Thank you, Tomas. It does get very confusing. MaryAnn
On Thu, Apr 16, 2015 at 2:01 AM, Tomas Leal <[email protected]> wrote: > 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. > -- *MaryAnn Santos* Senior Advisement and Student Affairs Administrator Department of Art and Art Professions NYU/Steinhardt 212.998.5702 [email protected] Follow us at *Twitter / @NYUart <https://twitter.com/NYUart>Instagram / @nyuart <http://instagram.com/nyuart>* *Facebook / NYU Art Department <https://www.facebook.com/pages/NYU-Art-Department/53833145389>* -- 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.
