Among Portuguese nobility, the title *Dom* was accorded by royal grant, and passed on in most cases through the male line. Strictly speaking, only females born of a nobleman bearing the title *Dom* would be addressed as * Dona*, but the style was not heritable through daughters.
The exceptions were few and depended solely on the conditions in which the title itself had been granted. Here is link to a site that discusses Portuguese nobility http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Portuguese_Brazilian_Studies/ejph/html/issue1/html/monteiro_main.html Here is Wikipedia page with links to individual Portuguese titles and their holders http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Joaopais/Portuguese_nobility_titles Eric Edgar > > > > > > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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, log into your Google account and 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." -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
