John and Eric, The lady at the Contra Costa Historical Society looked through their records for an hour and didn't bring up the Minten naturalization record, but now I'll look further. I had dismissed it because I thought name spelling would be critical in a naturalization record (I'm new at this).
The lady also brought up the idea of Manuel sending for the bride from Flores. I think Philomena could have been either the relative or daughter-from-previous-marriage of Manuel's neighbor John Joseph. My sister wrote Contra Costa County for birth, marriage, and death records for Manuel and wife and son John (my grandfather), but only received John's marriage and death certificates (both list mother as Philomena Joseph). We have contacted the Anticoch Catholic church of that era and they have no info on Manuel or son John. We think farmers Manuel and son John didn't vote because the roads were so muddy then, which is why they didn't celebrate Christmas get-togethers much, holding off for all the other seasonal fiestas and parties. Good idea on searching the fraternal organizations. Yes, our relatives belonged to them, including Portuguese 'Camps.' I no longer travel, otherwise I'd take a trip to Contra Costa. This genealogy research has turned out to be a addictive since my sister gave me a subscription to Ancestry.com in August. Thanks for the pointers, Steve On Friday, October 19, 2012 6:33:58 PM UTC-7, John Vasconcelos wrote: > > *Steve, > Between your family stories and Eric's observations I would surmise that > it was probably a simplification of a more complex name (which immigration > officials as well as individual immigrants have been known to do) . I need > to sleep on it for a while, but it's an intreaguing puzzle. > Regards, > John > BTW, where are you located?* > > -- 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."
