The word " Dona " is to show respect to an older woman, it has nothing to do with stature you have or your husband has. I might walk into a house any house and say " como vai a Dona da casa " or if I see someone I will say "como vai a Dona Maria " it is a term used allot in S. Miguel
On Tuesday, April 29, 2014 2:17:22 AM UTC-4, Doug da Rocha Holmes wrote: > > Hi Dano, > > I just wanted to mention that I have many ancestors who were capitao, > alferes, sargento and one tenente, plus another ajudante, not one of them > whose wife was called "Dona." Mine are from Pico and Terceira - mostly Pico > for my military ancestors. I do know they were "from old and noble > families" or some such wording in priest applications. I guess they just > didn't get that higher level treatment for some reason. > > Come to think of it, I even have some Capitao-mor ancestors or sons of my > ancestors and still their wives were not "dona." > > But you are right in most cases that on other islands we would see "dona" > for their wives. I guess it's just a quirk on Pico, but "dona" was > certainly found on Pico. I have one single ancestors with "dona" and she > was the wife of an administrator of a "vinculo" so I guess that finally was > enough to qualify. But her mother was not a "dona." It came from her > husband, yet his mother was not "dona" either! > > Since my only comment was about the use of this word, I changed the > subject. > > By the way, your comment about your failing eye sight came as a surprise, > since you still show no sign of it preventing you from reading the records > well. Impressive, but sorry to hear about that. > > Doug da Rocha Holmes > Sacramento, California > Pico & Terceira Genealogist > 916-550-1618 > www.dholmes.com > > > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: [AZORES-Genealogy] Re: Marriage and Death Record help > From: Dano <[email protected] <javascript:>> > > The obito is not for your Francisco, as he seems to have acquired a new > surname, and the high level military title of Captain, not even a full > eight years after his marriage, when his occupation was "shoemaker." People > just did not rise from artisan/craftsmen to the class of Captain "ever." > Only those of the privileged (noble) class could expect any such > appointment, and I don't see any Dom or Dona title for any of the people > mentioned. > > > -- 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.

