ancestry of bento soares

In my last post, I wrote about Josefa do Amaral's parents.  This post I will focus on Josefa's husband's ancestry, Bento Soares.  I obtained Bento's parents' names from Bento's son's, Antonio Jacintho, baptism record.  They are Antonio Soares Rebello and Maria dos Santos, my husband's 5th great grandparents.

I like looking at these descendant charts because you can see how often the surnames change between generations.  I have found that most of my husband's Azorean ancestors have taken their mother's surname.

Both Antonio Soares Rebello and Maria dos Santos were baptized in Achada on the Island of Sao Miguel in the Azores.  I have a picture of the church in Achada from an earlier post about Antonio.

Antonio Soares Rebello ancestry

I was able to find Antonio's parents through Antonio's marriage record, Jose Soares Carreiro and Maria Rebello, who also spent their lives in Achada.  I did find Jose and Maria's marriage record in Achada, but it is missing some parts on the parish register, so I was not able to get the entire names of Antonio's grandparents, which makes bringing that line back another generation a little more difficult.

Jose Soares Carreiro's parents:
It looks like Jose's father's name begins with an M, and his mother is Maria Soares.  I looked for a marriage record for this couple in Achada around 1700, and found a possible match in 1698; but I am not certain it is correct as I do not know Jose's father's name.  This record shows the marriage of Manoel Rabello and Maria Soares.  If this is the correct couple, these would be Antonio's grandparents.  (I included the pedigree chart at the end of this post, but I did not include the names of the possible grandparents)  I may have also found Maria Soares' death record in 1729 in Achada.  Jose's marriage record does state Maria is deceased at the time of his marriage in 1734, so this could be her.  This Maria is about 50 years old at the time of her death, so she would have been born around 1679.  The husband stated on this record is the above Manoel Rabello.  Again; I have no evidence that this is the correct Maria, other than Jose's father's name begins with an "M" and that Maria died before 1734.  I have not looked for Manoel Rabello's death yet. (NOTE - azores genealogy group has information on this line with a second marriage for the above Manoel Rabello which links him with Carneiro surname - Manoel is listed as Manoel Rabelo Carniero.  With these new connections, I did add these names as Jose's parents.)

Maria Rebello's parents:
The only parts of Maria's parents' names I can gather from her marriage record are the surname of Rebello for her father and her mother's name as Cecilia Furtado.  Maria's marriage record also states that her mother, Cecilia, is deceased at the time of her marriage in 1734.  I looked through the Achada death records between the years 1703-1734, and the closest record I found was for a Cecilia Corvalda in 1729.  The surname does not match, but I have found other surnames change throughout time.  The husband's name of this Cecilia is Baltazar Rabello, which would fit with the Rebello last name on Maria's marriage record.  (It almost looks like the missing parts of his first name in Maria's marriage record could end in "ar"). This Cecilia is 60 years old at the time of her death in 1729, so she would have been born around 1669.   I also looked in the death records after 1734 up to 1745 for a Baltazar to see if Cecilia may be listed with surname of Furtado as wife; but the records are in bad shape for these years in Achada and I did not see any possible matches.  The death records then jump to 1753, so I think I will not be finding Baltazar's death.  This may be the ending point for this family line. (The marriage records for Achada beging in 1690, so I could look for a Baltazar Rabello and Cecilia Corvalda or Furtado here; but records are not in great shape.  There is also Canto's index which goes back a bit further, but I do not have access to it)



Maria dos Santos ancestry

According to Maria's baptism record, her parents were not from Achada (A) like her husband Antonio's parents.  Maria's father, Manoel Furtado Sengo, was baptized at the church in Achadinha (B); and her mother, Francisca Rodriquez, was baptized on the southern part of the island, at Agua do Pau (C).  (Note that Maria did not take a surname from her parents).  Below is a map of these areas of Sao Miguel.

Since Maria's parents, Manoel and Francisca, were from different areas of the island before they came to Achada and had Maria, it is more difficult to find their marriage record.  I browsed through the parish registers of Água do Pau and Achadinha, but did not find anything.  Many of the records during the late 1600's to early 1700's are illegible, so I very well could have missed it.  I have not looked that closely at the records in Achada for this couple, where they eventually settled and had their daughter Maria.  I have a possible baptismal record for Francisca; but I really need the marriage record to confirm parents.