Sorry, I have a ton of emails and haven't had a chance to read all of them yet. Hopefully, someone didn't already answer this question.
Many years ago my Mother and I took a Portuguese genealogy class at the Sacramento FHC and this was a topic of discussion during the class. One class member's Grandfather jumped ship and indicated he was having troubles finding information, etc., etc. Basically the topic mentioned that not all the ships owners and or captains were very nice. All some owners/captains wanted was FREE labor. So, the immigrants immigration papers were taken by the owner/captain and when the ship arrived at a US port, they would not be allowed to get off the ship. If you didn't have papers the US wouldn't let you "in". We were told that some immigrants would light a fire near the shores of the island (they lived on) to signal a ship that they wanted to work on a ship and immigrate to another country. Immigrants would be promised that if you work for so many years....then we'll take you to America in trade for labor. But, many times this didn't happen. In addition, there we many that immigrants (not just Portuguese immigrants) who were basically thrown overboard at sea. Once they were finished with their "free" labor, they got rid of them. . Robin Borba Besotes . Researching: Bettencourt, Borba, Barbe, Da Rosa, Jacinto, Rodrigues, Mattos California Towns: Newman, Turlock, Crowslanding, San Jose, San Juan, Tres Penos, Hollister, Watsonville, Pacific Grove --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To unsubscribe from this group, send email to azores-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. Follow the confirmation directions when they arrive. For more options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail (vacation) mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my membership." -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
