I believe it depended on the freguesia, the family, and the individual as to how much schooling an individual received in the late 19th century. It may also be ture that for some individuals, signing their names was the major extent of their literacy.
Anecdotal personal info: My maternal grandfather, born in 1904 in Santa Barbara, Terceira received some school as a child in the Azores, but though he was a very bright man, he didn't read easily. He did not write, but he could sign his name. My maternal grandmother was born (1909) in the US and received an 8th grade education as mandated by law (and presumably enforced by truant officers); I believe that she would have liked to have attended high school, but it wasn't considered acceptable by her parents for her to be in an unsupervised (in their cultural framework), mixed sex environment. Her father/my maternal GGF, was born in 1874, Cedros, Flores, and could read and write Portuguese as could his brothers. My maternal GGMother (born 1884 in Santa Cruz, Flores) could not read or write, because--according to the family story--she wasn't allowed to go to school. However, her oldest sister, because she was the oldest girl, was allowed, could read, and enjoyed reading her bible. On my father's side, I have less literacy information, but his family was better off, and I have a marriage from 1866--if I recall correctly-- in which my 2xGGM signed the record in a beautiful hand. I assume that she could read as well as sign her name. Documentary sources: somewhere in my files I have some mid to late 19th century accounts of the islands which mention literacy rates, and I think it may actually break it down by boys and girls. If I remember rightly, the overall rates were quite low, but were not as wide between boys and girls as I expected. I can dig the info up, if your interested in the stats and want me to check that. :) Linda On Sunday, December 11, 2016 at 2:09:46 PM UTC-8, Samantha B wrote: > > Culturally how common was it for women to be literate/educated at the turn > of last century. I'm intrigued as it was the bride who signed the marriage > record and not the groom. > > TIA > Samantha > -- 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.
