ancestry of ann jacinta

Anna Jacinta is my husband's 4th great grandmother, born around 1791 in Rabo de Peixe, Ribeira Grande, Sao Miguel, Açores.  As I wrote in my last post, I know that Anna's mother's name is Francisca Ignacia, and her father is unknown; as stated in Anna's marriage record and her children's baptismal records.


Finding Anna's Baptismal Record
I browsed the baptismal records for Rabo de Peixe through the years 1783-1792 and found only two Anna's that could be likely matches.  I wrote a little bit about this in my last post.  The record that seems to match the best is for an Anna born in 1791 to a Francisca de Jesus.  This baptismal record has the mother's second name as de Jesus, not Ignacia like all of Anna's other records.  This discrepancy does not mean the record is not Anna's, as second names change in the portuguese documents frequently; however, it does not help confirm it is the correct record.  I did find another Anna born in 1783 to a married couple, mother's name Francisca Ignacia.  But according to all the other records, Anna's father is unknown; so I find this record more unlikely.   

Finding Anna's Death Record
I browsed through the parish of Matriz, where Anna spent her married life, to see if I could find a death record; which I found in 1860 (Anna's death record).  When Anna died in 1860, she was 68 years old.  This would give Anna a birth year of about 1792.  This matches the first baptismal record I found for Anna, making me confident enough to include it, and all the information it contains, in my family tree. 

Anna's Grandparents
Since Anna's father is unknown, I will not be able to find any information on her paternal line.  Her maternal line; however, can go back at least one more generation, as Anna's baptismal record lists her mother's parents.  They are  Manoel da Silva de Pimentel and Eugenia Rosa.  The record also states that Manaoel and Eugenia are from Porto Formosa, Ribeira Grande, on Sao Miguel.  I looked for a baptismal record for Anna's mother Francisca Ignacia in this parish between the years 1766-1780 and found what I think to be a match.  The name does not exactly look like Francisca, but the year seems to be right, 1768.  This would have made Francisca about 23 years old when she had her daughter, Anna Jacinta.  I also looked before this date to see if I could find more children of Manoel and Eugenia.  I did find two of Francisca's siblings by browsing through the Porto Formoso records.  I have not checked the records after Francisca's birth yet to find more possible siblings.  Below is the family I have found for Manoel and Eugenia.

Anna's Great Grandparents and beyond

The baptismal records for this time period did not include grandparents' names, so my next step was to find Manoel and Eugenia's marriage record in hopes of bringing the line back another generation.  I started the year their first child was born, 1764, and made my way backwards in the records until I found it.  Manoel and Eugenia were married in April of 1763 in Porto Formoso.  The record does list their parents' names, (Francisca's grandparents), but they are a bit difficult to read.  It looks like Manoel's parents are Joam da Silva (with another surname I am unable to read), deceased, and Maria de Pementel.  Eugenia's parents are also difficult to read, her father's name looks like Manoel de Souza Santo and I can only make out her mother's first name of Anna, deceased.  I put a query into the Googles Azores group, for some help with reading these names a little better, and of course I had two quick responses.  It seems Anna's last name is probably Viveiros, and Joam's surname I was unsure of is Fajoeira. Their marriage record also states that Manoel and Eugenia were both baptised in Porto Fomoso; however, baptismal records do not go back far enough in Porto Fomoso to include Manoel and Eugenia.  Fortunately, Porto Formoso's marriage records go back further, and now that I have another generation of names (Manoel and Eugenia's parents') I took to the records again.   Starting twenty years earlier -  1737 - I browsed for marriage records for Joam da Silva Fajoeira and Maria de Pemental, and for Manoel de Souza Santo and Anna Viveiros.  Below are what I believe to be their marriage records, but the earlier you go in these records, the more difficult I find them to read.  I did get some help translating from the Azores Google group again.

Joam da Silva Fajoeira and Maria De Pementel
This marriage record in 1733 for Joam and Maria looks like a possibility.  Although after posting to the google group again, it does not seem to be the correct couple.  This seems to be for the marriage of Joao da Silva and Maria da Ponte.  I browsed the Porto Formoso records back to 1695 and did not find them.  The marriage records were hard to read, so I could have very well missed them.  They could also have been married in another parish.

Manoel de Souza Santo and Anna Viveiros
The marriage record of Manoel and Anna, translated from JR on Azores Google group "March 16 1727 Manoel de Souza filho de Sebastiao de Souza ja defunto e Luzia? Pachequa natural de lugar de Maya ...onde contrahente foi baptizado com Anna de Viveiros filha de Sylvestre de Viveiros e de Maria Ferreyra ja defunta moradores neste lugar de Porto Formozo ...onde foi baptizada.."  My rough translation from this is that Manoel de Souza son of Sebastiao de Souza, deceased and Luiza? Pachequa, native of parish of Maya, where he was baptized, with Anna de Viveiros, daughter of Sylvestre de Viveiros and of Maria Ferreyra, deceased, of the parish of Porto Formoso, where she was baptized.  So one more generation back!  Some other helpful information from this google group post was from Sandra Perez who writes that a sister to Anna de Viveiros is Catarina.  Other siblings are also mentioned, Francisca and Barbara.  JR from the google group also mentions another marriage for their father, Sylvestre de Viveiros, occurred in 1714; which would mean that their mother Maria Ferreyra was deceased by then.

Since the marriage records in Porto Formoso go back to 1695, I looked for Anna's parents' (Syvestre de Viveiros and Maria Ferreyra) marriage.  I was unable to find their marriage though, they do not seem to be in the Porto Formoso records from 1695 - 1704.

According to Manoel and Anna's marriage record, Manoel was not from Porto Formoso, but from Maia, in Ribeira Grande.  The records go back further in this parish for baptism and marriages, and I was able to find 3 more generations back for Manoel's line, which would be Jeff's 10th great grandparents, Antonio Bulhoes and Maria Cabral and Pedro Vieira and Maria da Costa.  I included this ancestry in the pedigree chart below.

From aldina pereira francisco

vicente jose pereira and anna jacinta - 4th great grandparents

I first started writing about my husband's Portuguese ancestors almost a year ago with some posts about his great grandmother, Aldina Pereira, who was born in Ribeira Grande on the Island of Sao Miguel in the Azores.  I then wrote about some of her paternal line, which included one set of Jeff's 4th great grandparents, Bento Soares and Josefa do Amaral.  For this post I am going to focus on my husband's other set of 4th great grandparents on Aldina's paternal line.  I was able to obtain their names, Vicente Jose Pereira and Anna Jacinta, from their grandson's, Antonio do Amaral Pereira, baptismal record (Jeff's 2nd great grandfather).



Family - Children
I wrote about Vicente and Anna's daughter Margarida in an earlier post and found that she was born in Matriz, Ribeira Grande, São Miguel, Açores.  Knowing what area this family was from helped me with my next step, which was to browse through the Matriz parish index (one of the few parishes that have an index available online) to find other children of Vicente and Anna.  I found a total of 8; the first one, Manoel born in 1810 and the last, Maria, in 1834.  All of the children's baptismal records that I have found for Vicente and Anna do have the same information on them with the parents' and grandparents' names.  Below is their family chart.



Marriage
With Vicente and Anna's children's birth dates, I was able to narrow down a possible marriage date for Vicente and Anna.  I was guessing they were married around 1809 in the Ribeira Grande area.  I started with the year 1807 and looked through the parish registers for the areas of Matriz, Conceição, and Rabo de Peixe.  Since I was not able to find their marriage I took to the Azores Google Group and posted to see if anyone had any suggestions.  Someone was able to find their marriage in 1806 in the parish of Conceição, Ribeira Grande  - if only I had looked one year earlier.  I am a little surprised however that they were married for over three years before they had their first child; unless they had their first child in the parish of Conceição, where they were married.  I have not looked through these records yet.

This marriage does provide some information which does not seem to fit in with this family.  The marriage record states that Vicente's parents are Manoel Pereira and Magdalena Rosa; which are the same names listed in Margarida Isabel Pereira's baptismal record as her grandparents.  This marriage record also has the correct parents for Anna Jacinta; which is, father unknown and mother is Francisca Ignacia.  The problem comes from the ages the marriage record lists in the margins.  Vicente's age is listed as 27, and Anna is 22 in 1806, the year of their marriage.  However; if Anna was 22 in 1806, she would have been 50 years old when she had her last daughter Maria in 1834 and Vicente would have been 55. These ages are unlikely, but still possible.  Finding their baptismal records would help solve these age issues.

Birth
I was able to find Vicente and Anna's birth location from their daughter's baptismal record, Margarida Isabel Pereira.  Vicente was born in Conceição, Ribeira Grande, Sao Miguel, Açores and Anna Jacinta was born in Rabo de Peixe, Ribeira Grande, Sao Miguel, Açores.

Now knowing which parish to look through, I found a Vicente baptised to a Manoel Pereira and Magdalena Rosa in 1789 in Conceição, Ribeira Grande; which would make Vicente 17 when he was married, not 27.  It seems probable that the ages were written incorrectly on the marriage record.  To further confirm birth date, I think I found his death record, which states he was 61 in 1849, which would make his birth date around 1788.

I have not been able to find a baptismal record that matches perfectly for Anna Jacinta.  The closest I have found is Anna born in 1791 to a Francisca de Jesus.  If this is Anna, she would have been only 15 at the time of her marriage in 1806; which is possible.  This may also explained why they did not have children right away if she was so young.  But this baptismal record has the mother's second name as de Jesus, not Ignacia like all the other records.  This discrepancy does not mean the record is not Anna's as second names change in the portuguese documents frequently; however, it does not help confirm it is the correct record.  I did find another Anna born in 1783 to a married couple, mother's name Francisca Ignacia.  But according to all the other records, Anna's father is unknown; so I find this record more unlikely.   I did find Anna's death record at the age of 68 in 1860, which would give Anna a birth year of about 1792.  This matches the first baptismal record I found for Anna.

After finding these baptismal and death records, it seems to me that the ages on their marriage record are incorrect.  This would mean Vicente was 17 and Anna was 15.  These are young ages to be married, but I have seen other marriages with spouses this young.  Perhaps Anna felt the need to marry at such a young age because her situation may not have been great, especially if she was living with her single mother who had her out of wedlock.