In a message dated 9/17/2009 2:06:14 PM Eastern Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: > At the Oakland, CA FHC a guy who volunteers there and specializes in > Portuguese/Azorean genealogy told me that when he visited Sao Miguel a > few years back, he went to several of the old churches in the villages > of Bretanha and I believe Santo Antonio and asked the Priest if they > had any older books of church records. As noted in the Family History > Library Catalog the records from Bretanha cover the years 1703-1882, > and the records from Santo Antonio cover the years 1625-1880. He told > me that the Priests did have several older books stored away that > apparently were not given to the Government and National Archives back > when all the records were rounded up. > > He said the Priest let him look at the books and take notes on people > he was looking for (He gave the priest a small donation for his time > and effort-i think $50). He also said that some of the older records > went back to the mid to late 1500's in Bretanha and I think Santo > Antonio. > > This is a very interesting bit of information for anyone who is > researching their families in Sao Miguel, because it is possible that > other churches might have done the same things and have kept some of > the older records, rather than turning them over to the government. > > Anyways, I do not know if these records will be microfilmed, copied or > scanned. > > > David The available marriage records for Santo António begin in 1607, with maddening gaps for 1674-1698 and 1719-1728; the records are complete after 1729. I have an index of these marriages. Dr. Miguel Soares da Silva also researched the available birth and death records in an attempt to fill in those gaps. His research is Reconstituição das Famílias de Santo António, and does indeed fill in many blanks.
As for Bretanha, in addition to the available records, there is an index of birth and marriage records that was developed in 1727 by the Vicar, André de Sousa Dias, from decaying birth (beginning in 1606) and marriage (beginning in 1569) registers, both with many gaps. I have these Santo António and Bretanha records. As far as I know there are no plans for microfilming them. John Miranda Raposo --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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." -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
