Hi Mary Ann, I spent 4 days at the archive in Ponta Delgada 2 weeks ago. The archive is behind a park and there may be a bust of someone; however, I was looking for the building and did not notice anything in the park. The hours are 9am until 5pm Monday through Friday (unless there is a holiday). I don't know the holidays so I can't help you there. I filled out a slilp of paper stating the name of the village, the type of book, baptismo, casamento or obito, and the year/years I wanted. There is a blonde lady there that was most helpful. Another thing I found very useful was free access to the internet so I could check my email and write home each day. I also stayed at a residential (no coffee served) that had a kitchen if you wanted to do the food thing. It had no name; however, all the taxi drivers know it as "51 Rua do Mel." The cost was 25 euros with private bath and 15 euros without. I do not think you can beat that. Rua do Mel is directly across the square from the main doors of the Matriz, near everything and a 10 minute walk up the hill to the archive. Of course, if you get lost like I did the second day, it takes 30 minutes before I got my bearings! My favorite taxi driver, Carlos Rego (no one knows him by Rego because his family nick name is "Sha-pot-ah," at least when I asked for him where the taxi cabs park near the City Arches they all knew him. They told me he was on a trip; however, he would be back soon. Carlos returned, even recognized me and took me to the village where I wanted to see if confession rolls existed (they didn't) and to find the man in Ribeira Grande who helped the priest with the books in that village. Carlos has always been most interested in helping me find that for which I search. This trip, I think he was more disappointed than I when I did not find Maria Cristo's baptism. If you stay at 51 Rua do Mel, there is a coffee place just down the street where I had coffee every morning. I arrived about 8am, had coffee with a young lady that works near there and speaks English very well. Her name is Catarina, she has dark hair and she has even emailed me since I arrived home to make sure I arrived safely. All in all, the Sao Miguel part of my trip was great. I researched at the archive, rested, met some great people and even managed to do all my shopping for those at home home while I was in Ponta Delgada. Forgot to say the room was very clean and I had to go look for staff on the day I was leaving to pay my bill. I guess I could have walked away without paying??? Celeste Celeste Perry [email protected]
--- On Mon, 9/7/09, MaryAnn <[email protected]> wrote: From: MaryAnn <[email protected]> Subject: [AZORES-Genealogy] trip to Ponta Delgado To: "Azores Genealogy" <[email protected]> Date: Monday, September 7, 2009, 2:42 PM I'm planning to be in Ponta Delgada for a few days in October to do some research. I haven't been to the library/archives in years and wonder if the set up is still the same. When last there I would request the register for a particular year and they would give me the actual book. Do they still do it this way and can I take digital images of the pages of the books? Also, does anyone know the days and hours it's open? I'm assuming it's still in the same location (there's a statue or bust of Camoes in front of it). Any help would be really appreciated! Thanks. Mary Ann --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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." -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
