Re Portuguese Joe (of Vancouver, British Columbia)
Hi Lionel,
wonderful to see your message. i never did thank you for introducing
me to your son Doug. when i moved to vancouver canada in 1990 i
decided to conduct some historical walking tours. while in the
archives i kept running into references to a portuguese joe. (there
were others too). eventually i hired doug and with some flimsy
information he was able to ferret out what i believe is pj's birth
certificate which i am enclosing below. i am not sure professor jean
barman, the author of the best selling book about pj, agrees with me
as there are descrepancies in dates (arent there always, especially
for second marriages certificates! i believe joe recorded his age as
37 when he married his second aboriginal wife, she was 14. i believe
pj was actually in his early 40s1!).
to make a long story short, i wrote several stories about
portuguese pioneers on canada's west coast (the focus is on the east
coast) in Lusitania.ca; a bilingual zine we started up about 7 or 8
years ago and the story came to the attention of Bill Moniz, and old
friend from Toronto, Tv personality turned filmaker. He took on the
project for OMNI tv and produced a portuguese and english version. it
is also shown on rtpi.
i am convinced that a number of portuguese pioneers on the west
coast came up from san francisco for the 1858 Fraser river gold rush.
they usually married aboriginal women and fathered many children.
today there are annual Silvey reunions (not to be confused with John
Silva who settled on Gabriola island off Nanaimo and had a fruit and
vegetable store in Victoria around 1860).
There is a Joe Silvey, river boat captain listed in an 1850 San
Francisco directory. Also Gregory Fernandez, the first coffee roaster
in British Columbia, tried and acquitted of attempted murder by BC's
first judge, Judge Begby, ran a store in Gastown, the forerunner to
Vancouver in 1862. In 1858 he is listed in the San Francisco directory
as a fruit and vegetable dealer. He was from Madeira. His 17 yr. old
nephew, Joe Gonçalves came to look after his uncle in 1874 (the only
pioneer who does not appear to have married), and todays Madeira Park
on the sunshine coast north of Vancouver is named after him.
I also believe that Joe Silvey had brothers in california and the
New Bedford but i have not been able to track them down.
ps, there are other Portuguese Joe pioneers, and the epithet continues
to this day, Portuguese Joe's cafe on Commercial drive in Vancouver is
a cultural icon as is Portuguese Joe's fish store just outside Comox
on vancouver island!
cumprimentos,
manuel lopes de azevedo
(researching "Ana Roza do Algarve" who married Jose Lourenço de
Azevedo in Ribeirinha, Lajes do Pico around 1834. She died in 1907.
She was allegedly from Olhão in the Algarve although Doug has been
unable to find her baptismal certificate. After my grandfather's
return from the Portuguese civil war they started using the surname
Lopes.
PORTUGUESE JOE SILVEY OF VANCOUVER CANADA/Calheta de Nesquim, Pico,
and possibly San Francisco
(the baptismal record was found on pg. 35 verso (ie
> back), top entry of 3 on the page, in vol 4 baptisms
> (1825-1848) in Calheta de Nesquim, Pico, on LDS film
> #1,330,095)
>
>
(translation)
>
> " Jose, legitimate son of Joao Jose de Simas & his
> wife Francisca Jacinta, natives here, paternal
> grandson of
> "Pay incognito" (father unknown) and Maria do
> Espirito Santo, maternal grandson of Antonio
> Silveira
> Quaresma & his wife Maria Jacinta, all of this
> parish,
>
>
> born 23 April 1828, and was baptized on 28 april.
>
> Godparents:
> Father Jose Homem da Silveira, treasurer of the
> church
> "Nossa Sr. da Piedade_ie Our Lady Of Piedade", and
> godmother, Rosa Maria, dau. of Manuel Goncalves de
Simas, all of this parish"
On May 1, 11:11 am, Lionel Holmes <[email protected]> wrote:
> There's another "Portuguese Joe": In the War of 1812, a sailor known only as
> "Portuguese Joe" was a hero of battles against the British around the Great
> Lakes.
>
> Lionel
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, May 1, 2011 at 8:41 AM, Terri <[email protected]> wrote:
> > Sorry....my mistake...he was an early pioneer on the WEST coast of
> > Canada
>
> > On May 1, 11:13 am, Terri <[email protected]> wrote:
> > > An interesting show today on the Canadian channel OMNI...about a 19th
> > > century Portuguese pioneer in Canada's eastern coast. Portuguese
> > > 'JOE" (aka Jose Silva) from the island of Pico married a native woman
> > > and now has descendants .SILVA and SILVY surnames.
>
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To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
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they arrive.
For more options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail
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