Slave relatives

[Paul Gomes]

Cross posted with the Madeira group

Hello All:

Since I have African DNA I have decided to try to find that relative. I know the Portuguese word for Slave is Ecarvo/Excarva. What would be the best way to search for this relative? Looking through the marriages or baptismo records?

Paul G.

[Cheri Mello]

Paul,

Most Azoreans and Madeirans show residual African. Yours is less than 4%. These are estimates and at that level, you may never find the African ancestor. Read Judy Russell's blog, The Legal Genealogist, here: https://www.legalgenealogist.com/2021/09/19/not-soup-in-2021-either/

By-the-way, my dad currently shows 0% on FTDNA. He has shown up to 11% in the past. Some of my paper trail on some lines go back to the 1500s. I've never found a slave ancestor (well, at least not yet).

Cheri Mello
Listowner, Azores-Gen
Researching: São Miguel island: Vila Franca, Ponta Garca, Ribeira Quente, Ribeira das Tainhas, Achada

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Azores Genealogy" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to azores+un...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/azores/6ebe5774-63aa-47cc-a4de-6e7be11a592fn%40googlegroups.com.

[Nelson A]

I have seen the word Escavo several times when looking through the baptismal records. I have not come across any in my line, but I am still looking and am still in the 1800s going back

--

[JR]

The correct spelling is 'escravo or escrava', male and female respectively. The only only way to find a slave ancestor is to encounter one in your searches. If you do not find one in your particular ancestry, then you do not have a slave ancestor. At least as far as the records indicate. What came before the records you may never know. Essentially, Portugal abolished slavery by decree in 1761. In practice it continued well into the 1800's. Former slaves melded into the population, sometimes without any reference to being slaves. There is no separate list for slaves. I have seen many in the records,; but in terms of population, it is a fraction of one percent, in my estimation. RR wrote about a whole line in Ribeira Grande. The point is, after they married or were freed they were no longer slaves and melded into the population.

JR

[mnk]

I do have a slave ancestor. In his marriage record, which is a bit damaged, I can clearly see cativo de Antônio Mendes Pereira. No parent name is given so he is the end of that line. This is early 1600’s Vila Franca do Campo.  Of course I have seen lots of other records of slaves mainly in the baptisms, just not in my family tree.

Maria

[Gerry DeChaves]

Paulo, just for sake of accuracy: the Portuguese word for slave is ESCRAVO for male and ESCRAVA for female. 

On Mon, Jul 18, 2022 at 12:27 PM Paul Gomes <pago...@gmail.com> wrote:

--

[Eric AR Edgar]

I found a slave ancestor in my Cedros, Flores, Mendonca family line.

As I followed the marriage record information, it showed the wife was from Faial, and was shown as pai incognito. 

I found her Faial baptism record from 1770, where she was baptised as an adult of 23 years, showing her mother as the slave of a priest, who was born in Guine.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/azores/CAJAn28iWLgbgo27j2qZutQg01HRsjU7wpE%2B3h93rQ1MMH-wAOw%40mail.gmail.com.