If rare, then my 2d generation Portuguese family did all they could to fit in and become "American" ... e.g., grandparents discouraged Portuguese spoken by children or grandchildren. ALL reference to family surnames were anglicized. da Rosa Semiao to ROSE Fraga to FRAZER Machado to MARSHALL Soares to SEARS Some of this came from a general lack of education among the children. My father was the only child of nine to reach the 8th grade. All other males stopped at most at grade 7 and females before that. As a result, even in 1980, neither my father nor my living uncles understood enough geography to understand where the Azores were ... they had some notion that their father had come from "an island off Portugal" ... had no idea it was more like 900 miles west Portgugal. I must say that I believe this to have been more common among those immigrants arriving prior to 1900. After that, I found retention of original spellings much more the norm. In a message dated 8/11/2012 11:28:02 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [email protected] writes:
I would say not that common at all that someone would hide their heritage. It is rare. -- 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."
