Nobrega is a family I do not recall seeing before on this list. We have a letter to my great grandmother written in Portuguese in 1862. It was written from aboard the U.S. Navy ship Niagara. The letter is signed, "Your nephew... Henry S. D, Nobrega" My great grandmother was Francisca Candida da Silva and the letter was addressed to her in New York City. In the letter Henry asks her to "...send me news about Madeira..." I know nothing about Henry Nobrega. I obtained what information the Department of Navy has on this ship. No crew list from this time survives. The ships home port was Boston. The history that the Navy has did reveal that the USS Niagara in 1862 sailed into Lisbon harbor searching for a Confederate ship. There the ship was fired upon by the Belem Tower. I find this ironic since I'm sure that Henry Nobrega was not the only Portuguese sailor among the crew. The letter has such neat writing that it appears that the letter was written for him. I wonder if it could have been an officer education in Portuguese as a second language. This could account for his name being written as "D, Nobrega" instead of "D'Norbrega". David DeGrella Tennessee, USA On Fri, 27 Jan 2006 14:57:54 EST Denise1270@aol.com writes: > > Hi Margaret, > > My fathers aunt, Clarisse Goncalves de Freitas, married a Luis de > Nobrega > from Camacha. Sound familiar? > > Denise > > In a message dated 1/25/2006 2:48:15 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, > marpg2000@comcast.net writes: > > Interesting the number of Freitas and Goveia families in Maderia. > My mother > in law was related to them and to trace them in Camacha or Sito do > Salgados > is very confussing due to the repetition of the names. She is from > the > deNobrega family in Camacha. > > Margaret