Cindy; I am certainly no expert but; from what I have learned, women in the Azores in this time period did not routinely use a surname. Again, this largely depends on the time frame. Children could have a surname of their mother, father, grandparent on either side, distant relative, etc. If you had 6 children in a family, they could have 6 different surnames. The use of surnames was in part a way to honor ancestors so, they covered as many bases as possible. (Now, that was a bit of a generalization but; just to give you the idea.)
Also, very often you will have several Marias that are siblings. These Marias would also have a second name and that is the name they would be called by. (Maria, of course, would be honoring the Virgin Mary.) Next you have the issue of 2nd, 3rd, etc. of the same name because the previous one, two, etc. had passed on early in their lives and the parents gave the next child of the same sex the same name.... No one said this genealogy thing would be easy...... :-) Sam in CA Thanks for the name help info....if Coracao de Jesus is a religious term, then it's not her maiden name? The naming customs have my head spinning. Cindy D Kansas -- 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."
