PORTUGAL - possibly Azores

[enzfan]

Hi

I'm trying to untangle my mother-in-law's Portugese ancestry.

I have had her DNA done and she comes up as a match to descendants of a Lawrence Joseph Thomas who, according to various trees, was born around March 1856 in Fleurs, Azores, Portugal. He made his way to the US and lived in Massachusetts where he died

My mother-in-law's grandfather was Antonio Joseph Thomas who was born in Portugal, possibly around 1852. Clearly there is a connection here. She comes up as a half relation to Lawrence's descendants. Antonio arrived in NZ around 1870.

Interestingly, Antonio had two sons from two different relationships named Lawrence - one as a second name and one as a first name. He also had a son named Joseph.

In the newspaper notice of his marriage to his first wife it states that he is the fifth son of Joseph F Thomas of Portugal.

Not sure where to even start with this!

[ravenseft]

I have carried out quite a bit of research on my Portuguese ancestors. I would suggest that your first step would be to get more information about Lawrence as you seem to have more information about him. You could have a look at the baptismal records for Flores (https://tombo.pt/en/i/flores), which has two municipalities, each of which has several civil parishes with separate baptismal records. You would need to dig through the records to see if anything turns up. It may be that Lawrence's name was Anglicised and his original name could be something like Lourenço José Tomáz. Good luck.

[garstonite]

I wonder could it be Antone ?? not Antonio - and Lawrence Thomas was Thomas - have a look at this tree

https://gw.geneanet.org/jmcneill?n=thomas&oc=&p=antone

[ravenseft]

Yes, it's quite possible. That's also a Portuguese first name. There's a naturalisation in Auckland from 1886 of an Anthony Joseph Thomas, which could be worth digging out.

For Lawrence, on his US naturalisation oath from 1899 in Massachusetts, the name "Lawrence Joseph Thomas" is given. The same name is used in the 1900 census for Edgartown, the place where he was naturalised. There's also a marriage record from Massachusetts for the same name in 1882.

[enzfan]

Hi there

Yes, the 1886 naturalisation in Auckland is my man.

Unfortunately his marriage occurred when parents weren't included on the record so the only reasonably reliable piece of information comes from his marriage notice in the local newspaper.

His death record, although there are parents named, is not a reliable source as it relies on the informant knowing the answers. The informant was the coroner. Names on the death record are F = Antonio Joseph Thomas and M = Susan, no maiden name given. It also says that his father was a stonemason.

[ravenseft]

You would need to narrow down the place of origin. Some sources mention Portalegre. It would be good to establish if its Azores or Portugal which is concerned. I don't know if there are travel records which still exist for boats arriving in NZ?

[enzfan]

Hi there

There is an Antonio Thomas arriving in NZ from Australia in December of 1870 which could be him. Roughly matches with the time in NZ of 70 years when he died.