FIND YOUR PORTUGUESE ANCESTOR through TRANSCRIPTS, ABSTRACTS and TRANSLATIONS of HISTORICAL PORTUGUESE RECORDS

I am a Professional Genealogist, bilingual in Portuguese/English, an immigrant to the United States, and a proud American Citizen as much as I am of my ancestry. Besides my deep knowledge of the Portuguese language, I have a skill set for Paleography that runs in my genetics[1]. I am very detail oriented and work in-house, personally, not affiliated with any business, which is more cost-effective and trustworthy.

I can be reached at myportuguesegen at gmail.com  

I have been working with historical transcripts and translations of Portuguese records into English for more than ten years. When working on a project I give the best of my knowledge in paleography, the Portuguese language, its socio-history and peculiarities of each century.

Documents are an important component in our genealogical research as they can help us build our own family history. I ask you:

• Do you have ancestors from a Portuguese language country?
• Did you find manuscripts or books that contain your ancestor's name?
• Do you know the content of a specific record you have in your hand?
• Do you need any help transcribing or translating a Portuguese record?

If you said yes and need assistance with any of the above questions, do not hesitate to contact me. Language can become a barrier and affects an investigation when the content of a manuscript is not properly understood and translated.

You may be sure that I will be glad to answer any of your questions regarding Portuguese transcripts from records going back to the 1600's. I can also translate these same manuscripts into English. The transcript and translation of an original record will open new doors for your research and family history.

Last but not least, take a moment to read some of my clients' feedback at the bottom of this page. Through the years, I have built up a customer portfolio of very happy returning clients. I am so proud of the work I personally did for each of them. Customer reviews are important feedback to evaluate my work. I will do my best to bring your family history to the next level!

[1] Francisco Ferreira Drummond, my 3rd. great-grandfather, and a historian from Terceira Island, Azores, was also a Paleographer.  Through his history books about the Azores he not only brought to life many historical facts from medieval documents, but he also translated many of those manuscripts from Latin into the Portuguese language.

- https://myportuguesegen.blogspot.com/2017/08/genealogical-translation.html

TRANSCRIPT | TRANSLATION | ABSTRACT

When I transcribe a manuscript all the elements of the text are kept exactly as they appear on the original document, including all the abbreviations. While doing an abstract, only the relevant information is provided, including dates, places and full names. 

I will use as an example the baptism record of my maternal 3rd grandmother Balbina, from Cabo da Praia, Terceira Island, in the Azores. The digital record is part of Biblioteca Pública and Arquivo Regional deAngra do Heroismo website.

If you are transcribing, it is very tricky if you do not know the original language. In earlier times, it was common to have intricate words besides different styles of writing in a document, as you can see below.

 

Below is the above document transcribed, the text is exactly as it appears on the original one, line by line, following the way the scribe wrote. Any notation between brackets is information I provide as an explanation for what was abbreviated on the original record. To make it easier following and reading the original record, I numbered the lines on the left side, each line corresponding to the same ones in the original document.

1             1829

2             Balbina, filha de João Jaquez e de sua m^er.[mulher]

3             Maria do Carmo ella n^al.[natural] da Villa de S. Se

4             bastião e ele n^al.[natural] e ambos freguezes desta

5             Parochial de Sta. Catharina lugar do

6             Cabo da Praia desta Ilha 3^a. nasceo em

7             os quinze dias do mez de Novembro do an-

8             no de mil oito centos e vinte nove. Foi Ba

9             tizada por mim Vicente Toste Coelho Vig^ro.[Vigario]

10           proprio desta d^a.[dita] Parochia, em os vinte

11           e dois dias do d^o.[dito] mez, e como logo lhe im

12           puz os St^os.[Santos] Oleos: foi Padrinho Fran^co.[Francisco]

13           M^do. [Machado] cazado com Rita Ignacia nossos

14           Parochianos Era ut Supra.

15           Vig^ro  Vicente Toste Coelho

If you are looking for a translation, I have the same above document translated below. The text describes what is in the original record but do not attain to its original format of writing, line by line, as I have done above. Portuguese and English differ in many ways in structuring the grammar of sentences, but the result does not change its original content.

1829

Balbina, daughter of João Jacques and his wife Maria do Carmo. She [the mother] is a native of Vila de São Sebastião and he [the father] is a native of Santa Catarina Parish, Cabo da Praia, Terceira island, where both are parishioners. She [the child] was born on fifteen of November of eighteen twenty-nine years, and was baptized by myself, the Vicar Vicente Toste Coelho, Vicar from the same Parish, on the twenty-second of the same month and year. The Godfather was Francisco Machado, married to Rita Inácia, and both are our parishioners. The date is as above. [Signed by] the Vicar Vicente Toste Coelho.

If you want to learn more how to read old records and how to make transcripts, useful free resources are listed below:

UK National Archives Paleography Tutorial - UK National Archives

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/palaeography/

Spanish Paleography Tool - CUNY Dominican Studies Institute

http://spanishpaleographytool.org/

Smithsonian Institution Archives Transcription Projects - Smithsonian Transcription Center

https://transcription.si.edu/browse?filter=owner%3A8