Repost for Gwen, 123caldeira at gmail.com Recently did Ancestry.com DNA, am now backtracking to find info on paternal side (already had maternal DNA matches and know many maternal first-third cousins).
My paternal grandmother's name was Mary Sears in some records, but Mary could be Maria, and Sears could be Soares. No middle name known. She died in Merced County in March, 1965, and was born about 1889 possibly in Pico, Azores. We have nothing on the yr she emigrated nor port of entry, but family story is she worked on a sheep ranch in Idaho for a few yrs under sponsorship of an uncle (no name) and may have had at least one brother here in the US (we think it was Anthony or Antonio Sears/Soares). She married Joseph Freitas Caldeira (we think from Flores, Azores) in Contra Costa Cty in 1911, then settled in Gustine, CA, had 5 living children, including my Dad, Joseph (Jr). Joseph Freitas Caldeira 1921 death cert says his parents were Frank Freitas Caldeira and Mary Sousa of the Azores. We have no info on Mary's parents' names; picked up the Pico, Azores birthplace from a Google Group string from 2013 which seemed to match my grandmother's dates. Using DNA matches from maternal relatives I've picked out names of 2nd and 3rd cousins in my own DNA matches that I believe may be related to me through my paternal grandfather/grandmother; no responses yet from messages sent through Ancestry.com so think I need more names/info on both paternal grands. I'd appreciate help picking up info or links on both of my paternal grandparents, but especially on my grandmother Mary/Maria Soares/Sears e.g. we'd like to find out if her maiden surname was really Sears or Soares or something else as my DNA ethnicity groups show unexpected possibility of non-Portuguese lineage in the paternal greatgrandparent generation (Italian and Irish in very high percentages). Thanks, Gwen -- 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.
