Wow! You have your work cut out for you with no certainty of ever having a definitive answer to your questions. It is not safe to assume that the family name of Vitorina's biological mother was Avellar but it can be a working hypothesis. There is no way of telling if Avellar was her mother or father's name, but I would venture a starting hypothesis that it comes from either her maternal grandfather or grandmother's line. You could start by estimating the year of Maria Teresa's birth and during that time period (remember she could have had the child between the ages of 15 to 45!!) in the birth records of Velas you can see if there is an Avellar couple having a child Maria Teresa. This may be unproductive because Maria Teresa was probably baptized simply as Maria. However, if there were not too many Avellars during this time period having daughters named Maria, you could further narrow your working hypothesis. You should also look for a death record for a Maria Teresa de Avellar in Urzelina or Velas, and see if that record gives you any further clues. It was not unusual for a woman giving birth in one village to leave him on the doorsteps of somebody in another village. It is also possible that Maria Teresa of Velas had hired herself out as a servant to a family in Urzelina. If we had access to the Easter Duty lists (the closest thing to a census in those days) we could see if there was a single woman names Maria Teresa from Velas, serving in the household of...., who made her confession during the Easter season of.... I suppose you have already checked Vitorina's baptismal record and checked to see if any acknowledgement of parenthood was later noted in the margin of the record. That would resolve the mystery. I suppose you've checked to make sure that Avellar does not run in the lines of either the foster father or foster mother. So, this may very well be an interesting, time consuming and quite possibly futile search. It helps understand why genealogists, sometimes presented with these projects, charge what appears to the client to be an exhorbitant fee, when in actuality what the client is paying for are many hours spent chasing down something that does not exist. I try and warn my clients of this likely outcome and I personnaly do not like taking on these projects since the results are likely to be disappointing. Still, I have two "dead ends" in my line that I have been able to conclusively track down and determine the identity of the mother in one case, and of both parents in the other, and their respective lineage, so it can sometimes be done. Good luck, and I hope I have not been too discouraging. John Miranda Raposo
From: sdarosa <suzanne.dar...@gmail.com> To: Azores Genealogy <azores@googlegroups.com> Sent: Wednesday, February 8, 2012 5:58 PM Subject: [AZORES-Genealogy] question about I have a question about how to look for information regarding my gr gr grandmother who was left on the doorstep of a family, Urzelina, Sao Jorge. The early records for her show that her parents were unknown. But 25 years later, as I read her children's birth and marriage records, it shows her name as Victorina Claudia de Avellar (not the last name of the people who raised her) All of the later records, including her obituary say father unknown but that her mother is Maria Thereza from the same parish/ Velas. What I'm wondering is if it is safe to assume that if Victorina used the name de Avellar, was mother's last name also Avellar.. and if so, does anyone have any idea if which line - paternal or maternal that the name Avellar came from? Lastly, if the records show Maria Thereza is from the same parish, Velas, that I might find records of her in the Velas birth/death/ obits? I'm asking because Victorina was left on a doorstep in Urzelina, but what I'm finding is that the later records say Maria thereza was from Velas.. hope this isn't too vague! thanks suzanne -- 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."
