Celeste, I read somewhere that names like "Camara", "Santos", "De Jesus" were surnames that were given to children who were abandoned or "of the wheel" - "da roda". I did find in my own genealogy in the north of Portugal, that a baby was left on an ancestors doorstep and that ancestor took the baby to the church and he was named Jose dos Santos. My ancestor's surname was Cunha. The godparents to this child were Cunha's daughter and her husband. None of them had Santos as a surname. Maria Sousa
--- On Wed, 8/27/08, celeste perry <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: From: celeste perry <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [AZORES-Genealogy] Portuguese naming convention To: [email protected] Date: Wednesday, August 27, 2008, 10:22 PM Right, in most cases, the names you wrote are religious names given to the child (not recorded on the baptismal records) so that leads me to think maybe they were confirmation names. Others have said that was not the case; however, again, I have to have some rational for the way things where and it just makes sense to me that way. I know that deJesus and Esperito Santo (usually Santos) are found as surnames. I think that is because those who could not read or write spoke their name (remember women did not use surnames) and these names were written by someone as last names. Women were baptized only by first name (men too). Women married using their first and middle name (sometimes even here in the US). When the women died she was listed by first and middle name and as the widow of (her husband's name.) As this happened in my research, I had to remind myself that Portugal and the Catholic church was run by men and you know where women stood! Even in 1989, when I drove from Porto to Tras-os-Montes, the men could not believe a MAN had not driven for me. I finally got the reason they were questioning me and whipped out my driver's license and said, "That's me, I know how to drive, I drove myself!!!" They still looked at me in disbelief. Celeste, Hayward, CA Celeste Perry [EMAIL PROTECTED] --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Follow the confirmation directions when they arrive. For more options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail (vacation) mode, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my membership." -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
