We have a family "myth" that my maternal grandmother's father (Jose Antonio Caetano Azevedo Mancebo 1846 - 1919) had a family back in Ribeira Seca, Sao Jorge, but his wife died. He wanted to come to the US, but his children decided to stay there with family. I don't know how many kids, or how old, or if it's even true? It had been told to some of my cousins by my grandmother's youngest sister, Virginia. I haven't scoured the marriage records yet to see if I can find a previous wife. If I do find a record of a previous marriage, then I could look through the baptisms for potential children.
It's interesting that the cousins had heard of this potential other family, but no one had told them that my grandfather had four brother's & a sister? Nor that his father was listed as "pai incognito" but the man who was listed as the godfather in his baptism was listed as the father for his following siblings. I have heard that illegitimate children are sometimes rebaptised when the father marries the mother, making them legitimate, but have found no record of this either. There is no way to know if Jose & his siblings shared the same father or not unless we get really lucky finding multiple cousins via DNA. BTW, I just found out about this earlier this year. No one had told us, but maybe they assumed it was common knowledge? My mom is almost 92 & she had never heard of it, & my mom is still as sharp as a tack, she would not forget something like that. Virginia's daughter, Wanda is still alive & she had not heard of it. It was the children of Virginia's son Robert who had heard of it & he died back in 2007. We may never know? Lesson learned: ask lots of questions while people are still alive! Then still double & triple check... On Monday, October 17, 2016 at 1:21:13 PM UTC-7, Cheri Mello wrote: > > I'm starting the topic of lost husbands in its own thread since Paul's > topic was different. However, when Margaret brought the following up, I had > questions. > > Margaret said: > <<They are all saying the same thing i.e. husband was away, not missing. > The number of years gives the reader an insight at this lady's situation. > Unfortunately this happened to many women on the islands with immigrated > husbands. Some waited for many years, others didn't. Does this answer your > question?>> > > I would say it's a fairly safe bet for the man to leave. Why did he leave? > Some of my thoughts would be he left to try to make a better life. One > would like to think that he went somewhere with the intent of making money > to send back for his wife and children, (assuming he had children already). > Suppose he was not successful in making enough money. He's in a new county > and she's back in the Azores. It must be very difficult for her, and more > so if she had children. > > Suppose the husband and wife decided that they could not stand each other. > I'm sure very few got divorced back then. He could leave and start up a new > family in a new country and no one would know. > > From the couple of ideas I thought of above, the husband could start over > and no one would know. He could have a second family! But everyone in the > freguesia knew if she had a 2nd family! > > Does anyone have historical insight as to these situations? > Cheri Mello > Listowner, Azores-Gen > Researching: Vila Franca, Ponta Garca, Ribeira Quente, Ribeira das > Tainhas, Achada > -- 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.
