You know how ideas are really good in theory but sometimes when we put them to practice, well, we run into obstacles?
Joao Afonso Grotas Fundas...born mid to late 1400s, d. 1512. Work tracing ALL his sons forward for the past 550 years to wherever his descendants went: America, Canada, Brasil, Bermuda, Australia, etc. AND find a living son. That's a half a century of work! And do the same thing for the Count. Who are the sons of Joao Afonso of Grotas Fundas? Who are sons of the Count? Is someone on this list a strict line male descendant of those two men? Maybe. Are they sitting on the other side of the computer hiding out? I doubt it. If they are a strict line male descendant, they probably don't know it. Maybe it's Rick Pimentel. He's done a bunch of research, but he ran out of records way before the mid to late 1400s. Many people don't have their genealogy back to the 1400s because of the lack of records. And then we have this group of people - they either don't have an island or a freguesia yet and have not been able to search. Or maybe they have their island & freguesia but find reading the records intimidating and really haven't begun their research in the Azores. Maybe it's Peter Pimentel who lives in Omaha, Nebraska and is 1/16th Portuguese and doesn't do genealogy. (He's fictional, by-the-way). Maybe it's Mike Miller (also fictional) who lives in New England and whose family has been there forever, since Mayflower times. Or so he thinks. His surname is Miller and he assumes it is English and he assumes he goes back to the American colonial families. He doesn't know that Miller is an anglicization of Mello and that he's really Portuguese. His sister does all the genealogy by following the little green leaves on Ancestry and she thinks they are Mayflower descendants too. It would take a lot of work to trace the strict male lines forward. Not only for Joao Afonso, but William van der Haagen, Jose d'Utra, etc, etc. It would be wonderful to have the Y DNA of those prominent men of the Azores. And Gaspar Frutuoso too. But he was a priest and as far as we know, celibate. Did he have any brothers? So many good sample to get. Everyone should DNA test even if they are just beginning in genealogy. They may be that person that we are after and they just don't know it yet. Cheri Mello Listowner, Azores-Gen Researching: Vila Franca, Ponta Garca, Ribeira Quente, Ribeira das Tainhas, Achada -- 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 https://groups.google.com/group/azores.
