Did men ever adopt a late wife's family name in the 18th century? Francisco de Mello/ de Mello Ferraz

[Carlos Melo]

Hi!

On my father's side of the family, my 7th great-grandparents Francisco de Mello/ de Mello Ferraz married Antonia do Canto/ Soares César in S. Jorge, Nordeste on January 25, 1703:

https://culturacores.azores.gov.pt/biblioteca_digital/SMG-ND-SAOJORGE-C-1648-1707/SMG-ND-SAOJORGE-C-1648-1707_item1/index.html?page=95

The bride's parents are identified but lead to a dead end (Manuel Furtado Barreto and Guiomar da Costa Godinho). As the priest described in their death records, they were dirt poor, so they did not write a will, and RR does not mention them in his book.

The groom was a widower and neither his parents nor his late wife are not mentioned, but the priest wrote that he lived in Ribeira Grande. In addition, Francisco is identified as Francisco de Mello Ferraz is his daughter's baptism record (my 6th great-grandmother, named Luisa):

https://culturacores.azores.gov.pt/biblioteca_digital/SMG-ND-SAOJORGE-B-1675-1706/SMG-ND-SAOJORGE-B-1675-1706_item1/index.html?page=137

There are records of any Francisco de Mello ou any Ferraz in NS Estrela around that time, but on my mother's side of the family, my great-great-grandmother was Maria Isabel Duarte Ferraz, so I remembered that the Ferraz surname goes back hundreds of years in Ribeira Seca, Ribeira Grande. I found only one Francisco de Mello (Pacheco) who married twice there:

As a widower also, with Barbora, on January 2, 1687:

https://culturacores.azores.gov.pt/biblioteca_digital/SMG-RG-RIBEIRASECA-C-1667-1721/SMG-RG-RIBEIRASECA-C-1667-1721_item1/index.html?page=29

And with Isabel de Vasconcellos, on June 29, 1676:

https://culturacores.azores.gov.pt/biblioteca_digital/SMG-RG-RIBEIRASECA-C-1667-1721/SMG-RG-RIBEIRASECA-C-1667-1721_item1/index.html?page=15

Isabel's father was Tome Ferraz, so is it possible that the priest in Nordeste referred to him as Franscisco de Mello Ferraz in reference to his first father-in-law? 

According to Francisco's death record (July 27, 1706, S. Jorge, Nordeste), he was born around the mid 1640s, so the dates match. 

Could Francisco de Mello Pacheco and Francisco de Mello Ferraz be one and the same person or is this too far fetched? Is there any precedent for a widower to adopt a late wife's family name?

Thanks,

Carlos

[Cheri Mello]

I'll have to look more closely at your info later, but in short, yes, I have seen a widower tack on his deceased wife's name. In my case, he added her FIRST name after his surname. Her first name was Umbelina, so that made the line easy to follow. 

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

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[Carlos Melo]

Hi Cheri,

Thanks for this information. I've just found a note about Francisco on the Machado.Gedcom, i.e., about Francisco de Mello Pacheco (from Ponta Delgada) who married Isabel de Resendes in Ribeira Seca (potentially Francisco's first marriage): "He was Mestre de Capela de S. Sebastiao de Ponta Delgada"

In several baptism records around the early 1700s, Franscisco de Mello is included in the list of witnesses, after the godparents, referred to as "Mestre Franscisco de Mello" and signs at the end of the records. He was most likely the chapel master or choirmaster.

Now I'm starting to think that my hypothesis is not so far-fetched after all, so his parents were most likely Manuel Cabral and Luzia Melo. 

Cheers,

Carlos

[Carlos Melo]

P.S. Luiza, not Luzia. So his daughter had the same name as his mother, another piece of the puzzle. 

[Maria Silveira]

I had the same thing as Cheri in my family from Pico where my great grandfather had a womans name at the end of his name (Catarina). The name was written in a side note on my grandfather's baptism record and I thought it was possibly something else because it looked like a womans name.  

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