Dear António, I am afraid I must disagree with you.
You are correct that today, the use of Dona, the use of which is almost universal, is usually used in the formal address of a married or older woman. However, until the end of the 19th/early 20th centuries, it was reserved for propertied and socially promminant women, either in their own right, or through their husbands. I have seen 19th century marriage records of many a young 17 year old Dona... being married to a morgado, or someone whose profession is described as "vivendo dos seus bens" (in other words, living from his investments). At 17 one is neither old nor married. I have even see a baptism of an infant Dona Maria Isabel, daughter of a Morgado and his wife D. .... When doing genealogical research one can go through several generations of ancestors who were illiterate peasants. And then all of a sudden in the 18th century one discovers a male ancestor with a very long series of family names and his wife, Dona Efigênia da Silva dos Reis e Mendonça, and one knows that the rest of the research will be easy. If one is researching in S. Miguel or Santa Maria, it is almost a certainty that D. Efigênia's line will be documented in Carlos Machado or Rodrigo Rodrigues all the way back to one of the first settlers of the islands or the Condes de Feira, etc., etc. So, the use of Dona in the last 120 years is as you describe it, but before then, my illiterate barefooted females ancestors, mostly named Maria de Jesus, were not titled Dona by anybody. "Tia Maria de Jesus" was more likely and Carlos Machado and Rodrigo Rodrigues were not interested in their ancestry. Best regards, John Miranda Raposo On Tuesday, April 29, 2014 3:43 PM, Antonio Roque <[email protected]> wrote: 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]> >> >> >>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. -- 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.
