John: thanks for the response. You had some contact with my brother Greg Caldeira in 2013 but he kind of dropped researching; he did find a local paper article from 1921 about the death of our grandfather Joseph Freitas Caldeira Sr's train-car accident which was quite enlightening but gave us no new names of possible sibs to give us Caldeira family info. Greg did visit Flores 3 yrs ago, met a cousin from JFC's side of the family and got some info on cousins (mostly in Brazil as it turns out) but not about any sibs who actually lived in the US and may have had kids who would be our cousins. I did unearth a trove of photos -- most looked to be from 1920-30s -- our Nana left us when she died in 1965 that points to a close relationship between JFC Sr with at least one brother (Jao or John we think), and we have a story of questionable reliability that JFC Sr may have 2 or 3 sisters he lived with in the US in the early 1900s but nothing about their married names or any offspring who'd be cousins. But we've got nothing really about Nana Sears/Soares Caldeira's real last name (or her real first name...she was variously referred to as Mary, Maria, and Mariann) and whether she did/didn't have a brother living in the US (photo with the two, but he could have been visiting from the Azores, not here in the US). Most photos had no names of who was in the pictures; my attempt at trying to trace people through the studio names on some of the portrait frames was a dead end since they were so old.
So I'm trying to pick up on my Dad's parents and grandparents because we have so few clues about who they were and which if any siblings might have come to the US and would be our 2nd or 3rd cousins. My DNA points toward a large Italian/Greek and Irish connection that would have to be from my paternal grandparents or ggp generations and not really far back, something intriguing and unexpected. Beyond trying to get in touch with some of the names the DNA matches gave me, I'm lost. Greg did find the ship Joseph Freitas Caldeira Sr arrived on in early 1900s in Providence but evidently he came alone (or with a relative with a different surname). We know some first cousins (some we don't due to alienation between Dad and 2 sisters) but even they don't know any names beyond Nana and our grandfather. One first cousin is having her DNA done which may give us some help refining DNA matches to contact....but I'm finding people don't check their Ancestry.com accounts for messages very often so getting replies back is slow. I've tried to find my Nana Sears/Soares-Caldeira on ship manifest lists with variations of first and last names, but so far no luck. Because there's so much Italian/Greek DNA in my DNA profile, I'm wondering if our assumption "Mary Sears" had to be "Mary Soares" isn't a good one, but then I don't what other names or ship manifest lists to try. I'm hoping her 1965 death cert lists her parents names and maybe which island she debarked from. We're believe my Nana was never naturalized, and census data just says "Mary Caldeira" though there could be a 1910 (pre-marriage) census she appears on, but under what name and where (we think she lived in Idaho after emigrating but are unsure when she came to the SF area)? The "Joseph Freitas from Craterville:" gave me a chuckle. We'd always thought more volcano or cauldron, a little more dignified than "Craterville." We know from JFC Sr.'s death cert his father went by 'Frank Freitas Caldeira' which isn't the usual Portuguese linguistic convention, which would be 'mother's surname/father's surname' so that's odd. But we know it's possible that American cousins might be using 'Freitas' instead of 'Caldeira' or even some over name if JFC Sr's siblings were named by the normal linguistic convention. We think Frank Freitas Caldeira owned land on the 'caldeira' part of Flores: my Dad once said he got a letter from a tenant after Nana Caldeira died about ownership of the house/land they'd been occupying for decades...we don't know if what meant about our grandparents' siblings, whether there were fewer than we thought or just that ownership of this house/land had been passed around as Azorean-based siblings died off. Of course Dad threw out the tenant's letter, so that clue is gone. Do you have suggestions on searching for someone whose first and last names may be variations of Mary Sears? Or is hoping that her death cert has her parents' names or that some of my DNA matches get in touch with me about the only lines of research for my Nana's parentage and possible siblings for both Nana and my Grandfather Caldeira? Saw your post on siblings having different DNA profiles and understand about variations; but my brother is resistant to do the test to help identify maybe more Caldeira/Sears relatives. I of course am curious about me actually having more Italian/Greek DNA than Iberian and would love to track that down, but I'm most concerned about who my paternal grandparents were and if they had siblings that lived in America who might lead me to 2nd and 3rd cousins who would have more family history. So help! What other records or places should I be searching or posting on? Thanks, Gwen Caldeira On Fri, Aug 24, 2018 at 6:12 PM John Vasconcelos <gfsjo...@gmail.com> wrote: > Gwen, > My gggrandfather Jose de Freitas da Caldeira was born 02 Aug 1774, > Caldeira, Mosteiro, Lajes das Flores, married 29 Aug 1796 at Nossa Sra dos > Remediios (in Fajazinha) to Ana Pimentel, born 10 Oct 1776, Lajedo, Lajes > das Flores. They were the parents of my ggrandfather Francisco de Freitas. > Caldeira is a small settlement (of about 2 or 3 houses) in the next valley > over the hill from Fajazinha so the residents were parishinors of Nossa Sra > dos Remedios. (Caldeira literally means crater and was the site of an > ancient volcanic crater) So Caldeira is a location name and his full name > could be translated to "Joe Freitas from Craterville" These suffixes > (especially upon immigration) have a tendency of becoming the official > surname. So we might be cousins! > I have 3 or 4 more generations back, so if you are interested, email me at > GfsJohnV at gmail dot com. > John Vasconcelos > > On Fri, Aug 24, 2018 at 9:14 AM Cheri Mello <gfsche...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> Repost for Gwen, 123caldeira at gmail.com >> >> Recently did Ancestry.com DNA, am now backtracking to find info on >> paternal side (already had maternal DNA matches and know many maternal >> first-third cousins). >> >> My paternal grandmother's name was Mary Sears in some records, but Mary >> could be Maria, and Sears could be Soares. No middle name known. She >> died in Merced County in March, 1965, and was born about 1889 possibly in >> Pico, Azores. We have nothing on the yr she emigrated nor port of entry, >> but family story is she worked on a sheep ranch in Idaho for a few yrs >> under sponsorship of an uncle (no name) and may have had at least one >> brother here in the US (we think it was Anthony or Antonio Sears/Soares). >> She married Joseph Freitas Caldeira (we think from Flores, Azores) in >> Contra Costa Cty in 1911, then settled in Gustine, CA, had 5 living >> children, including my Dad, Joseph (Jr). Joseph Freitas Caldeira 1921 >> death cert says his parents were Frank Freitas Caldeira and Mary Sousa of >> the Azores. We have no info on Mary's parents' names; picked up the Pico, >> Azores birthplace from a Google Group string from 2013 which seemed to >> match my grandmother's dates. Using DNA matches from maternal relatives >> I've picked out names of 2nd and 3rd cousins in my own DNA matches that I >> believe may be related to me through my paternal grandfather/grandmother; >> no responses yet from messages sent through Ancestry.com so think I need >> more names/info on both paternal grands. >> >> I'd appreciate help picking up info or links on both of my paternal >> grandparents, but especially on my grandmother Mary/Maria Soares/Sears >> e.g. we'd like to find out if her maiden surname was really Sears or Soares >> or something else as my DNA ethnicity groups show unexpected possibility >> of non-Portuguese lineage in the paternal greatgrandparent generation >> (Italian and Irish in very high percentages). Thanks, Gwen >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Azores Genealogy" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to azores+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >> Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/azores. >> > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Azores Genealogy" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to azores+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/azores. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Azores Genealogy" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to azores+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/azores.
