Hi Paulo, We are in winter here but the temperature is warm for what it should be. Today we have about 50 degrees. It's still cold but much warmer than it should be. I remember when I was on Madeira we went for a drive around the island and then we came to this one area very high up and I was surprised to see snow up there! We went in June/July 1988 and the weather was so pleasant there. I have met Portuguese people here in the US that have never heard of the name Freitas...I guess that's because they are all living in Madeira!! lol As for the Freitas of S. Martinho, this is what I know...Back to the early 1800s the paternal line carried Gonclaves de Freitas, though men and women in the family did marry those that carried just Freitas. These are the people I will be looking for in the Mormon library so that I can go backwards on their lines. Anyway, my grandfather was José Gonçalves de Freitas, his parents were Feliciano Gonçalves de Freitas and Maria da Conceição. Maria was baptised as Maria Isabel and later changed it at confirmation. Feliciano was the son of Francisco Gonçalves de Freitas and Maria Augusta de Freitas (Maria Augusta was daughter of João de Freitas and Isabel Augusta de Jesus de Freitas - João was the son of Joaquim de Freitas and Maria Joaquina...Isabel Augusta was daughter of Manuel Rodrigues and Antónia Perpétua da Incarnação). These families were all from Pico do Funcho. Now back to Maria da Conceição, Maria's parents were Manuel Pereira de Oliveira and Maria Carolina Lopes Serrão. Manuel at one time had a partnership in two newspapers, O Independente and A Luz, and the family was fairly well off. He later lost his ownership in these papers after making a bet with his partner and losing. Anyway, Maria was about 10 years older than Feliciano and Manuel did not want them to marry, also because her social stature was better than Feliciano's. They married anyway in 1907 and started to have children the following year. At some point Feliciano started going back and forth to the US, he was a carpenter and would come here and build houses etc. Then a decision was made that he was going to stay in the US and call for her and the kids to come as he earned more money. He permanently left Madeira before his youngest son was born and never went back. There were 8 kids, 2 died as infants, Maria was left there to take care of them all by herself. Her oldest son Americo left with his father when he was about 14, after that each of her sons came here when they were about 17 or 18 and her 1 daughter stayed with her. Feliciano called for her to come here once but Maria was too ill to make the trip. He never called for her again and they never saw each other again. Feliciano was a rather wild person, he liked to drink alcohol and get into fights. He eventually married another woman here and had 2 children with her that Maria never knew of. My grandfather José never had a relationship with his father because he lived in Madeira and when José came here and saw how his father was he despised it. He would have nothing to do with him. Had Maria listened to her father she may have married someone better for her, but then I wouldn't be here now. My grandfather was always told that his mothers family was part English and that was how they came to have the blue eyes. In my research so far, and some of it with your help, have found no connection to anyone that was born in England. So I do not know yet if there is any tie to the established Freitas family of S. Martinho that you mentioned, but I'm sure it is possible. There are other connections to Freitas that I did not mention above. Maybe we will find another link when I figure out more of these Freitas relatives. Denise In a message dated 1/16/2006 6:10:56 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, darwin@spamcop.net writes: Hi Denise, It's cold here, right now, maybe 10 or 9 Celsius here where I live, which is awful cold for Madeira, but we can always warm up when we see the temperatures at the maniland. :) About the Freitas: Though there are millions of Freitas in Madeira (God knows why, and there's a similar case with the Gouveias) there is a well structured Freitas family living in S. Martinho which is also subject of my research. It's the line of Maria Augusta, which in 1852 married Francisco Alves, fisherman in Câmara de Lobos, parents of the misterious José Alves "seaman" (postumous father of my great grand father) which married Silvina Constança Henriques, the well educated girl from the wealthy Gomes Henriques family, known at the time as the "meninos de Belém", the silverspoon children of Belém, a place in Câmara de Lobos. God would know how that marriage came to be. I've a picture of that lady, dressed in Belle Epoque black clothes, plumes hat, long black gloves and all, with quite a noble pose, and it is difficult to imagine that she was the widow of a seaman or fisherman - let alone one from Câmara de Lobos! Certainly a serious case of love. ;) Anyway, the Freitas. Maria Augusta, daughter of Silvéria Rosa (Tº Gonçalves Rocha) and Victorino de Freitas, son of Vicência da Rosa (Tº Mouras do Porto da Cruz) and José de Freitas, son of Maria Gomes and António de Freitas, son of Mª da Candelária and Pedro de Freitas, son of Martim de Freitas, who married Helena da Costa in S. Martinho, 1672 (I've yet to check this marriage). Possibly the same Freitas family of your branch...? Paulo On Tue, 10 Jan 2006 15:54:53 -0000, <Denise1270@aol.com> wrote: > HI Paulo, how have you been? Thank you for your help. I will request > the > record based on your information below. > I understand about the other couple having common names. I am also > researching de Freitas, and as you know on Madeira that is like looking > for a needle > in a haystack! There are so many Freitas with same given names it > really > makes you work hard! Thereward is always worth it! > > Denise > In a message dated 1/10/2006 1:36:08 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, > darwin@spamcop.net writes: > > Here is the marriage record you should request: > > Francisco Gonçalves + Tomásia Joaquina > 1827 > São Martinho > book 253 > page 186 v.º > > The parents of Julia, however, have very common names, and return a list > of various possible couples on that year range. > > Hope this helps, > > Paulo > > On Mon, 09 Jan 2006 14:49:41 -0000, <Denise1270@aol.com> wrote: > >> Hi again, >> Looking for info on Francisco Goncalves de Freitas of Pico do Fucho, >> Sao >> Martinho, Funchal. He was married to Thomasia Joaquina also of Pico do >> Funcho. >> Their son was Manuel Goncalves de Freitas that was married to Julia >> Candida >> da Silva about 1856. Julia's parents were Manuel da Silva and Maria >> Joaquina. >> Any help is appreciated. >> Denise de Freitas d'Antona

Freitas is a very common name not just in Madeira but also in the continent, and I am sure the Azores also. I am portuguese born and raised but I live in the US and I have to say that I have heard many portuguese names pronounced in such a way that I did not recognize them as portuguese. I have to see them written down to know. I am sure you can pronounce your name the portuguese way but I have to share what I have seen so far happen in this country. For example my oldest son is named Miguel and he has been called Maguel, Meigue'l, Migu'e'l, Magu'e'l. And this is also a spanish name so one would think it would be pronounced correctly. My favorite name screw up is a street in California called Coelho St. It is pronounced Co^e'ho^ with the hard english H sound, it sounds very interesting. Although the "lh" sound is a very hard sound for an american to pronounce (like the "th" sound is for a portuguese) the way the word is pronounced here is even harder than the original form.! I remember the guy who told us about this street name was getting frustrated because we did not recognize it and he kept repeating it and saying that it was a portuguese name. Well he was right but I could not tell until I saw it written down. And then, of course, there are the portuguese names that have been completely americanized and impossible to recognize as portuguese. This is the case of my uncle who moved from Madeira to the US, his last name was Rodrigues da Ressurreicao but his children go by Rogers. I always get a kick out of that one. Luis Beal Denise1270@aol.com wrote: Hi Paulo, We are in winter here but the temperature is warm for what it should be. Today we have about 50 degrees. It's still cold but much warmer than it should be. I remember when I was on Madeira we went for a drive around the island and then we came to this one area very high up and I was surprised to see snow up there! We went in June/July 1988 and the weather was so pleasant there. I have met Portuguese people here in the US that have never heard of the name Freitas...I guess that's because they are all living in Madeira!! lol As for the Freitas of S. Martinho, this is what I know...Back to the early 1800s the paternal line carried Gonclaves de Freitas, though men and women in the family did marry those that carried just Freitas. These are the people I will be looking for in the Mormon library so that I can go backwards on their lines. Anyway, my grandfather was José Gonçalves de Freitas, his parents were Feliciano Gonçalves de Freitas and Maria da Conceição. Maria was baptised as Maria Isabel and later changed it at confirmation. Feliciano was the son of Francisco Gonçalves de Freitas and Maria Augusta de Freitas (Maria Augusta was daughter of João de Freitas and Isabel Augusta de Jesus de Freitas - João was the son of Joaquim de Freitas and Maria Joaquina...Isabel Augusta was daughter of Manuel Rodrigues and Antónia Perpétua da Incarnação). These families were all from Pico do Funcho. Now back to Maria da Conceição, Maria's parents were Manuel Pereira de Oliveira and Maria Carolina Lopes Serrão. Manuel at one time had a partnership in two newspapers, O Independente and A Luz, and the family was fairly well off. He later lost his ownership in these papers after making a bet with his partner and losing. Anyway, Maria was about 10 years older than Feliciano and Manuel did not want them to marry, also because her social stature was better than Feliciano's. They married anyway in 1907 and started to have children the following year. At some point Feliciano started going back and forth to the US, he was a carpenter and would come here and build houses etc. Then a decision was made that he was going to stay in the US and call for her and the kids to come as he earned more money. He permanently left Madeira before his youngest son was born and never went back. There were 8 kids, 2 died as infants, Maria was left there to take care of them all by herself. Her oldest son Americo left with his father when he was about 14, after that each of her sons came here when they were about 17 or 18 and her 1 daughter stayed with her. Feliciano called for her to come here once but Maria was too ill to make the trip. He never called for her again and they never saw each other again. Feliciano was a rather wild person, he liked to drink alcohol and get into fights. He eventually married another woman here and had 2 children with her that Maria never knew of. My grandfather José never had a relationship with his father because he lived in Madeira and when José came here and saw how his father was he despised it. He would have nothing to do with him. Had Maria listened to her father she may have married someone better for her, but then I wouldn't be here now. My grandfather was always told that his mothers family was part English and that was how they came to have the blue eyes. In my research so far, and some of it with your help, have found no connection to anyone that was born in England. So I do not know yet if there is any tie to the established Freitas family of S. Martinho that you mentioned, but I'm sure it is possible. There are other connections to Freitas that I did not mention above. Maybe we will find another link when I figure out more of these Freitas relatives. Denise In a message dated 1/16/2006 6:10:56 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, darwin@spamcop.net writes: Hi Denise, It's cold here, right now, maybe 10 or 9 Celsius here where I live, which is awful cold for Madeira, but we can always warm up when we see the temperatures at the maniland. :) About the Freitas: Though there are millions of Freitas in Madeira (God knows why, and there's a similar case with the Gouveias) there is a well structured Freitas family living in S. Martinho which is also subject of my research. It's the line of Maria Augusta, which in 1852 married Francisco Alves, fisherman in Câmara de Lobos, parents of the misterious José Alves "seaman" (postumous father of my great grand father) which married Silvina Constança Henriques, the well educated girl from the wealthy Gomes Henriques family, known at the time as the "meninos de Belém", the silverspoon children of Belém, a place in Câmara de Lobos. God would know how that marriage came to be. I've a picture of that lady, dressed in Belle Epoque black clothes, plumes hat, long black gloves and all, with quite a noble pose, and it is difficult to imagine that she was the widow of a seaman or fisherman - let alone one from Câmara de Lobos! Certainly a serious case of love. ;) Anyway, the Freitas. Maria Augusta, daughter of Silvéria Rosa (Tº Gonçalves Rocha) and Victorino de Freitas, son of Vicência da Rosa (Tº Mouras do Porto da Cruz) and José de Freitas, son of Maria Gomes and António de Freitas, son of Mª da Candelária and Pedro de Freitas, son of Martim de Freitas, who married Helena da Costa in S. Martinho, 1672 (I've yet to check this marriage). Possibly the same Freitas family of your branch...? Paulo On Tue, 10 Jan 2006 15:54:53 -0000, wrote: > HI Paulo, how have you been? Thank you for your help. I will request > the > record based on your information below. > I understand about the other couple having common names. I am also > researching de Freitas, and as you know on Madeira that is like looking > for a needle > in a haystack! There are so many Freitas with same given names it > really > makes you work hard! Thereward is always worth it! > > Denise > In a message dated 1/10/2006 1:36:08 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, > darwin@spamcop.net writes: > > Here is the marriage record you should request: > > Francisco Gonçalves + Tomásia Joaquina > 1827 > São Martinho > book 253 > page 186 v.º > > The parents of Julia, however, have very common names, and return a list > of various possible couples on that year range. > > Hope this helps, > > Paulo > > On Mon, 09 Jan 2006 14:49:41 -0000, wrote: > >> Hi again, >> Looking for info on Francisco Goncalves de Freitas of Pico do Fucho, >> Sao >> Martinho, Funchal. He was married to Thomasia Joaquina also of Pico do >> Funcho. >> Their son was Manuel Goncalves de Freitas that was married to Julia >> Candida >> da Silva about 1856. Julia's parents were Manuel da Silva and Maria >> Joaquina. >> Any help is appreciated. >> Denise de Freitas d'Antona ============================== 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. 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