Yes, puzzling and confusing. My grandfather was born from the pregnancy following that of stillborn twins. Yep, he was given the name of one of the twins. In tracking down names on one line from Praia do Almoxarife, I repeatedly saw siblings with the same first name (the boys, of course most of the girls were "Maria") but with some variations in middle names and even in "last names" used in adulthood. While I understand that Catholic Church was rather adamant about baptizing a child only with a saint's name, there were so many more saints than names used in the Azores!
What adds further confusion is when father and son have the same given name. The son may use his mother's family name to distinguish himself from his father--or some other name entirely. That may be the only name he goes by, which makes for confusion when tracing the names. Again, when tracking down names from this one line in Praia, I noticed one son's last name was not the same as his father's OR his mother's. Go figure. What I have learned is that names often were tied to land ownership. For example, a woman who owns land might use that family name all her life and never take her husband's name. Her children may have her family name somewhere in the string as a way of linking with the land ownership. Of course, everyone in the village knew who was who, so it didn't matter. Obviously, no one was thinking of those of us many, many years later trying to fill out the names and dates on a family tree! Though my grandfather's family name was Leal, all males in his paternal line had Silveira as a middle name (I have names back only three generations before my grandfather, into the early 1700s). Given the family was from Flamengos and three children of the town's founder Guillerme da Silveira (né Willem van der Haagen) remained and died in Flamengos leaving children, it's quite possible the use of Silveira in the Leal family line indicated some connection with one of these three children--which would mean I'm directly descended from van der Haagen himself. However, the use of Silveira could well have been an affectation or aspiration at one point. It may also have been an indication of illegitimacy. (Van der Haagen himself was illegitimate.) Tomás Leal -- 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.
