aldina pereira francisco part 3 (parents and siblings)

Aldina Pereira's birth record from the church, Nossa Senhora da Estrella, in Matriz, Ribeira Grande, Sao Miguel, Azores, was the gateway record to finding more about her family on the island of Sao Miguel.  With help from the Azores Genealogy Group, I was able to transcribe the record enough to obtain her parents' and grandparents' names and the churches they were baptized in, as seen below in her pedigree chart.  Rick Pimentel also directed me to Aldina's parent's marriage record, which I will write about in my next post.

Below is a map (google maps) of the island of Sao Miguel, where the Pereira family is from.
     

pedigree for Aldina Pereira Franciso
I wanted to see if I could find some siblings of Aldina by browsing through the records for the church Nossa Senhora da Estrella.  I knew she had a brother Anibal, which I found quickly since I had a birth year of about 1886.  I browsed through many years looking for their parents' names in the baptismal records, until I came across an index to baptisms for this church through the Google Groups, Azores Genealogy.  The index looks to be from the University of the Azores, and breaks the years up into two books for baptisms, Baptismos Livro 1 (1860-1884) and Baptismos Livro 2 (1885-1910).  The index is organized alphabetically by child's first name, then alphabetical by parents' name.  I still had to browse through many pages, but it was much quicker and easier to look through this table than to sift through each baptismal page looking for parents' names.  Amazingly, I found 10 children for Antonio do Amaral Pereira and Maria da Paixao.  Their last child, Maria, was born in 1908, when Antonio was 59 years old and Maria was 41. 

family chart for Antonio do Amaral Pereira and Maria da Paixao

aldina pereira francisco part 2 (records)

In my last post I transcribed the baptismal record of my husband's great grandmother from Ribeira Grande, Sao Miguel, Azores.  In this post I will go over some of the other records I have for Aldina, and the order that I found them in.

Starting with what is known, Jeff's grandfather's name: Gilbert Ernest Francis born in 1915 in RI.

Gilbert is listed in the 1920 census with his family, Ernest Francis and Aldene Francis in Providence, RI.

• Residence 1920: 368 Wickenden St, Providence, Rhode Island
• states Aldene was born in the Azores around 1898, and she immigrated in 1905.  The birth year seems young, as she would have had a baby when she was 17 years old.
• Source: Ancestry.com, 1920 United States Federal Census (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010), Year: 1920; Census Place: Providence Ward 1, Providence, Rhode Island; Roll: T625_1676; Page: 5A; Enumeration District: 172; Image: 909; Name: Aldene Francis.

Gilbert in the 1930 census with his family, father Ernest Francis, mother Aldine Francis.

• Residence 1930 : 10 Ingraham St, East Providence, RI
• states Aldine Francis was born in Azores around 1890, immigrated in 1911, and married at the age of 23, about 1913.  So if she immigrated in 1911, or in 1905 as the 1920 census states, she was married in RI.  The 1930 census birth date seems more likely, especially if she married in 1913.
• Source: Ancestry.com, 1930 United States Federal Census (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: MyFamily.com, Inc., 2002.Original data - United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930. T626, 2,667 rol), Year: 1930; Census Place: East Providence, Providence, Rhode Island; Roll: 2172; Page: 28B; Enumeration District: 212; Image: 303.0. Name: Aldine Francis.

Next I looked for Ernest Francis and Aldina's marriage record in Rhode Island around 1913, to find Aldine's maiden name.  

• Marriage: 14 Sep 1912 in RI
• This is just an index, so the only additional information, other than marriage date, is names of Ernesto Francisco and Aldina Pereira
• Source : Ancestry.com, Rhode Island Marriages, 1636-1930 (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2000.), Name:Aldina Pereira.

Now I have Aldina's maiden name and two dates to keep in mind for a passenger record for Aldina Pereira, 1905 (from the 1920 census) and 1911 (from the 1930 census).  I found an Aldina Pereira traveling with her brother Anibal Pereira in 1907.  

• Arrive: 28 Nov 1907 in Boston, Massachusetts
• states Aldina was born around 1889 in Ribeira Grande, Sao Miguel, Azores; lists her father as Antonio Pereira from Ribeira Grande.
• Source : Ancestry.com, Boston Passenger Lists, 1820-1943 (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: MyFamily.com, Inc., 2006.Original data - Boston, Massachusetts. Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Boston, Massachusetts, 1891-1943. Micropublication T843. RG085. Rolls # 1-454. National Archives, Washington, D.C.Bo), Name:  Aldina Percira.

Now that I have this passenger record, I need to connect this Aldina Pereira with Ernesto Francisco, and then I can be sure that this is Aldina's passenger record and that she was born in Ribeira Grande, Sao Miguel, with a father of Antonio Pereira.  Her marriage record, which I do not have, would list her parents.  Also, her death record would list her parents' names.

I did find a death record from the Social Security Death Index for a Aldina Francis.

• Death: Dec 1971 in Rumford, Providence, RI
• Source: Ancestry.com, U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-Current (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2011), Number: 037-05-1115; Issue State: Rhode Island; Issue Date: Before 1951.
• Burial: Gate of Heaven Cemetery, East Providence, RI
• She is buried with three of her daughters, Doris, Hilda and Anna, all seem to have not married as they all have the surname Francis.  No Ernest Francis on headstone from picture.
• Source : findagrave.com, Find A Grave; Find A Grave Memorial# 135473210.

headstone of Aldina Pereira Francis (from findagrave member J. Benjamin Chrismond #47684041)

Back in 2008, I actually sent away for Aldina's SS-5 application to obtain more information, and I wrote a blog post about it.  Unfortunately; I cannot find this application, but according to my post, this record shows that Aldina's parents are Antonio Amaral Perry and Mary Moreira.  The father's name matches the Aldina that immigrated in 1907, just a little americanized as Perry rather than Pereira.  I did not write it in that post, but I am sure they must have listed Aldina's husband as Ernest Francis, or I would have noticed otherwise.  It seems very likely to me that the passenger record in 1907 is the correct Aldina Pereira, as the SS-5 application links the surname Francis to Aldina Pereira with a father of Antonio Perry (Pereira).  The headstone at Gate of Heaven Cemetery also connects Aldina Francis who dies in 1971 to her children Dora, Hilda and Anna from the censuses.

I wrote in my last post how I found the baptismal record of Aldina Pereira Francisco in the church records available online.

• Birth:  19 Jul 1889 in Matriz, Ribeira Grande, Sao Miguel, Azores; parish Matriz da Estrela
• The birth date is a bit off from the SS-5 application of June 24, 1889.
• Source : Matriz da Estrela (Ribeira Grande, São Miguel, Azores), Registos Paroquiais, Estrela, Batismos 1885-1889 > 1889 > 0062 (accessed 3/23/2015). baptism aldina pereira. Centro de Conhecimento dos Açores (CCA).

The following are some other records I found for Aldina Pereira Francisco:

1. Residence 1915 : 134 Brook St, Providence, Rhode Island
• Source : Ancestry.com, Rhode Island, State Censuses, 1865-1935 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013), Enumeration Year: 1915; Township: Providence Ward 1; County: Providence; Enumeration District or Census Tract: 224; Line Number: 43; Household number: 170; Volume Number: 11; Name: Ida Francis.
2. Residence 1925 : 10 Ingraham St, East Providence, Rhode Island
• Source: Ancestry.com, Rhode Island, State Censuses, 1865-1935 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013), Enumeration Year: 1925; Township: East Providence ; County: Providence; Enumeration District or Census Tract: 119; Line Number: 20; Household number: 1; Volume Number: 14; Page Number: 3; Name : Huldina Francis
3. Residence 1941 : 10 Ingraham St, East Providence, Rhode Island
• Source: Ancestry.com, U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011), Publication Title: East Providence, Rhode Island, City Directory, 1941; name: Ernest Francis.

I still have not found Ernest or Aldina in the 1940 Federal Census or the 1935 RI census.  I did find their children Arthur and Hilda (age 13 and 14) in the 1935 RI census, living at 10 Ingraham St., but no one else in the family seems to be listed. This census is filed differently than others, with each person on their own individual card. I cannot find a way to find an entire household.  As for the 1940 Federal census, Ernest and Aldina are listed in the 1941 East Providence directory, still living at 10 Ingraham Street. I searched for this street on the 1940 census, and it is included, but the enumerator seems to have missed house number 10. Perhaps the Francisco family were not home on this day. 

aldina pereira francisco part 1 (birth)

Aldina Pereira Francisco is my husband's great grandmother from the Azores, Portugal.  It has been passed down to him that she is from the Island of Sao Miguel, but I have not ventured into any Portuguese records yet.  I have searched a little for her records in the US, but have found the Azores naming traditions to be difficult to follow.  Sometimes their surnames will be completely different from one census to the next, which makes tracing the families very difficult.  I thought I would give it another try though by starting with reading some guides on Azore genealogy.  This is how I came across the Azore Genealogy group on Google groups.  They brought me to the Centro de Conhecimento dos Açores (CCA) website, which is done by the Portuguese government and includes parish records all the way up to the 1900s.  As suggested on this Azores Google group, the easiest way to link to this site is through the tombo portal.

To use this site, I would need to know which part of Sao Miguel Aldina was from.  I had already found her passenger record which states she and her brother Anibal were from Ribeira Grande, Sao Miguel, Azores.  The record gives an address for their father Antonio A. Pereira of R. Gonçalo Bezerra.  After looking this street up on google maps and looking at the wikipedia article on Ribeira Grande, I knew that this address would be part of the Matriz parish.  I browsed through the year 1889 (estimated birth date from passenger record) in these parish books and was very excited to find Aldina's baptismal record.  These records not only give Aldina's parent's names, but her maternal and paternal grandparents.  The record also states that her parents were from, and married, in another parish of Ribeirinha, Ribeira Grande at the church of Santíssimo Salvador do Mundo.


baptismal record for Aldina Pereira from Matriz, Ribeira Grande, Sao Miguel

I have tried to translate this record, with a little help from the Azores Google Group...

"On the thirteenth day of the month of august/
of the year one thousand eight hundred eighty/
nine in the mother church parish/
of Nossa Senhora da/
Estrella, council of the town/
of Ribeira Grande, diocese/
of Angra, baptized solemnly/
an individual of the feminine/
sex to whom I gave the name of Aldina/
and that born at one hour/
in the morning on the nineteenth day of/
the month of July…/
legitimate daughter of Antonio/
de Amaral Pereira, carpenter, and of/
Maria de Paixao, …/
domestic, natives of/
Santissimo Salvador of the/
place of Ribeirinha where they where/
married …, /
paternal granddaughter of Antonio de Amaral/
and Margareda Izabel, maternal/
of Jose Jacintheo Moreira and/
Maria do Espineto Santo.  For/
godfather Jose …/
.../
...godmother Filomena de/
Jesus…"

Below is a photo of the church Aldina Pereira was baptized in.

By José Luís Ávila Silveira/Pedro Noronha e Costa (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons"
Matriz da Ribeira Grande, Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Estrela, Ilha de São Miguel, Açores

rhode island families

I have been trying to write a post about my great grandparents that lived in MA, but it is taking me longer than expected. In the meantime, while data gathering, I found a great grand uncle that moved to Rhode Island. I have not done much research yet in Rhode Island, even though my husband's family is from that state, so I searched to see what kind of online databases were out there. I found a very useful one on familysearch.org, Rhode Island Deaths and Burials, 1802-1950.

I was able to find the death of my great grand uncle mentioned above. I will write about that in another post; but since I was in this database I could not stop myself from plugging in some names on my husband's side of the family. I was so excited to find some new information. I wanted to note it all down here, even though I did also enter it into my family tree. I like to have a record of what I have searched and what new information I found; sometimes that can get lost in all the names in my family tree. 

I started with my husband's maternal line. I already knew his great great grandmother, Hilma Sofia Myrhman, had died in Rhode Island sometime after 1920, as that is the last census I found her in. I found her very quickly in the above mentioned Rhode Island database under the name Hilma Sofia Anderson, with a death date of July 23, 1947 in Coventry, RI. Now I can search for her in the 1930 census, and look for her obituary. The death record also listed her father's name, which I did not have, as Per Mirhman (a little different spelling). I will also look for any other of her children which could be listed in this database, although their deaths may have occurred after 1950. Perhaps she had siblings that came to the US though?

I also new my husband's other great great grandparents probably died in Rhode Island in the early 1900s, so I searched for their names. I found Alfrid Carlson's death on March 25, 1914 in West Warwick, RI. This date is a year off from the transcrition of his stone I found online from The Rhode Island Historical Cemeteries Transcription Project. I also found his wife in the database with a death date of July 25, 1935 in West Warwick, RI. I already had the names of both sets of parents, which was the same as I found in the database. I will next have to search for their nine children in this database.

My husband's paternal side of his family also has people I was interested in finding in this Rhode Island Death database. This side of his family is Portuguese, and I have had trouble in the past searching in online databases because I find the names unfamiliar and a little confusing. They seem to switch between two surnames in the census, and sometimes use a name as a middle name. I was a bit hesitant to search, but I think I did find some new information that seems to fit in with this family. 
Here is the family chart to refer back to if need be :



My first search on this side of the family was for my husband's great grandfather Ernesto Francisco, (he has the easiest name). I have only seen his name written a couple of different ways, Ernesto Francisco and Ernest/o Francis. In this database, he is listed as Ernest E Francis. I believe his middle name is Gilbert, the E may be a transcription error. According to this database, Ernest died on October 28, 1941 in East Providence, RI. I did not have Ernest's parents' names before I searched this database, so that was another great find. They are listed as Joseph Francis and Frances Mattos. I had some indication that his father's name was Joseph, when I found what I think are Ernest's sisters on a ship passenger list; naming Joseph as their father and Ernest as their brother. It does seem likely that these are his sisters that came to Rhode Island from Sao Miguel, Azores. I did a quick search for these sisters in the Rhode Island database, but was unable to locate them. Their names on the passenger list are Maria Conceicao Tereira and Maria Ernestina, arriving in Boston, MA in 1914. Strange that their father's surname of Francisco is not listed. They travelled with an older woman, but I am not sure of her relationship to them.

Ernesto's wife, Aldina Pereira, died in 1971, so she would not be listed in this database. I do already have her parent's names from Aldina's social security application. According to Aldina's passenger record, she traveled to Boston with her brother, Annibal, whose death date I do not have. I am not sure where he was living or if he died after 1950, but he is not listed in the Rhode Island Death database either.

The more confusing side of my husband's portuguese family is another set of great great grandparents, the Gouveia/Martin's. I have found this family listed as Joseph Gouveia, Joseph Govey, Joseph Martin, Joseph Martin Govey; the last entry is how he is listed in the Rhode Island Death database. I previously had not had a death date for Joseph or his wife Theresa. Joseph died February 1, 1901 in Cranston, RI. The birth date for Joseph does seem to be a bit off from what I have in my family tree, I am not sure why the discrepancy, but perhaps this is not the correct death information after all. My original source for Joseph's birth was the 1900 census, which gave his birth about 1854. His death record shows his birth as 1865. If the Rhode Island Death database is correct, then Joseph's parents are Manuel Gouveia and Theresa. In this database, there is also a Frank Martin Govey born in 1879 with the same parents, perhaps Joseph's brother.

Joseph's wife Theresa has been a little more difficult to find. I have Theresa's maiden name as Andrade, from her daughter Mary's social security application. The death database does list a Theresa Martin Amorel Govey with a death date of 24 Feb 1912 in Warwick, RI. The parents listed though do not match her maiden name of Andrade - but are Antonio and Clara Amorel. The birthdate of 1868 is also different than the Theresa from the 1900 census of around 1856. I am not sure I am finding the correct couple with these different birth dates, but I am now beginning to think that the census was incorrect. I checked to see if I had Theresa in the 1910 census, and I did. This census does list her birth date of 1870, much closer to the death record I found. She is also living in Warwick, RI, the place the "other" Theresa died only 2 years later. I am inclined to believe this is the correct death record of Theresa. Perhaps the social security application noted her maiden name incorrectly, or some Azorean naming custom which I do not understand has come into play. Once again, the Gouveia's/Martins are giving me some difficulty.

Overall, I was happy with the information I found in this database. I am not done searching through it yet, but I do want to move on to my other task of writing about one set of my great grandparents.

My First SS-5 application arrives

For a long time, I have been wanting to order Social Security Applications for my ancestors, but never actually did it; until a couple of months ago. I think I just did not want to wait impatiently for the mail every day until it came, so I never bothered to start the process. In early April, I ordered three applications from the SSA, from my husband's side of the family. Today I received one of them, Aldina Pereira Francisco. I have her maiden name of Pereira from the Rhode Island Marriages database on Ancestry.com. I also have her father's name of Antonio Pereira from her passenger record into Boston, MA with her brother Anibal.

I was hoping to find further evidence of her father and mother's name from the SS-5 application, as there is some confusion with last names on my husband's Portuguese side of the family. I have found numerous occasions of families switching between two different surnames. I need to look into surname traditions on the Azores for further clarification, but I believe sometimes the maternal surname was used.

I also have some research that was done from one of my husband's distant cousins who went to the Family History Library and looked up records from their parish of Our Lady of Estrela - Nossa Senhura do estrela - in Ribeira Grande on the island of St. Michael (San Miguel) Azores. According to her research, Aldina's father's name is Antonio Amaral Pereira and Aldina's mother's name is listed as Maria da Paixao Moreira Pereira. She also lists the children, including Aldina, with the last name of Amaral, not Pereira. Perhaps Antonio's mother's maiden name is Amaral?

According to the SS-5 application, Aldina's parents are Antonio Amaral Perry and Mary Moreira. Obviously these names are Americanized, but they do clarify that this family probably went by Pereira or Perry once they came to the United States, and not Amaral. Eventually when I begin looking in the parish records from the Azores I will have to look under both Amaral and Pereira.

Another interesting piece of information found on the SS-5 application is that Aldina was working at Westminster Jewelry store at 158 Pine Street in Providence, RI, which was filed November 24, 1936. She was about 52 years old.

To Do:
1. Find naming customs for Azores, Portugal
2. Search parish registers at FHL