Hello Don, 1) Lopes is a patronymic - it comes from Lopo. Just as Rodrigues comes frøm Rodrigo, Henrique from Henriques, Gonçalves from Gonçalo, Fernandes from Fernando or Fernão and so on. If you were Scottish you woiuld be Mc Wolf, if jewish Ben Lopo,. As you're from Portuguese stock you're Lopes. the suffix "es" fulfills the role of "Mac", or "Ben" meaning "son of". 2) Your ancestor's full name is André (not Andrés) Fernandes Lopes. Here you have to consider that in that time the first name, comes from father, second from mother. So if you're looking for the agnatic line (Paternal) you should be looking for a Fernandes. The Lopes may, I stress "may" come from the female side, and some female could be called Lopes as well, because she is descended from a Lopo. So you probably, as you were correctly told, do not descend from the first Lopes who settled in the island. You may descend, however, from one of the Lopos (plural of Lopo) who settled in the island. So I would search for any Lopo instead, and bearing in mind that this could be from André's mother. In that time ( and not only), the Gonçalves, Rodrigues, Fernandes and Lopes are very abundant and as such quite difficult to research. You could ask to find out whether André Fernandes Lopes had a "testamento" (a will) or not. The name of the witness of his marriage, and of "padrinhos" of his sons and daughters baptisms may help a bit too. Unfortunately Ponta do Pargo is not one of my areas in Madeira. Hope this has clarified something, Best wishes, Miguel

Miguel, thanks for the hint, already a new place to look. "Testamento". Thanks -----Original Message----- From: prt-madeira-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:prt-madeira-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Miguel de Castro Henriques Sent: Friday, January 06, 2012 12:53 PM To: prt-madeira@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [PT-MADEIRA] Genealogy assistance Hello Don, 1) Lopes is a patronymic - it comes from Lopo. Just as Rodrigues comes frøm Rodrigo, Henrique from Henriques, Gonçalves from Gonçalo, Fernandes from Fernando or Fernão and so on. If you were Scottish you woiuld be Mc Wolf, if jewish Ben Lopo,. As you're from Portuguese stock you're Lopes. the suffix "es" fulfills the role of "Mac", or "Ben" meaning "son of". 2) Your ancestor's full name is André (not Andrés) Fernandes Lopes. Here you have to consider that in that time the first name, comes from father, second from mother. So if you're looking for the agnatic line (Paternal) you should be looking for a Fernandes. The Lopes may, I stress "may" come from the female side, and some female could be called Lopes as well, because she is descended from a Lopo. So you probably, as you were correctly told, do not descend from the first Lopes who settled in the island. You may descend, however, from one of the Lopos (plural of Lopo) who settled in the island. So I would search for any Lopo instead, and bearing in mind that this could be from André's mother. In that time ( and not only), the Gonçalves, Rodrigues, Fernandes and Lopes are very abundant and as such quite difficult to research. You could ask to find out whether André Fernandes Lopes had a "testamento" (a will) or not. The name of the witness of his marriage, and of "padrinhos" of his sons and daughters baptisms may help a bit too. Unfortunately Ponta do Pargo is not one of my areas in Madeira. Hope this has clarified something, Best wishes, Miguel ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to PRT-MADEIRA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message -- I am using the free version of SPAMfighter. We are a community of 7 million users fighting spam. SPAMfighter has removed 741 of my spam emails to date. Get the free SPAMfighter here: http://www.spamfighter.com/len The Professional version does not have this message