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Research Journal #2, Entry #4

Sometimes when researching the universe throws you a gift. One night while looking at "Portuguese Immigrants from Azores to Sandwich Isles, 1879-1883: Passport Registrations", by Robert DeMello (for the umpteenth time!), one of these gifts fell my way.

I was searching for the relatives of Alexandrina (Jose) Pacheco with no success. While thumbing through the pages of Jose families, I came across an entry that read Jose, Manuel Jacinto see Jacinto, Manuel page 194. As I needed to check every possibility, I flipped to page 194. No match here! This was not the same Jose family.

As I reread the entry, a light bulb went on over my head. The couple seemed awfully familiar. And, it seemed that I had seen the name of Manuel's parents somewhere before. I realized that Cosme Jacinto da Camara's mother's name was also Miguelina Rosa. I quickly flipped to Cosme's entry. There it was: Father--Antonio da Camara, Mother--Miguelina Rosa. Although Manuel's parents were listed as Antonio Jacinto and Miguelina Rosa, I was sure I had a match. Cosme had used Jacinto in his name and it was easy to see that Manuel just dropped the Camara. These two guys were brothers!

After finding that entry, the pieces began to fall into place. Research showed that the brothers used Jacinto and Jacinto da Camara interchangeably in Hawaiian records. It wasn't until about 1904 that the surname split occurred. Cosme's children began using Cosma and Manoel's children began using Camara or Camera. It is not clear why this change came about. It may have been because Cosme's son, Manoel, married Manoel's daughter, Maria (Minnie). Perhaps by the turn of the century, the people of Hawaii looked down on such close marriages. The families may have changed their surnames to hide this fact. This is all supposition and may be far from the truth! However, we do know that by the time the families came to California ca. 1906, Cosme Jacinto da Camara had become Jacinto Cosma and Manoel Jacinto had become Manuel Camara.

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Manoel's passport entry (page 179):
Jacinto, Manuel
Father Antonio Jacinto
Mother Miguelina Rosa
Wife Filomena da Gloria 34
Father Jose de Jesus
Mother Rosa Jacinta
From Arrifes
Children: Manuel 14 (born Island of Faial), Maria 9, Marie 7, Jose 4, Francisco 2--All born Arrifes
#2208 Abergeldie

Source: "Portuguese Immigrants from Azores to Sandwich Isles, 1879-1883: Passport Registrations", by Robert DeMello. Honolulu : De Mello Publishing Co., [n.d.]

Mapping the Past

Research Journal #2, Entry# 3

Part of resolving genealogical problems is assessing what you already know. The Cosma's and the Camara's were so intermeshed that it seemed impossible to figure out who went where. It was time for a review (no pop quizzes please!) The next step would be to map out the known connections to get a picture of the families.

Starting with The Cosma children...
Manoel m. Minnie Camara
Alexandrinha m. Manoel Remoaldo
Francisco m. Francesca Remoaldo
Maria m. Manoel Gabriel Medeiros
Joaquim m. Marie Pacheco
Maria Jacinta m. Unknown

Finishing with the Camara children...
Manoel m. Maria Theresa Teves
Minnie m. Manoel Cosma (see above)
Maria m. Jose de Braga
Francisco m. Lenora "Nora" Pavao
Alexandrinha m. Manoel Pavao
Antonio m. Carolina d'Ornellas
Joao m. Maria Freitas de Correia
Emilee m. John Freitas de Correia

From the above list, we can see that Manoel Cosma married Minnie Jacinto (aka Camara). Also note that Manoel and Francesca Remoaldo are brother and sister. So were Lenora and Manoel Pavao...and Maria and John Freitas de Correia! Here comes the tricky part! Were the families so close because of the marriages? More documentation was needed to answer that question.

The Curious Passport Record

Research Journal #2, Entry #2

There were many known details about the Cosma family. The family was said to be headed by Jacinto Cosma and Joaquina Rosa. Their children were Manoel, Maria, John, Shandra, Francisco, and Maria. They also had twins who died on board the ship to Hawaii in 1882.

It was time to start conparing the family data to documentation. Jacinto's tombstone at St. Mary's Cemetery in Oakland confirmed the family name. It read: Jacint Cosma. He was buried alone. This supported the family story that he was a widower when he came to California. Joaquina was probably buried somewhere on Kauai. The rest of the cemetery files seemed to support the family stories.

A curious thing happened along the research trail. A family member came across the passport index entry for the Cosma family. It told a different tale than the family history and the Hawaiian and California documentation. The name of the head of the family was Cosme Jacinto da Camara! His parents were Antonio da Camara and Miguelina Rosa. Nowhere was the name Cosma. Was this an error? Did Cosma somehow get inverted as the first name, Cosme? Or, was Cosma the error? Name changing was so common on Hawaii that one has to be careful when researching. In addition to this, the names of the children were slightly off. John was really Joaquim and Shandra was really Alexandrina. The twins were Maria and Filomena meaning the family had 3 daughters named Maria! Francisco and Maria (the third!) must have been born in Hawaii as they weren't mentioned in the immigration records.

The ship index and consulate logs showed the same head of family "Cosme Jacinto da Camara". This was no fluke! In three places along the immigration trail, his name was recorded the same. Did this mean that the Cosma and Camara families were really blood relatives? A search for the head of the Camara family, Manoel Camara, turned up nothing. But, with immigration records, he could be anywhere!

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Passport Index Record:
Camara, Cosme Jacinto da 34
Father Antonio da Camara
Mother Miguelina Rosa
From Feteiras

Wife Joaquina Rosa 39
Children: Manuel 13, Joaquim 8, Maria 9, Alexandrina 4, Maria 5, Filomena 5 (Twins)
#825 Hansa
Source: "Passport Registrations: Portuguese Immigrants from Azores to Sandwich Islands, 1879-1883." By Robert S. De Mello. Honolulu : De Mello Publishing Co., [n.d.]
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Ship Index
825 Camara, Cosme Jacintho [sic] da, age 34 Hansa82, StM, Sheet 13
With Joaquina Rosa, 39, wife
Children: Manuel 13, Maria 9, Joao 8, Alexandrinha 4, Maria Filomena, 5m (dead) [Maria Filomena written as one name with no comma]

Source: "Portuguese Immigrants to Hawaii". Compiled by Edgar C. Knowlton, Jr. Kahului, HI : Maui Cultural Club, c1993.

Tangled Web We Weave

Research Journal #2, Entry 1

One of the most frustratting aspects of genealogy is learning that someone may be related to you but no one remembers how! Take the Cosma's and the Camara's. They appear to be two different, distinct families. No one remembered a close connection between them. They may have been related through a series of marriages. Yet, the kept appearing together in family stories. Things like "I don't think we were related, but every summer they went on vacation to Centerville with everyone else" made the mystery more intriguing.

Those who knew them couldn't decide where they belonged. Comments like "Oh, I think they were my Grandma's cousins" later changed to "Oh, I think they were my Grandfather's friends."

You can add to the pot a healthy dose of confusing characters. They went by the surnames of Remoaldo, Santos (but they were really de Jesus!), Ornellas, Spirou, Pavao (later changed to Pavon), Furtado, Raposo, Gabriel or Medeiros (or were they Gabriel Medeiros?) This was a start of the unsolvable mystery. Too many crossed lines and marriages to get a clear picture.

One thing was clear. All of these families were related in some way. The questions was, of course, how--or better yet--how many times? There didn't seem to be family members from the pre-1920 crowd who new the real story. Sorting out all the stories and conflicts would take an act of congress. The only chance was to find the clues within documentation. Would the early 1900 Hawaiian records reveal the families secrets?

Relationship between the Cosma's and the Camara's

With the start of a new month, we have a new research journal. In Research Journal #2, we'll try to figure out how two families, the Cosma's and the Camara's, are related. This is a tricky research problem because no one still living seems to know how far the relationships go. They only know that there were a few marriages and that the families were constantly around each other.