Patricia Corbera <papagaia2@sbcglobal.net> wrote: Luis K W, The question that you posed is one that I have been asking for years, and still can not come up with an exact answer. It's possible, that during the Salazar dictatorship, many of our ancestors just existed, fearful of reprisals from the government if they became too out spoken or asked too many questions. That life style became a way of life when they migrated to foreign lands. Plus just surviving in a new land, proved difficult, learning a new language and new ways, no time to concern themselves with who their ancestors were, for they knew they were Portuguese, and that's all they needed to know. I recall questioning my mom about how she and dad shared the same surname, before they were married. She simply said that they were related, but didn't know how. She went on to say that their existence depended on working, and raising their children to be responsible adults, and not to worry about who their ancestors were. Genealogy was something the rich did, and they were not rich, plus it wouldn't put food on the table or clothes on the backs of their children, and that all their fellow Portuguese friends who had migrated were in the same situation. To keep their Portuguese traditions alive they resided in Portuguese communities, holding dear the thoughts of their mother land, while making a new life for their families. My parents were proud of being Portuguese, and instilled that in their children. We were born Americans, but our roots were Portuguese. You may ask if that be the case, then why don't I speak or write Portuguese? Let's just blame it on my poor brain not being able to handle a second language. ;-)) But it certainly does not mean that I am less proud of being Portuguese. People who hide the fact that they are Portuguese, truly do not know what they are missing. After my parents died, for some unknown reason I felt the need to learn about my ancestors... Why me, and not my siblings, that's another question that I do not have an answer for. I just know that something deep inside me, needed to find out. Absent of the hardships that my parents and maternal grandparents were faced with, I have the desire and means to continue on this journey of discovery. Pat Silva Corbera Luis K W wrote: My question is: Why didn't our emigrants like to talk about their ancestors? Many of them did even hide their portuguese ancestry! Luis K W Lisboa-Portugal ----------- TIPS FROM READERS: When Grandma Won't Talk How can you find your ancestors when grandma won't talk about them? Such was the dilemma for one of my neighbors whom I offered to help with her family history research. Her grandmother Susan (name changed to protect her privacy) is living in a nursing home. Susan had never talked about her ancestry other than to say that her mother Mary Mello had come from Portugal, lived in California and then moved to Utah where she died. End of story -- Susan would tell no more. Nothing was known of Mary Mello's husband or other children. The first thing we did was search the Internet cemetery transcriptions for Mary Mello. Utah has a wonderful Cemetery Inventory database that will search all of the transcribed cemeteries in the state at one time. Through that we found Mary Mello buried in the Elwood Cemetery in Utah. The burial record included Mary Mello's birth year. Because Grandma Susan was over 75 years of age, I knew she would appear in the 1930 census as a young girl. Knowing how old Mary Mello would have been in 1930, we did a search for her and her daughter "Susan" in the California 1930 census. To our happy surprise we found them and Mary's husband -- Frank Mello (a new name!). Then we stepped back 10 years and did a search for Frank Mello in the 1920 census. Even greater surprise -- Frank had not yet married Mary, but was living with his mother and siblings. We were able to positively identify him because of his age, the location and his occupation. Plus one of his sisters had the same name as one that he and Mary later gave their daughter. In just 20 minutes we had extended the family line back two generations, with many more names and dates than had previously been known. And as for the family tradition that the ancestors had come from Portugal -- they were actually from the Azores, a group of islands just off the coast of Portugal. I'm sure there is more that can be found easily -- now that we have more information to go on. Grandma didn't need to talk after all! ----------- ==== PORTUGUESE-SURNAMES Mailing List ==== Please never answer off topic messages, just ignore it or contact if necessary the List administrator at: PORTUGUESE-SURNAMES-admin@rootsweb.com ============================== Census images 1901, 1891, 1881 and 1871, plus so much more. Ancestry.com's United Kingdom & Ireland Collection. 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