When I started working on the family history as a teen in the '70s, I maintained for a while a lively correspondence with Pat Amaral, one of the leaders in establishing Portuguese-American genealogy. I understand that she passed away some years ago.
Pat informed me that my g'g'grandfather Antonio Hurd / António da Terra had served the Union during the Civil War, as a sailor in the Stone Fleet (sometimes called the "Great Stone Fleet"). (For those not familiar with this attempt to blockade Confederate harbors, here's an overview: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_Fleet) I have combed through Union records (from during the period as well as later records regarding veterans and pensioners) but found no mention of my g'g'grandfather under any conceivable variant of his anglicized name or of his original Portuguese name. I'm thinking that perhaps the sailors of the Stone Fleet were never formally enlisted in the Union Navy... I have my side of my correspondence with Pat in storage in a different city, but as I recall she didn't indicate what her source was. Does anyone else here have an ancestor who (actually or allegedly) sailed with the Stone Fleet, and thus has familiarity with the relevant sources? And/or does anyone know what Pat did with her source materials collection -- i.e., is it in a library somewhere, or otherwise accessible to researchers? She also insisted to me (again, iirc, without naming her source(s)) that certain of my families were of known Converso descent, e.g., Silveira Cardoso from Lajes do Pico. For this reason too I'd love to know whether her source materials have been preserved and are accessible somewhere. Thanks in advance, David da Silva Cornell Miami, FL Researching the following surnames: Faial - Terra (unknown freguesia(s)) Flores - Freitas, Lourenço, Coelho (unknown freguesia(s)) Pico - Silveira Cardoso, Macedo, Machado, Pereira Madruga, Ferreira, Cardoso, Cardoso Machado, Vieira, Bettencourt, Dutra, Castanho, Homem, Goulart, Quaresma, Moniz, Barreto, Silveira, Mancebo, Pereira, Álvares (all Lajes do Pico) S. Jorge - Silva, Botelho, Azevedo, Cardoso (Urzelina); Silva, Azevedo, Cardoso (Santo António in Norte Grande) -- For 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]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/azores?hl=en.
