One of the most valuable tools that I have ever used are the works of Rodrigo Rodrigues (Genealogias de S. Miguel e Santa Maria) and Jorge Forjaz and António Mendes Ornelas (Genalogias da Ilha Terceira and Genealogias das Quatro Ilhas: Faial, Pico, Flores and Corvo) The volumes on Terceira did not include an index but one has just been published. Genalogies from Graciosa and S. Jorge are anxiously awaited. In addition to pedigrees exctracted from available vital records, these works include ancestral pedigrees that are not available in vital records because they either no longer exist, having been destroyed or lost, or go back to the earliest days of the first settlers. This information is extracted from wills, land records, deeds of sale, and entailments, where careful reference to blood lines was a must. There are even law suits where someone claims that they are entitled to some benefit from an estate because their great-grandmother was the sister of the founder of the estate, etc. I do not know what American institutions have these volumes. Like most such works relative to the Azores they were printed in small and expensive quanities (500 to 1000 sets; the index to the Terceira volumes alone costs 83 Euros including shipment to the US!) I believe that the Ferreira-Mendes archives at UMass-Dartmouth may have a pre-publication copy of Rodrigo Rodrigues that was sent over with the collection from the now defunct American Portuguese Genealogical and Historical Society, but it might not yet be catalogued or available. You'd best check with them by phone or e-mail before going to the campus. Good luck! John Miranda Raposo
________________________________ From: Jesse Pacheco <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Saturday, January 14, 2012 10:07 AM Subject: [AZORES-Genealogy] Looking for a "status update" on records and research methods Hi group, I've been out of the loop for awhile now (haven't really been able to do any research for over two years now) but was wondering if there have been any developments or changes as far as the status of the records online and their accessibility has gone. I remember someone had been in correspondence with the Azores site who said they did plan to eventually have all the records online, but did not give a date. I also remember that I had been using a website called etombo who had a great deal of mainland records online (although their interface was slower than the Azores site's). I believe etombo also had place holders for Azores records, or maybe I had been told they would eventually host them? I could be imagining that though. Familysearch was also in the midst of some changes and was regularly adding records. Unfortunately, I still am not really able to get to any family history centers (and if I remember correctly the one nearest me was having problems) and so I was wondering if someone who has stayed up to date could tell me if there have been any significant breakthroughs with research methods in the past two years. It would be any major things since the summer of 2010. Time was an issue, but the big reason I got out of researching was because I had done as much as I could with the resources I had. I would love to be able to get back into it. If it's relevant, my research revolves around Lagoa and Nordeste in Sao Miguel as well as undetermined parts of Santa Maria, and then Massachusetts and tiny bit of California in the 1900s. Thanks! -- Jesse Pacheco [email protected] -- 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." -- 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."
