Portuguese Descendance

I have heard something similar to that, though I am not too sure of from where. Seems rather interesting that these so-called famous names would be descendants of Portuguese bloodlines, but anything is possible, I suppose...

 

thank you for posting on my behalf i owe you one

 

I heard this ages ago. It's no secret that the Bush family is related to royalty.

Here's an article about this in Portuguese
http://jn.sapo.pt/2004/11/01/dossier/Candidatos_t_m_genes_de_Afonso_.html

 

in all honesty...it sounds pretty retarded to me.

The only main actor that I know who has Portuguese ancestors...who by the way is a long cry from D. Afonso Henriques...is Tom Hanks whose grandmother is a "currisca malamanhada" aka açoriana...I guess you can include Emeril Lagasse who's mom is and açoriana too.

Personally, I wouldn't like the likes of George 'duh' ble U Bush, or Tom Cruise or anyactor related to regal and noble figure like Dom Afonso Henriques...they shouldn't even be mentioned in the same breath as our first king.

 

Well, portuguese did explore the world and must of banged tons of women especially the english women

 

alphonsos father was royalty from Burgundy and his mother was catilian I beleive, so bottom line is our great leaders dad was a frog and his mom was a castilian, looke what that did for her on the side tom hanks is part azorian.
Luis Camoes has spoken

 

I don't know about Bush's family history... (and frankly I don't care) but Genealogy is indeed a very interesting hobbie if you want to know more about YOUR family. It can be both time consuming and expensive (if you really get into it), however it does have its rewards, like finding the roots of your family and maybe getting to know a little more about yourself.

I did the research on my wife's family, who is from Madeira, and I was actually able to trace it back to the XVth century and to the first settlers of the island.

Families that originate from islands are easier to trace because they don't move around as much (or at all) so I bet those of you who come from Açores could easily trace back your families some 200-300 years (maybe even more).
Who knows, some of you could even find out that you are Tripeiros after all

A lot of sites have useful tips on how to do a research of your family. Sometimes you can even find fragments of your family history that were already investigated by other people. I'd recommend you to take a look at this site if you're into this stuff.

Genea Portugal

 

I tried to trace my mom's side of the family since they have a more interesting history but quickly gave up since back then, there was a lot of name registration issues. Exmple: Anyone can just say what the baby's name was and most people would know the family by a different name and screw up the whole birth certificate. My grandpa has like 2 unoficial last names and a legit one. Very confusing stuff.

 

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Welcome to Portugal

 

What's so confusing?

If he has one legit name then that should be the name to research. Just ask for your parents birth certificates in the "Conservatoria do Registo Civil" (Translation? ) of the region where they were born.

THEN, In your parents birth certificates you should have the official names of your grand parents as well as the places of their births... from then on you just have to continue asking for the birth certificates of your ancestors.

You will only be able to go back some 100 years or so with this "method" because after that the records are kept in the "Torre do Tombo" in Lisbon.

THAT is where it gets confusing...

 

That is my dad's name!!!!!

But i know he is an amazing actor, he was in such movies as Desperato.

 

Both my parents live in Portugal and i have had talks with them in regards to this topic. Here is somethings i found out.

The last names (most of them) originated from either your religion, profession, area where you lived or nicknames. My last name is Almeida, Almeida was a name given to garbage collectors in Portugal in the early 1800's maybe before even. So if one of your ancestors was a garbage collector people would call him Almeida, so if his first name was Jose, he would be know as Jose Almeida.

Names that came from religious background are more recent. In WWII jew refugees escaped to Portugal, since they didn't want other people to know their religion they changed their last names to match trees or fruits. This was a way for them to identify eachother without being identified. Some examples are Oliveira e Pereira.

Since our country has a lot of Muslim heritige some of the names reflect that as well, with 2 variations. In Arab (many other cultures) culture is very common for people to add the name of their village to their name, a non Arab example is Jesus of Nazareth. This was a way for people to identify their heritige and where they came from, examples Maria de Fatima, Joao Santarem etc (i made these names up ). In names of towns and cities you also see alot of the Arab influence (relax Ferreira....your heart can't take it). Any word that starts with the letters AL come from an Arab word that we addapted to our own. ALgarve, ALentejo, ALjesture, ALcobaca...most of these names are more common south of Coimbra .

I hope this helps.

p.s. I was able to find out that my mother has Jewish background (Oliveira is her maden name) and my father is half French and half Norwegian....his family moved to Portugal..long, long, long, long ago...i guess one of their first jobs was as a grabage man

 

well, my last name is Da Costa...which is fitting, because I live in the town of Aguçadoura, in Povoa de Varzim...which is a town right on the coast...thus, Da Costa=from the coast.

but I don't know if that theory holds much water...surely it has to be more complex than that

 

See the problem is that my grandfather's last name in the registo is Lima but it is really Sousa and in some other government documents, the last name is Fernandes. This is due to other villagers telling the notory my grandpa's last name and back then, they took everyone's word. Oh well, I might start digging into this in a few more years when i get the time.

On my dad's side, my grandma didn't even have a last name in her birth certificate....

 

Also, does anyone know where the last names ending in "nho" descends from?

 

Sometimes the easiest explanation is the real one. The truth doesn't have to be complicated, we make things complicated...human nature.

This is not a theory....i learned this in high school in history of Portugal classes. I also read an article in the "SOL PORTUGUES" (Toronto portuguese based newspaper) that explained the jewish that changed their names when they fled to Portugal. A portuguese UofT professor was doing a study on this topic. The history of portugal is very rich, before we broke away from Spain the Iberian Peninsula was ruled by the Celtics and the Iberians, that latter joined to create one group of people named Celtibericos. This is in the time of the romans of course. Which explains the fact that in Scotland haggus is the samething we eat in Portugal, we call it Morcela.

 

"nho" it's normally used as a sufix in the Portuguese language and on its own has no meaning.

 

My part (Tras-os-montes) is heavely influenced by the Jewish. We have a traditional food called the Alheira or Alheira de Mirandela where it is the most famous name. It's basically looks like a chorico filled with bread, chicken and other meats... Very popular in my area but unheard of in the Central or south Portugal. There are also a couple of villages where there are still some jewish communities in Tras-os-montes.

 

So basically the portuguese who originated the "nho" just felt like adding an extra syllable and to confuse the hell out of english speaking people when trying to pronounce my last name

 

I guess so LOL.....it happens to all of us. I get Almida alot.

 

when portugal expelled the jews hundreds of years ago they gave them a option to stay and convert if they did they gave them a new last name, usualy to do with a nature subject. last name Pereira being one of them. id point to my uncles nose all the time and he just says I know. look up Sephardic Genealogy if your into jewish names in portugese and spanish

 

It's nice to meet a well informed individual.