My much-older first cousin (who grew up knowing of our paternal family's Portugueseness) told me that when he was a lad, our grandfather related to him that when the family came from Flores -- best guess ca. 1872 -- they took the train cross-country from the East (I seem to recall they may have had a stint in Vermont before coming West, but am not sure, and have no evidence). Grandpa said that the family sat on wooden benches the whole way, that quickly became very uncomfortable. He added that despite a wood-burning stove (pot- bellied?) in the rail-car, it was very cold, evidently worse than anything they'd ever experienced in the Azores in winter (suggesting that their train ride might have occurred sometime between November and March).
Our fathers' maternal grandfather allegedly transited Cape Horn twice, according to his obituary. However, I don't know yet whether his wife (my cousin's and my great-grandmother) and our grandmother (then a tot) came to San Francisco by ship or train. This would've been ca. 1879, I believe, as both of my paternal grandparents are enumerated in the 1880 US Census. Katharine. -- 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."
