Snapshots of Today...so far!


(The sun is shinning in Sao Jorge today!)

He was in his mid eighties and driving me to the airport in style! The headliner in the taxi was black and fastened to it were thumbtack size shiny metal disks. They spelled out “Diamante (Diamond) Taxi Love” in sparkly red, silver, black and gold dots. Then scattered all over were, I guess, the extra ones he had left . On the way there we listened to a soap opera radio program and while I could only understand about every 4th or 5th word, the plot was easy to figure out. I could tell he had been following the drama for some time by his mumbled comments and facial expressions.

Because of the assistance of the travel agent yesterday, I already had my boarding pass and just took a small carry on . I did not have to check in and could bypass the 80+ tourists standing in line to go directly to the boarding area. So far so good.

It started raining early this morning. A constant drizzle. The temperature is 66 and the humidity 90%....so yes a bit muggy. No response yet from the lady genealogist. There are five things I hope to accomplish:

  1. See the village of Boscoitos de Calheta

  2. Take a photo of the Church of St. Catherine where the family baptisms and marriages took place and may be where the graves are located.

  3. Learn the cause of death of my Great Grand Mother who died on exactly the same day as one of her sisters.

  4. Locate the small plot of land my Grandmother inherited and sold .

  5. Find the house seen in the last photo we have of Great Great Grandmother, which

    was taken in 1941 just before she died.

I feel like an 83 year old “Nancy Drew” looking for clues everywhere. So many people look like they may be related to me. I have to restrain myself from walking up to strangers and asking their names! Old ladies with wrinkles and fat in all the same places as I.

If I connect with the genealogy lady this would make finding this stuff much easier .At the very least I would like to meet her and have her fill the gaps in my research if possible. The faint elegant cursive writing on the official documents , all in Portuguese, are very difficult to read and almost impossible for me to translate. I am able to identify only fragments of information. So far there has been no response to my last minute message to her.....but when I checked in at the hotel on Sao Jorge they have arranged for a bilingual taxi driver to take me to Boscoitos. They said the Church of St. Catherine is located there and many of the old houses remain. So at 1:00pm I will have the taxi driver drop me off there and pick me up a few hours later so I can explore.




Right now I am in a beautiful air conditioned apartment....I thought I only had a room reservation but this is where they put me! Here is a photo of the unit and the amazing view from my balcony of Velas , Sao Jorge. It’a going to be a struggle to come home to reality after all this! More later......Hugs to all. 

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