IIGS™ Newsletter - March 1999
English ~ Dansk ~ Deutsch ~ Español ~ Suomi ~ Français ~ Nederlands ~ Norsk ~ polski ~ Português ~ Svenska
IIGS™ Newsletter - March 1999
Editor's Note: Many IIGS™ members are experienced researchers who often provide assistance to genealogists who are just beginning or who have run out of ideas on where to search next for an elusive ancestor. Sometimes, the help is provided on an IIGS™ chat channel; other times it is provided on the IIGS-RCT-L mailing list.
In an effort to share these excellent research tips with a wider audience, the IIGS™ Newsletter will publish selections from the archives each month.
Early Portuguese Immigrants to Cumberland County, Virginia
As background, the poster requested help on finding information on ships to Virginia from Portugal prior to 1816. She was trying to trace an ancestor back to Portugal and had some information, such as a marriage date, for the ancestor.The answer from an IIGS™ member:You do not mention when he died - hopefully it will have been well after 1853, when the Virginia archives and various town clerks have death records. Look for obituaries in areas newspapers (see Library of Viriginia at http://eagle.vsla.edu/newspaper/)
Look for obituaries for his wife, too. They may mention him and his origins. Do you have cemetery information for him? Did he make a will? Check the wills and administrations because he might have mentioned siblings or other relatives in Portugal. See also if you can find him as an heir in someone else's will. That might be a clue to Portuguese in-laws.
Passenger lists for that early are very hard to come by. It is too late for the Coldham-type lists, and too early (1820 is the common start date) for United States immigration passenger lists. You might look under "Virginia - minorities" and see if there are any Portuguese entries there. There may also be published resources of pre-1820 passenger and crew lists. Look in the Family History Catalogue (on CD) under Virginia-Norfolk.
There are a number of on-line collections at the Library of Virginia site. You may wish to wander around there. There are some Bible records to be found there and, by the way, the Family History Center also has the Daughters of the American Revolution collections microfilmed for Virginia and odd, but very valuable miscellany of bible, church, cemetery etc. records, as well as the J.H. S. Ardrey collections.
You need to get a better birthdate for Augustus before you can do effective research in Portuguese resources.
You should look thru tax lists, land transactions, naturalizations to see if you can pinpoint when Augustis arrived in Virginia. Look for his name, earlier than the earliest time in Virginia, at other places in the United States (the AIS on mircofiche at the Family History Center may help here). Look especially "upcoast" along the eastern seaboard.
The Naturalizations for Virginia pre-1865 have been microfilmed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and are available at your local Family History Center. I think that Virginia might have been one of those states which required naturalization, or abjuration of loyalty, before one could own land. It is interesting that he was married, and in Virginia, at such a young age.
There were no others from Portugal in the area? What about from Massachussetts?
I am about to suggest an odd avenue for research here. Historically, ships, mostly whaling ships, left from New Bedford, Massachusetts, to go to the Azores and Portugal. The ships also did the eastern coastline routes. I am wondering if Augustis was not a hand on a whaling ship and entered this country either at New Bedford or nearby, and made his way down to Virginia from there.
Two whaling libraries have research facilities. You may want to write to them. Both museums have extensive ships' logs and manifests available. (see below)
The Portuguese research is going to be very difficult which is why I am suggesting mostly United States sources here.
The Bibliotecas and Arquivos—generally, write here for information older than 100 years. They do not do research for you. They only issue certificates for the vital events. They house the wills (testamentos), which go back to the 1400s, and are transferred every 30 years; passports (passaportes) which begin in 1757 to present.
You may be able to get a passport for Augustus from the archives.
I'm assuming that you have already checked the International Genealogical Index (IGI) for Portugal. If not, see if there are any entries for "Gormis" (various spellings of course) and hope for a geographical concentration of that surname. Check the Family History Library for church records which have been filmed for that location. Of course, you will need to revisit these when you get a viable birthdate for him.
American_Portuguese Genealogical and Historical Society, Inc. (APGHS)
P.O. Box 644, Taunton, MA
02780-0644
"Portuguese Genealogy Syllabus" by Doug da Rocha Holmes.
Doug da Rocha Holmes, 2701 Corabel Ln, #34, Sacramento, CA 95821
Or Internet: doug@dholmes.com
Cost is $5 plus $2 shipping and handling.
Cumberland County Courthouse
Cumberland, VA 23040
Birth and death records from 1853-1870.
Clerk of the Circuit Court has marriage, divorce, probate, and civil court records from 1749.
The Archives Division
Birth and Death $8.00 Jan 1853 - Dec 1896The Library of Virginia
800 East Broad Street
Richmond, Virginia, 23219-1905
Buckingham County Clerk
P.O. Box 252
Buckingham, VA 23921-0252
Cumberland County Clerk
P.O. Box 77
Cumberland, VA 23040-0077
Cumberland County Historical Society
P.O. Box 88
Cumberland, VA 23040
VA Whaling Museum
100 Museum Drive
Newport News, VA 23606
and
New Bedford Whaling Museum
18 Johnny Cake Hill
New Bedford, MA 02740-6398
Have you visited our Portuguese genealogy page at:
http://www.iigs.org/global_village/portugal/portugal.htm