’ve decided to post this one. Well, it’s a...
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A New Blog Covering a Voyage to the Azores
Today in the weekly new blogs post at geneabloggers, there was mention of one featuring the Azores. I had to check it out since so few are writing about this region. The blog will cover Mary Rogers...
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52 Ancestors, Week 21: My Azorean Ancestor was a Soldier
Being a regular blogger makes it difficult to find topics that I haven’t already touched for weekly challenges. This week’s theme for the 52 Ancestors challenge is Military. So far, I haven’t found...
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52 Ancestors Week 31: The Azoreans Have Been The Easiest
This week’s theme for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is “Easy”. When it comes to easy to research ancestors, nothing beats my Azoreans! I didn’t start exactly on the right path considering all the...
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Mystery Photo Solved: Jose Medeiros and Bertha Pacheco
I’m excited in a way that only genealogists will understand. In Mystery Photo of the Week, I posted a photo of an unidentified bride and groom. I am happy to say that the photo has now been identified!...
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52 Ancestors Week 35: Were Theodoro and Maria Educated?
This week’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks theme is schooling. I’ve written quite a bit about this topic this year. This time I would like to answer the question as to whether my Azorean great...
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52 Ancestors Week 38: One Large Azorean Family
These Azorean men produced a heck of a lot of offspring! Large families…the definition has changed over time. When I was growing up, my family was considered large. There were 7 of us…5 kids born in 7...
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Am I Related to Canadian Tenor, Remigio Pereira?
In the course of my research, I have heard claims that we’re related to this famous person or that. This time it is Canadian singer and musician, Remigio Pereira, whose ancestry hails from Maia,...
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52 Ancestors Week 40: My Grandfather was Married on the Same Day as His Great...
In the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Series, Week 40’s theme is birthdays and anniversaries in October. I’ve already written about my Grandma Lassalle and about my maternal grandparent’s marriage. Who...
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Mello Castanho Migrating from the Azores: Hawaii, East Coast, and Canada
Sooner or later it was bound to happen. I was going to make a connection to Canada with my Portuguese lines. It was just a matter of time. I had thought it would be with Canadian tenor, Remigio...
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The Case for Sharing Your Genealogy Work: Proving Manuel Melo Castanho is...
My mom used to tell me that sharing was good especially when my siblings and I were fighting over over a toy. Not only is sharing good for siblings, it’s good for genealogists. Case in point, I’ve...
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I Didn’t Plan to Research the Whole Village of Maia
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...
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Josefa de Mello wasn’t a Mello at all: Or, Why You Can’t Trust Portuguese...
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...
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