Bob, I can only share my experience as a native-born Madeiran who continues to have strong links to the region and opinions... Camacho is a well-know name in Madeira but in my opinion is not equivalent to Smith. Fernandes, Gonçalves, Freitas etc. are more common. Over 500 years of colonization many decisions have been made. Anything could happen and it did happen. Some by priests others by Portuguese officials. Surnames can be all over the place. The old Madeira was also very class based. Some names denoted upper class. Some families with common names and who became rich wanted to be different. Thus you have Pereira Camacho to distinguish from others. Sometimes, if you married "up", the children took the most "rich" name. Sometimes they added a "de" and sometimes that "de" was taken away by officials and priests. Although all Madeirans have somewhat related (DNA could prove that) not all surnames denote a common ancestor. Many don't want to talk about it, but we had slaves who took the owner's name. We had Jews and moors that changed names. Pereira, for example denotes Jewish ancestry. There was a time that some families used the common Spanish tradition of naming their children after their mother. Therefore you would be known by your mother's surname. There were many children of "rich men" who were not given the father's surname. Usually children of young (poor) women who worked for rich families. Therefore you have "pai incognito". Let me tell you that father was not unknown. Everybody knew it but they were not "allowed" to name him. Madeirans changed surnames. It was easy to do it. Money and influence could buy anything. In my opinion there are the Pereiras and then there are the Pereira Camacho famnilies. It would be interesting to find out when that started and what prompted it. I don't think I have added to your research but all of the best. José Fernandes -----Original Message----- From: BOBCAMSCPW@aol.com [mailto:BOBCAMSCPW@aol.com] Sent: June 5, 2006 11:04 PM To: PRT-MADEIRA-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [PRT-MADEIRA] Madeiran archives website thank you everyone for the information. I now have a question about my family in Madeira. When I was doing my research I was told by someone that also was doing research in Madeira that I would need to research everyone with the middle name of Pereira because they would be related to each other. Do you know if that is true or not. I was told that the Last name of Camacho is like Smith there are so many of them that why you could tell who is related to whom was by there middle name unless one of the women got married to another Camacho with a different middle name then you would have to research that name. The main reason I ask this is that I have done some research and found that most of the surname are all the same. Using either Joao, Jose, and so on, but everyone has had the middle name of Pereira and then Camacho. Thanks Bob Camacho Researching the islands of Terceira for da Costa, and Evangelho, Graciousa for Reis, and Madeira for Camacho ============================== Search Family and Local Histories for stories about your family and the areas they lived. Over 85 million names added in the last 12 months. Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13966/rd.ashx

On Tuesday 06 June 2006 11:23 am, Fernandes, Jose wrote: > I can only share my experience as a native-born Madeiran who continues to > have strong links to the region and opinions... > <edited> Mr. Fernandes - Thanks for that very helpful post! I for one have run into surname irregularities among my ancestors. This helped clear things up for me... Thanks again! JL