Mario, It might help to think of this more like a treasure hunt - or a mystery to investigate. Even on the U.S. side I'm finding digging up information to be a challenge - my grandfather came over via the passports as Antonio De Mello Barbosa, but got listed in the first U.S. Census here with his parents as Silva (after his mother's maiden name) which was mislabeled on Ancestry as Liba since they couldn't read the name properly - he got married as Silva and later on was listed as both De Mello and Mello on various Massachusetts documents.
What helped me get back further than that was finding his naturalization documentation which listed the village (or freguesia) and led me to this group here. I found his naturalization papers on Ancestry, which listed his home on Sao Miguel. The church documents do take some time to go through, but the more you do, the better you get at reading them, recognizing handwriting and appreciating when there was a priest who wrote with a clearer hand that makes it easier to read as you go along. It does improve with time as you work your way through the documentation. But it does take a bit of detective work to find out information to lead you in the right direction. Don't give up looking! Elaine -- 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.
