Hello, I am new to the group and to Genealogy in general. I was always curious but I finally took the plunge in January. I am hoping to get some guidance from those more experienced. Here's a little bit of my story:
My father is from Aljezur (small town in Algarve). I do not know much about his family, he went to Sao Miguel, Azores in the army, where he met my mother. Money was tight, so we never met his family. The story is that my grandmother worked in a brothel or was a lady of the night. She had 3 kids, 2 boys and a girl, I believe. My birth certificate says that my paternal grandfather is unknown, however, my brother's says that it was someone by the name of Joao Afonso de Oliveira. My brother is 11 years older than I, I'm not sure what happened in those 11 years that made my father forget who his father was. My father did not have a last name, his name was Armando Joao. Myself and my siblings were given the last name of Oliveira. To complicate matters, my mother did not have a last name either but she went by (Maria Amelia) Soares Manteiga. I have been able to find a lot of baptismal certificates which explains some things, I have even been able to connect with a 4th cousin by DNA and through our trees. If this wasn't complicated enough, I found out that my great grandmother (on my mother's side) was an "exposta". Some documents she lists one couple as her parents and in other documents she names a different couple. Both couples are different from her godparents. I would like to know if there are any records, that you know of, for the "expostos", who raised them? Is there a database I can look at? There is a blank from the time my great grandmother was baptized and when she got married. My grandmother (my mother's mom) lived in the Azil for 4 years after her husband died. She had 4 young children and could not afford to raise them on her own so the entire family lived in the Azil until my grandmother remarried. Is there any way for me to find out any more information about this? I was born in Sao Miguel, I have been in Canada for bout 36 years, I am fluent in Portuguese but I am having a difficult time with this, I think it's because I am doing the wrong searches, or lack of experience. Thank you in advance!! -- 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.
