*Steve*,* I second what my cousin Kathie said regarding the helpfulness of the staff at the Horta Archives **HOWEVER, that was 7 years ago. I did extensive research there in 2000 and 2002 and policies may have been more relaxed then. I was allowed to look thru the original church registers then, something which they apparently don't allow any more. At that time there was an older woman on the staff who took it upon herself to actively look for some of my family lines (ie I would be researching one line, and she would grab another register and research another one of my lines and found some of my ancestors) If that lady has not since retired, I don't know if she would be allowed to do that under present policies. (maybe she was one of the ladies who was helpful to you). On top of that, I'm fairly fluent in Portuguese which made things a lot simpler. As Kathie said, Francisco ANP Gomes is the gold standard on Flores genealogy. When I was there in 2002 he lent me the three large 3 ring binders in which he was compiling the marriages for his now published book "Cassais das Flores e do Corvo". From that reference, I was able to pretty much fill out my direct lines. I don't know if that book is still in print (possibly someone on the list might know), but I would recommend that any Flores (or Corvo) researcher get a copy. At least that would give you a good start providing you know your Flores ancestors back a generation or two. If you don't speak at least some portugues, I would recommend arranging for one. Possible someone on the list might provide some leads on translators. On all of the Islands there are often taxi drivers who have lived in the US and speak fair English, but you might have to pay them for their time. If you get to Flores and need help, I have at least two cousins there who have lived in the states and speak very good English. John Vasconcelos
. * On Sat, Aug 27, 2011 at 7:59 AM, Steve Peters <spp1...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Aug 26, 9:34 pm, Cheri Mello <gfsche...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > Repost for Katharine Baker: > > > >...He was very helpful during my 2004 > > visit to Horta, when I spent a good deal of time in the Regional > > Archives. > > Katharine, I'd be curious to know more about your (or anyone else's) > experience in the archives in Horta. > > As I posted previously, my experience there this past June was kind of > a bust. They would not let me look at any of the actual record books. > They pointed me to a computer set aside for "genealogical research > only" that linked to the Centro de Conhecimento web site with scans of > the record books (http://pg.azores.gov.pt/drac/cca/ig/), which I had > looked at before. The web site is organized by island and freguesia; > for Pico they only list three frequesias: São Roque, Madaleina, and > Lajes. When you select one you eventually get to pages with hundreds > of links that are in no order that I can ascertain. Each link goes to > a bunch of documents from a particular time period (I think), but > there is no way to tell what that is before you click on it. Here is > an example: > > > http://pg.azores.gov.pt/drac/cca/biblioteca_digital/PSRQPNB1764-1783%5CPSRQPNB1764-1783_item1%5Cindex.html > > (BTW, I can not get any of these links to work on my computer at home; > they all say "The page can not be found."). > > I can understand them wanting to go the scanning route, so they don't > have tons of people pawing through the original record books and > eventually destroying them. But not all of the records have been > scanned yet, and the scans themselves are often too faint to read. I > did not get the sense that anyone there specialized in this material > or knew much about how it was organized. And the computer had a sign > on it that said you could only use it for (I think) 30 minutes at a > time! Not very user friendly... > > Did I miss something? Or was this your experience too? I only had one > afternoon to spend there, so it wasn't like I had much time to figure > it all out. > > On the upside, the new library building is very nice, and a couple of > the librarians made an effort to help me in spite of the language > gap. > > Steve (Peters) > > -- > 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." > -- 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."
