Thanks Cheri and Eric.
The "Maria Pacheco" stuff has been puzzling me for a while. sometimes I get the idea that the first Pacheco people where so fertile and had a lot of children thus the name spread out in very different ways. I am not an expert on the subject but I'm getting the idea that there are several Pacheco first lines in S. Miguel: at least three. The Pacheco that came to S. Miguel were said being descendants of the first ones who made Portugal as an organized kingdom. In S. Miguel they were prominent members of the first settlers. As everyone may know in all families over the times very few of his members kept the wealth, some ketp on "middle class" behavior and the majority entered the "unknown", disappearing in the commonness of everyday life. Only a few surnames were able to keep up with. There is a portuguese saying: "grandfather: rich man, father: nobleman, son: poor man." I do not think they would be "authorized" to use the name just because it was a preminent name. I have heard stories of people being obliged not to use certain family names because they were not worse the "honor". Sometimes, it looks like it is just the name of their "owner", would it be the "unknown" father of the child or the "kind" employer. Never found a slave entering the family but I suspect of "washing" episodes. I have read some wills and sometimes people are unexpectedly generous with servants. Or, may be is like you are saying: just a good name! Well, when I died I will take my family tree up with me hopping someone there will enlightens me :P -- -- 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." --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Azores Genealogy" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
