Hi Everyone, My name is Linda, and all my antecedents are from the Azores. I've always had an interest in my family history, and I had thought that "someday" it would be fun to tackle the project of expanding my family tree. About two months ago while I was idly googling this and that, I discovered that the Islands' parish records are now online. I found my grandparents' baptismal records, and that was it-- I was completely hooked on chasing down the rest of the family as far back as I can.
It's been great fun. I read a little Portuguese, enjoy history and puzzles, and have a research background, so the learning curve hasn't been too bad-- though I'm certainly finding that deciphering the handwriting on some records can be challenging to say the least! I knew that my family migrated to California from Terceira (Villa de Praia and Santa Barbara) and Flores (Santa Cruz and Cedros mainly), but I was surprised to discover that Santa Maria figures prominently in my family history too. It looks like I also have a connection to Faial though I haven't pursued it yet. So far, I've done a little of the Villa de Praia line (back to about 1800) and most of the Cedros line (though with gaps). At the moment, I'm concentrating on Santa Maria and have got back to circa 1710, mostly via the marriage records. I'm currently working on the records from the Matriz de NS de Assuncao, and then will tackle Sao Pedro and Santo Espirito. So far, this branch of my family is packed full of Resendes, with a few Curvelos, an Almada, a Cabral and a couple of Figueiredos and Souzas. Finally, a huge thank you to everyone in this group. I've been reading old posts, and the information they contain has been extremely helpful. I really wish I'd known about the Flores marriage book before trying to slog through the Cedros records (agh!), but it will certainly be useful when I return to working on the relations from that island. I've also read the posts on software recommendations, and I appreciate all the various points that were suggested for consideration. At the moment, I'm working with paper and pencil, but I definitely see the need for a database. Trying out a couple of the programs is one of my next priorities. I expect that I will be asking for help with decipherment and nuance. As my skills improve, I hope I'll be able to contribute back to the group too, for now, back to reading baptisms, Linda -- 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.
