HI Eliseu, Try to explain that to people who immigrated to America a while ago and went to American schools. Roll call...and their names are in the D section! They seriously think their name begins with a D and they look at me like I'm crazy when I try to explain the pre-surname thing.
But if we all did alphabetize by de, da, do, d'....then a very large portion of Portuguese people would have surnames beginning with D! That would be very strange! One of the tech help guys at The Master Genealogist was a De Silva. That drove me nuts. It IS his legal name in America and they immigrated a long time ago. And his Da got corrupted into a De. And Hawaii is a whole different story because their spellings really got changed around. And I suppose people look at my name over in the Azores and think I can't spell. Actually, I know that they think that. When I used to write the archives, they wrote back to me as a Melo, not Mello. At my local Portuguese hall, they also spell my name Melo. I know how to spell my legal name and I know that he emigrated in 1903 before the spelling change and that I carry the "old" spelling. I just go with the flow. But yes, searches in Portuguese databases need to be done without de/da/do/d' and in American searches, try it every which way you can! Cheri Mello Listowner, Azores-Gen Researching: Vila Franca, Ponta Garca, Ribeira Quente, Ribeira das Tainhas, Achada -- 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]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/azores.
