Maria is the most common female name of the da Silva of Porto Santo and Manuel is the most common male name.

There is also more variety in female name than in male names.  These top 5 names represent 64% of all male names and 47% of all female names.

I came to this conclusion by analyzing a database of baptismal records for children whose father has the surname of da Silva.  I assumed that records with a surname other than da Silva preceding the da Silva  (i.e. Simão de Melim da Silva) were not da Silva’s.  I classified the names into male and female categories.  I also counted records with two first names in the first of the two (i.e. Domingas Maria counted as Domingas not Maria).

I wondered if I hadn’t found their marriage records because it was not under de Vasconcelos.  I searched for “Ana Joaquina” as the wife and Porto Santo as the parish and sure enough I found their marriage record.  They were married in 1826.

I hopped over to the baptism records and searched for records with the father as Paulo and the mother as Ana and the parish as Porto Santo.  I didn’t want to limit any last names.  The first three search results are children for this family.  Here are the search results:

So we have Paulo who is my ancestor and his two siblings.  The data all are plausible given a marriage date of 1826.

Now going back to the judicial proceedings we have this record which lists Paulo da Silva Melim and “Maria Antónia de Vasconcelos, sua segunda mulher.”  At first glance it appears the Paulo remarried.  However this is not the same Paulo.  If you view the baptismal record of his son Paulo, it is clear that he married in 1886.   A quick search of the marriage records turns up a result  Paulo da Silva and Maria Antonia de Vasconcelos married in 1886.  The second judicial proceeding is for his son.

Her husband’s name (according to the same record) is Pedro de Melim.  A quick search on the Arquivo Regional da Maderia’s (ARM) using “Pedro%” as the husband and “Escolástica%” as the wife and “Porto Santo” as the parish returned only one search result.  It is:

Well there’s another surname.  I am reasonably sure this is my ancestor’s marriage record in their data base.    I then looked in the ARM’s baptism database searching for “Escolástica” for the son [sic] field and “%Santos%” as the father.  This search also returned only one hit:

Hmmm.  So Escolastica dos Santos could be the daughter of Antonio dos Santos and Maria da Encarnacao (which could be da Conceição?).  If she is the same as Escolastica the wife of Pedro de Melim she would have been about 22 years old when she was married.  Antonio Pedro was christened in 1823 so Escolastica would be 29.  This is possible.  The youngest sibling of Antonion Pedro de Melim that I have found was christened in 1835.  Escolastica would be about 41 years old when this child was born.  This definitely needs to be looked into further.  If this Escolastica dos Santos is the same Escolastica the mother of Antonio Pedro de Melim, then I have just discovered another generation.

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Fresher than ever.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 6,900 times in 2010. That’s about 17 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 4 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 49 posts.

The busiest day of the year was September 21st with 51 views. The most popular post that day was Concerning the origin of the da Silva surname.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were search.aol.com, google.com, formspring.me, translate.google.com.br, and translate.google.es.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for genealogy research log, world war 1 registration card, world war 1 draft registration cards, world war i draft registration card, and da silva meaning.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

Concerning the origin of the da Silva surname January 2008
55 comments

Did I find Manuel Soares’ World War I Draft Card? February 2008
1 comment

Searched for João da Silva in Ancestry.com’s World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 January 2008

SS KUMERIC January 2008

Research To Do’s January 2008

The newly found children were Antonio (chr. 24-03-1869), Augusto, and Maria.  I probably missed these children because of the variation on the father’s name

I was really excited.  I eagerly began my search.  The first item on the microfilm had the cover of the book photographed.  I thought I should probably note the name of the book that is on the spine.  I also noticed a little sticker with a number on it.  I thought to myself that it was probably the numbering system in the archive.

Then things became confusing.  I could not find one of the marriages.  My first marriage record was Pedro de Melim and Escolastica Drumond’s in 1915; which was the earliest year of the microfilm record.  There was an index and I couldn’t find Pedro’s name.  I wondered if the index was incorrect, or if I made a mistake.

I searched the Arquivo Regional da Maderia’s (ARM hereafter) marriage database to double check the year.  1915 was right.  Then I noticed the database listed the book and leaf (which I take as a bad English translation of the Portuguese word for page).  I noted that down thinking the book number might be the number on the little sticker.

I quickly repeated this for my other records then I hit the film.  It turns out that Pedro de Melim’s marriage record was in a different book (I guess 1915 was split between two books).   That explains why he was not in the index.  I was a little sad that I wasn’t going to see his record, but glad I had figured out the secret of the sticker.

It was easy to find the other records.  I searched Roberto Luis de Castro’s marriage to Rosa Maria de Sao Jose in 1825 (book 995 page 89), which was the second item on the microfilm and found another generation.

Roberto Luis de Castro’s parents are Antonio Luis de Castro and Margarida de de Vasconcelos.  A quick search of the ARM’s baptismal records turned up 3 other children: Antonio de Castro (chr. 10 Nov 1785), Domingos de Castro (chr. 22 Dec 1788), and Escolastica de Castro (chr. 6 Mar 1793).  Time was short so I skipped his wife’s side of the family.

I quickly searched three other records and scanned all four using the on-site microfilm scanner.  I have some new information to parse through and add to my database.  I still have two other records to search out.

Why did I chose this film?  I am hoping to have a Paulo da Silva type experience with my other ancestors.  There is no substitute for researching primary records!

I am also fortunate that the film that I requested should have 7 marriages.  Odds are pretty good that I will be able to do some further research based on the information I will glean from the records.  I intend to write a post describing what I found and lay out a research plan going forward.

I was poking around the FamilySearch Labs and saw that they are working on a new FamilySearch site (not to be confused with new.familysearch.org – it’s totally different). Well I tried out the FamilySearch beta and found my census image. It was really easy to get to and the image was very clear.