Re: Morgado

[uberl...@aol.com]

Hello Linda,

 

It was my understanding that the term "morgado" meant something like the oldest son...the one who would inheirit?  Maybe a native Azorean can comment on this. I believe that this could also have started with someone being called this and then it was passed down in time?  I don't think this was originally a surname?  I know there was someone in my family who was called Tio Morgado.....but that was not really his surname.

 

Susan Vargas Murphy 

 
Date: Mon, Nov 14 2005 11:59 pm
From: "Linda Norton" 

I use to hear my father always talk about a Morgado (Morgan) when I was
young but never knew who Morgan was, but it turned out to be his cousin. I
then was told my grandfather was Antonio Morgado Furtado, but it never came
down the line. I found out from John Roias that there is a line of Morgados
with the Furtados and I'm trying to connect it.  Well, my ggrandfather
Mariano Cardao Furtado, Antonio Morgado Furtado's father, didn't have
Morgado so I'm assuming it's from Antonio's mother side, the same with
Cardao being from the mother's side, but then I heard it was a nickname. I
don't know if that would be carried down at all or just used with that name
one time. 

So some are nicknames carried down for a few generations, some are nicknames
used once so it makes it harder when looking for names because it's not a
true name and men carried their mother's name as well as the women.

I've said this before, my mother had Borges and her father, grandfather and
ggrandfather carried Giesta and didn't see it before that.  Where did it
come from?  Her gggrandfather was a Borges Tavares.  My father said Giesta
was a nickname meaning some type of wood like oak. It could be he worked
with wood which I know my grandfather was a furniture maker, but I don't
know if his father before him was.

It can be interesting.

Linda Borges (Furtado) Norton

[Maria Sousa]

 

 

In my family, the word “morgado” was a term used for an only child, having no siblings (who would inherit).

 

 

 

Maria A. Sousa

[Linda Norton]

Well, that’s news to me.  I even thought or heard that Morgado could have been Morgan not realizing it had a true definition.

 

My grandfather Antonio Morgado Furtado was one of five children.  I also mentioned that I do have a line of Morgado Furtados that I am trying to connect so now I’m

confused.   John (Roias) can you clarify the line of Morgado Furtados that you had sent me a while ago?  I would appreciate it.

 

Linda Borges (Furtado) Norton

 

---

[H o y e r s]

 

It looks like there are many meanings for "morgado".

 

My mother (from Ajuda Bretanha, Sao Miguel) knew of a Tio Morgado as well, but didn't know if that was his first or last name.

 

She also said that they used the word to refer to people of great status and wealth.

 

~ Elizabeth Cabral-Hoyer

   (Cabral, Fernandes, Arruda & Sousa from Bretanha, Sao Miguel)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[John Roias]

I think Eloise can best answer this question. If not, see her views and questions and subsequent answers (and views) on Morgados in the Portugal, Rootsweb archives, by a well known and probably one of the foremost experts on Portuguese genealogy today, Francisco Antonio Doria. Just type in "Morgado" on Rootsweb.

 

As to the Furtado Morgado's of Ribeira Grande, one has to follow the line to the end to see if there is any connection to a "Morgado", who would be the oldest son (and sometimes daughter when there is no son) and inheritor of a Morgado (sort of an estate.) This is one possibility, that these Furtados have a connection with an estate through inheritance. 

 

Another would be that the first Furtado Morgado simply worked for the owner (Morgado) of an estate and thus adopted the name Morgado. And maybe even successive generations worked for the estate. The Furtados, Medeiros' and other very common namesakes often adopted alcunhas or nick names to distinguish themselves from other like name sakes.

 

I think the latter possibility is more likely. The name was adopted for some reason or other.

 

JR

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Linda Norton

To: Azo...@googlegroups.com

Sent: Tuesday, November 15, 2005 4:40 PM

Subject: [AZORES-GEN] Re: Morgado

[Marr...@cs.com]

In a message dated 11/15/2005 1:32:59 PM Eastern Standard Time, uberl...@aol.com writes:

It was my understanding that the term "morgado" meant something like the oldest son...the one who would inherit?  Maybe a native Azorean can comment on this. I believe that this could also have started with someone being called this and then it was passed down in time?  I don't think this was originally a surname?  I know there was someone in my family who was called Tio Morgado.....but that was not really his surname.
 
Susan Vargas Murphy

An entailment (or víncula and morgadio in Portuguese) is a restriction of inheritance to a limited class of descendants for at least several generations (and often in perpetuity) in order to preserve large estates in land from disintegration caused by equal inheritance of all the heirs normally entitled to inherit. Simply put, the entire estate was to be kept intact and inherited by a single heir, usually, but not always, the oldest male. Detailed provisions were often made in these documents for the succession in the event there was no surviving legitimate male heir. Thus, with only the heir, the Morgado, (or Majorat in English) inheriting, then the Morgado's siblings became poorer and poorer in succeeding generations, unless they married into propertied families.

These entailments often prevented the heir from selling off or changing the use of the land. Often, certain enterprises, such as the milling of grain or lumber, needed to be continued, even if no longer economically viable. Chapels, built by the founder of the estate, and where the family was often interred, had to be maintained and the entailment often brought with it the pious charge of arranging for a certain number of  masses to be celebrated each year for the repose of the soul of the testator. Thus, we owe the existence of many of the lovely small chapels in many villages in the Azores to these Morgados. The estate usually had its manor house, often with a coat of arms at the portal. Many of these lovely old solares are today abandoned and near ruin, the only remainder of their former glory is that coat of arms still visible on a crumbling portal.

Entailments had existed in Portugal from feudal times and initially worked well to preserve the wealth and social prominence of the family. However, over time, as the restrictions imposed by the initial entailment were no longer useful or economically viable, these conditions became burdensome and constricted economic development. In the Azores, the campaign to abolish the entailments was led in 1835 by Manuel António Vasconcelos, founder of the oldest Azorean newspaper still in existence, O Açoreano Oriental.  Himself the scion and heir to the Morgadio da Lomba Grande in Bretanha, he had arranged for some easements in the entailments in 1828 so that his mother and siblings could continue to benefit from the estate after the death of his father.

The editorial in the June 4th 1836 edition of the Açoreano Oriental stated,

"the entailment system, although the cornerstone of the Nobility, nevertheless continues to  scandalize good sense, ruin morality, pervert custom, and is a permanent stumbling block to the growth of wealth, industry and the growth of our people.

" Let us end once and for all this pernicious system which has caused so many sorrows, so many tragedies, and brought so many tears to so many families...

" In these islands, the total abolition of the system is all the more urgent because this plague effects the majority of our properties and leaves younger progeny impoverished and without means, denying a family to many young ladies, who live and die in a forced celibacy".

In São Miguel alone, with a population in 1836 of 70,000 to feed, there were more entailments per square kilometer than anywhere else in the Archipelago.  

The system was not finally abolished until 1863, too late for Manuel António Vasconcelos, who had died in 1844. In 1841 he had brought a petition before a magistrate in Ribeira Grand, for the final extinction of the entailment instituted in 1720, and all its encumbrances.

And that was why so many of our people's fortunes and social position declined from that of landed gentry to the peasantry,  from riches to rags. We descend not from the Morgados, but from their younger siblings.

John Miranda Raposo

[George Pacheco]

When i lived in Pilar Bretanha i I remmber a man who's name was Tio Morgado but i never knew his first name.

 

George Pacheco He lived Next door to the familes called as Zabelas Nickname that is they actualy Raposo's.

 

George Pacheco

Reasonable Researcher for hire specializing on Azorean and Madeira Records.

View my Webpage.

 http://www.geocities.com/bretanha1954/azoreangenealogy

---

Yahoo! FareChase - Search multiple travel sites in one click.

[John Roias]

Thanks, John. That was very interesting and enlightening.

 

JR

 

----- Original Message -----

[Mary Blake]

Thank you John for sharing your knowledge.

 

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From: Azo...@googlegroups.com [mailto:Azo...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Marr...@cs.com
Sent: Tuesday, November 15, 2005 5:52 PM
To: Azo...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [AZORES-GEN] Re: Morgado

[Linda Norton]

I want to thank both Johns on all this information on Morgados.   Both my grandfathers on my maternal and paternal side I was told, “lost the farm”.  My mother thought or was told her grandfather was very wealthy and that it got squandered by her uncle and her mother never got basically nothing for a dowry.  My father never told me, but my mother did, that his father really lost the farm and had nothing left because he was not a true business man according to rumor because he was deceased before my mother really knew him.  What really could have happened was because of this entailment, maybe.

 

Linda

---

From: Azo...@googlegroups.com [mailto:Azo...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of John Roias
Sent: Tuesday, November 15, 2005 6:27 PM
To: Azo...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [AZORES-GEN] Re: Morgado

 

Thanks, John. That was very interesting and enlightening.

[Rose Koerte]

HI , MY NAME IS ROSE IN MY MOM FAMILY HER MOTHER MAIDIEN NAME IS ROSE DE SOUZA MARGADO LATER IN YEARS HER OLDEST SISTER AND THE REST DROPED THE LAST NAME MARGADO AND NOW CARRY ONLY SOUZA .   

 

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[Linda Norton]

Hi Rose and where was your family from?

Linda

 

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[Rose Koerte]

            HI LINDA , MY GRAMA ROSE DE SOUZA MARGADO WAS BORN ON KAUAI, HER PARENTS ARE ANTONE DE SOUZA MARGADO MARRIED TO JACINTHA PEREIRA THEY BOTH CAME FROM SAN MIGUEL  ARRIVED IN HAWAII 1881   ANTONE PARENTS ARE JOSE DE SOUZA MARGADO MARRIED TO CAROLINA M. BORGES /   JACINTHA PEREIRA PARENTS ARE JOSE PEREIRA MARRIED TO MARIA DE FREITAS AND THEY ARRIVED IN HAWAII IN 1886 LATER IN YEARS MARIA MARRIED A PINO PERRY AND HAVE NO SIBLINGS THAT IS ALL I HAVE FROM THAT GENERATION I HAVE MORE BUT THERE ARE NOW GENERATION.     ROSE

 

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[Rose Koerte]

HI LINDA , MY GRAMA ROSE PARENTS ARE FROM SAN MIGUEL THERE NAMES ARE ANTONE DE SOUZA MARGADO M/ JACINTHA PEREIRA  THEY ARRIVED IN HAWAII IN 1881,  ANTONE PARENTS ARE JOSE DE SOUZA MARGADO M/ CAROLINA M. BORGES ,  JACINTHA PERENTS ARE JOSE PEREIRA M/  MARIA DE FREITAS THEY ARRIVED IN HAWAII IN 1886 .   ROSE

 

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[Linda Norton]

I loved Kauai, just there in September.  I have Morgado not Margado, but assuming it was changed, I have several of them, but not knowing which ones are my lines.  I don’t have Antone de Sousa Margado, but Manuel and Antonio Furtado Morgados.  I do have plenty of Antonio de Sousa’s, but not with Morgados.  Again, everyone is saying that Morgado had a meaning of the eldest child and/or who inherits, etc., so we may be dealing with the same person, but taking out the Morgados.  I don’t know.

 

I also see you have Borges, that’s on my mother paternal side where Morgado’s are my father’s paternal side.

[Shirley Allegre]

Hi All:  I am trying to get caught up on my emails.  I just reread yours.  I looked in Bob de Mello's book and found the following.  I hope that it might be what

you are looking for.  If it looks right, email me back if you want me to try to find more info.

 

Info from:  IMMIGRATION FROM AZORES TO HAWAII 1879-1883,  page 389, 4th entry down the page:

 

Jose de Sousa, age 27, shoemaker

Father:  Jose de Sousa

Mother: Maria Izabel

From: Sao Pedro Church in Ponta Delgada, Sao Miguel, Azores

WIFE:  Carolina de Jesus, age 24

CHILDREN:

Maria 3

Antonio 10 months

SHIP: High Flyer

 

The sailing time for the High Flyer was 10 August 1879-17 Dec 1880.  (This seems like an awful long time.  Maybe the departure date should

be 10 Aug 1880???)

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

In looking at the passenger lists in CONSULADO GERAL DE PORTUGAL EM HAWAII, I found:

 

Highflyer #1,  date 26 Jan 1880

Highflyer #2,  date  1 April 1881

_________________________________________________________

This is what I found:

 

Highflyer #1,  date 26 January 1880

 

Passenger # 277:

Jose de Sousa,  age 27, (from Ponta Delgada, Sao Miguel, Azores)

MARRIED WITH:  Carolina de Jesus,  age 24

CHILDREN:

Mariano, 3 years

Antonio 1 year

_______________________________________________________

 

Between the two records, there is a discrepancy between the names and ages of the children.

I have the film for the Sao Pedro Church in Ponta Delgada.  If you would like, I can look for a DOM (Date

Of Marriage) for Jose & Claudina.  Let me know what you want me to do.

 

Shirley