Help with some church records

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Kim Welch

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Jul 23, 2026, 11:50:57 AM (9 days ago) Jul 23
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I’m looking at the record on the right for Laurianno(sp). Can anyone tell me what the side note says? Is it saying that he died in 1940? Wouldn’t that make him like 104 years old? Also, can someone confirm what I think I see in the record and fill in any blanks? 

Here’s what I see:

Name: Laurianno 
Father: Laurianno Joaquin from the Island of Santa Maria
Mother: Margarida Jacintha naturally from this church 
Church: Sinohra da Conceicao 
Town: Ribeira Grande
Birthdate: 15 April 1836
Baptized: 24 May 1836
Godfather: Antonio Pinheiro, mother’s brother 

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you, Kim

Cheri Mello

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Jul 23, 2026, 11:58:27 AM (9 days ago) Jul 23
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quatorze = 14
quarenta = 40

So he died 1914.

Baptized on the 24 day of the same month and year (so 24 Apr 1836)

All the rest you got right!
Cheri Mello
Listowner, Azores-Gen
Researching: São Miguel island: Vila Franca, Ponta Garca, Ribeira Quente, Ribeira das Tainhas, Achada


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Kim Welch

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Jul 24, 2026, 5:56:52 PM (8 days ago) Jul 24
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This should be a sibling in the lower right. Can you verify and correct any mistakes?
Name: Francisca
Father: Lourianno Joaquin, from Santo Antonio Church on Santa Maria 
Mother: Margarida Jacintha, from this church 
Church: Sinhora de Conceicao 
Town: Ribeira Grande
Birthdate: 30 September 1841
Baptism: 18 October 1841
??? Church of Nossa ????? de Conceicao , Parish of ?????? / ???? Jorge Ignacio Ferreira 
Godfather: Antonio Pinheiro (same uncle as before)
Witnesses: Manoel Jose Pacheco and Jose Francisco Soares

Cheri Mello

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Jul 24, 2026, 6:23:33 PM (8 days ago) Jul 24
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The site is down at the moment.

However, some of your questions involve becoming familiar with Portuguese culture or Catholic culture.

Many Catholic churches are named after the Virgin Mary. In Portuguese, they call her "Our Lady" which translates to Nossa Senhora. So your question marks are probably the "Parish church of Nossa Senhora da Conceicao, parish of Ribeira Grande." Not sure about the R. Grande part until the site comes back up to check. 
Cheri Mello
Listowner, Azores-Gen
Researching: São Miguel island: Vila Franca, Ponta Garca, Ribeira Quente, Ribeira das Tainhas, Achada

Bill Seidler

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Jul 24, 2026, 10:40:23 PM (8 days ago) Jul 24
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My suggested edits for what you had are below in red.  You read the father's home parish correctly but I do not know of a Matriz de Santo Antonio on Santa Maria Island.  The only matriz on Santa Maria, as far as I know, is Nossa Senhora da Assunção.  Her brother's baptism you posted earlier just says Santa Maria Island.  There were only four parishes on Santa Maria at that time.  I would start with Assunção to find the father's baptism unless you have his marriage and it points elsewhere.

Name: Francisca
Father: Lourianno Joaquin, from Santo Antonio Church on Santa Maria 
Mother: Margarida Jacintha, from this church 
Church: Sinhora de Conceicao 
Town: Ribeira Grande
Birthdate: 30 September 1841
Baptism: 18 October 1841 
neste referida (in the already referred to) Church of Nossa Senhora de Conceicao , Parochial de seus pais (parish of her parents)/ por (by) José (not Jorge) Ignacio Ferreira, cura da mesma (priest of the same parish) 
Godfather: Antonio Pinheiro (same uncle as before)
Witnesses: Manoel Jose Pacheco and Jose Francisco Soares

Bill Seidler

Kim Welch

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Jul 25, 2026, 10:09:52 AM (7 days ago) Jul 25
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This is the record and most of my ??? come handwriting. So, I’m pretty sure it’s Nossa Senhora, but the Nossa looks strange. Then it has Parochial de (and I can’t make out the next two words) also I’m not sure of the next word before Jose. Also I see that I got mixed up between records, the godfather isn’t her mother’s brother Antonio. It’s her mother’s other brother Francisco Bernardo. And I found this one fairly easy to understand but I still question myself on everything, but I’m doing so much better than I used to thanks to all the help and support that I have gotten from everyone.

Kim Welch

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Jul 25, 2026, 10:10:03 AM (7 days ago) Jul 25
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Oops, I zoomed in on the wrong record. This is the correct one and the godfather is Antonio Pinheiro, her mother’s brother 

Bill Seidler

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Jul 25, 2026, 10:37:13 AM (7 days ago) Jul 25
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Name: Francisca
Father: Lourianno Joaquin, from Santo Antonio Church on Santa Maria 
Mother: Margarida Jacintha, from this church 
Church: Sinhora de Conceicao 
Town: Ribeira Grande
Birthdate: 30 September 1841
Baptism: 18 October 1841 
neste referida (in the already referred to) Church of Nossa Senhora de Conceicao , Parochial de seus pais (parish of her parents)por mim (by me) José (not Jorge) Ignacio Ferreira, cura da mesma (priest of the same parish) 
Godfather: Antonio Pinheiro (same uncle as before)
Witnesses: Manoel Jose Pacheco and Jose Francisco Soares

Kim Welch

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Jul 25, 2026, 11:55:58 AM (7 days ago) Jul 25
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Here’s his marriage record on the right side. I can pick some stuff out but I’m struggling with the handwriting and not knowing possible words that should be there and not being familiar with the formatting. I have been working with the baptisms a lot more. I still don’t know Portuguese. But, I think I have actually learned more Portuguese doing this than I learned Spanish in school. I find that oddly funny.

Here’s another sibling, Antonio, top left:

Name: Antonio 
Father: Laureanno Joaquin From Santa Barbara Church, Santa Maria
Mother: Margarida Jacintha From this church 
Church: Nossa Senhora de Conceicao 
Town: Ribeira Grande
Birthdate: 24 April 1839
Baptism: 9 May 1839
Godfather: Antonio Pinheiro (same uncle)
Witnesses: Manuel Jose Pacheco and Jose Francisco Soares (I think they must be related, they witnessed the others too)

These are the only children I have found so far but I have found no records for the parents yet and all three baptism records very a little on the father. That’s the person I’m really searching for at the moment. I have only found his name on these 4 records. Does the marriage record give any more clues? Does it clarify anything? It was performed in a different church from the baptisms.

Cheri Mello

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Jul 25, 2026, 12:23:01 PM (7 days ago) Jul 25
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Kim W,
 We have very few native speakers on this list. Many of us started out just like you - absolutely no knowledge of Portuguese. Some of us had another language in high school (mine was Spanish) and some of us had no 2nd language in high school. Yet we learned to read these documents. And many of us are now guiding people like you! It's come full circle.

To help learn to "read" these documents, I've created some guides and posted them on the Azores Genweb. 

Keywords are here. I'd copy and paste that into a Word.doc and print it out:

At the bottom of that page, you will find this link that takes you to the translations:

I did it line by line. Yeah, I picked the ones with the easy handwriting because it's easier to train someone who is reading nice penmanship.

You'll see the different formats through the time periods. That will help you get used to the records.

Yeah, I think I'd do a bunch of baptisms because you'd be getting used to the format in your time period. So you'll need the keywords and the marriage translation for your time period.

Yes, high school Spanish helped me, but now Portuguese has taken over. Even in weird ways. I play Wordle most days. Once in a blue moon I type a Portuguese word in for a guess! LOL

Your marriage with keywords plus a few extra:

Laurianno Jose and Maria da Paixao
On the second day of October of 1000 800
50 and 4 years of the morning of this
Matriz of Nossa Senhora da Estrella, villa
of Ribeira Grande ....
...skipped 15 lines (you're looking for "in the eyes of the church" - em face da Igreja (his looks like em faZe) ... Laurianno Jo-
ze, son of Laurianno Joaquim andof (he ran those 2 words together) Marga-
rida Jacintha, baptized ^and deobligated of the last three Le-
nts (Lent is a 2 syllable word in Portuguese) of the referenced church of Senhora da Con-
ceicao, with Maria da Paixao, daughter of Jose
Cabral andof (he ran it together) and of Jacintha Roza....

Picking out the names comes first. Dates come last because they are spelled out (one thousand eight hundred fifty and four). But the month part comes fairly easy because most months are spelled similarly to the English spellings.
Cheri Mello
Listowner, Azores-Gen
Researching: São Miguel island: Vila Franca, Ponta Garca, Ribeira Quente, Ribeira das Tainhas, Achada

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