Searched for Guilherme da Silva’s Death Date

I spent a little time searching for Guilherme da Silva’s death date.  I know that he arrived in San Francisco, California in 1918 with his wife and children.  One of his sons was living in Oakland in 1930, but wasn’t living with his parents. 

I searched Ancestry.com’s California Death Index, 1940-1997 using his immigrant name of William Silva.  This did not return any matches so I expanded my search to all birth, marriage & death records on Ancestry.com.  This also yielded no results.  A more thorough search needs to occur trying other name variants.

Anacleto António de Melim Found in Ancestry.com’s California Passenger and Crew Lists, 1893-1957 SS Wilhelmina

This discovery starts with a discovery back at the Madeiran Archives. I was searching the passport database for Lucrécia’s passport entry. I searched using her parent’s name (António Pedro de Melim & Margarida de Castro) as the search criteria. I was supprised to find out that one of her brothers applied for his passport at the same time as she did with Guilherme da Silva. Here’s what I found:

http://62.48.223.202:81/bds/passaportesuk/CListaPassapview.asp?CF3digoPas=21546
Petitioner: Anacleto António de Melim
Spouse: Maria da Piedade da Paixão
Companion:
Kinship:
Parish/Country: Porto Santo-RAM
Destination: Hawai
Year: 1907
Month: Abr
Box: 136
Process Nº: 169
Passport Nº: 735
Date of Baptism (Petitioner): 6/7/1862
Age (Petitioner): 35
Father (Petitioner): António Pedro de Melim
Mother (Petitioner): Margarida de Castro
Father (Spouse): José da Paixão Coelho e Silva
Mother (Spouse): Ludovina das Neves
Name of the Children: Georgina (8 anos), Júlia (6 anos), Maria (4 anos) e Germana (2 anos)
Comments: 1.ª saída.

I checked the microfilm printout that I have for Guilherme da Silva and discovered that Anacleto was listed right after them. I didn’t realize this at the time, especially given that his name is Anónio on the record.

Time passed and I was exploring collateral lines to futher my genealogical research. I found him in Ancestry.com’s California Passenger and Crew Lists, 1893-1957. He was listed under Aceeto a Melin which is a transcription error. But his wife and children are all on the ship. Here’s the link to the file: SS Wilhelmina Alien Passenger List.

They sailed from Honolulu, Hawaii on Nov 20th 1917 and arrived in San Francisco, California on the 27th of November 1917. The ship they sailed on has so much history that I will have a page for the SS Wilhelmina up shortly.

Did I find the Silva Family in the 1920 Census?

I may have found the Silva Family in the 1920 census. The family left Honolulu, HI on the SS GOVERNOR in January 1918 and arrived in San Francisco. It it probable that they stayed in California (because John was there in 1930, etc). So I searched the 1920 census on Ancestry.com and turned up this possibility:

Name: Lucressa Silva
Home in 1920: Oakland, Alameda, California
Age: 56 years
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1864
Birthplace: Portugal
Relation to Head of House: Wife
Spouse’s Name: Manuel
Father’s Birth Place: Portugal
Mother’s Birth Place: Portugal
Marital Status: Married
Race: White
Sex: Female
Year of Immigration: 1907
Able to read: Yes
Able to Write: Yes
Image: 1123
Neighbors: View others on page
Household Members: Name Age
Manuel Silva 56
Lucressa Silva 56
Manuel Silva 18
John Silva 25
Merrill Silva 2 6/12

Source: http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?ti=0&indiv=try&db=1920usfedcen&h=2477155

I have attached the image here: 1920 Census Silva Family. There is a few things that don’t add up with it. For starters, the husband of Lucressa (which I am reading as Lucrecia) is listed as Manuel. Mixing that up with Guilherme is somewhat unbelievable. The ages do fit. The closeness of Lucrecia in combination with two of her children (Manuel and John) are also compelling that it is a match. Also the immigration year, 1907, coincides with when they came over to Hawaii on the SS KUMERIC. The age for John fits with the John in my family. Manuel’s age is off by two years (He should be 20 by my accounting and not 18). I’m not sure what to make of the grand son (Merill). I think I’m going to keep this as a possibility. If it is them the source citation is: Year: 1920;Census Place: Oakland, Alameda, California; Roll: T625_90; Page: 16A; Enumeration District: 125; Image: 1123.

Searched for Guilherme, Manuel, and Valerio da Silva in World War I Draft Registration Cards

Following the same method as in this posting, I searched for Guilherme da Silva, Manuel da Silva, and Valerio da Silva’s WWI Draft Registration cards. I only supplied the birth years for Manuel and Valerio. In all three cases the results that were returned did not provide any matches.