Well, after 3 weeks, here I am back from my genealogy research trip. Had a wonderful time and to those who hesitate to go to the Azores because they do not speak the language, don't hesitate any longer. We speak no Portuguese and found everyone so very willing to help us in every aspect of our trip, airport, restaurants, hotels, etc. Our hotel in Terceira was close to the Archives and we walked there several days to do research. They are very helpful and it is wonderful to see the actual records in their books. The cost to make copies was minimal and I can't stress how nice the people working there are. Matter of fact, in both Terceira and Sao Miguel, the people were the nicest, helpful and most kind of all we met on our trip. I also did research in Dublin, Ireland, at the Library there and it was very easy, also very helpful staff so if you have any Irish research to do, take a trip to Dublin.
I guess we lucked out as the entire time we had only 1/2 day of rain in Ponta Delgada and most of it we were in the airport or on the plane. I wish I had allowed more time there as I did not get to see much of the island. I did, however, get to go to the orphanage where my aunt was and they are going to research to see if any of her sisters were there with her. They took us on a tour and the children"s rooms are spacious, with little chairs in front of their beds and big dolls on them. They also have daycare for other children, I believe the age range was 1-3. They are now developing an area for unwed mothers and we got to meet a couple of the girls and their babies and it made me sad. I have donated to the orphanage before and intend to continue to do so, especially in the support of these girls and their babies. We went to Mass at the Cathedral in PD and after mass, they baptized a baby...how special for us to witness. Had we been able to stay through this weekend, we would have been there for their festival. We did have a wonderful tour of Terceira, great food, rice pudding that I absolutely loved and hope I can find a recipe for, and with much help, that I am truly grateful for, found several family records but the biggest bonus was finding out today that the death record for my Antonio Victor has been located! What a find, I had tears in my eyes when I heard the news! I can never really express how grateful I am to such special people. While I still have not found my grandmother's baptism record, being there where she lived and walking some of those same streets has filled my heart with great joy and I am still hopefull I will find it one day. This was a wonderful time to go as there are not so many people from the US visiting the islands and I feel we got to see much more because of this. Went on to Lisbon and our cousins took us to Irieciera (sp?) and Mafra. Sat on the beach as the weather was great and watched the men catch fish. We gave a dinner party at our hotel for our cousins there and 23 came this time, so again, a great success. They say the only time they get together is when this cousin comes from America! If you have any specific questions about the trip, please email to my personal email address. Happy to be back and thankful my husband loves to read books, which he did while I did research. "E" --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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." -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
