A Ship Manifest, a Passport, and a Newspaper in your research

My great grandfather, Francisco Machado Drummond, grandson of Francisco Ferreira Drummond, the historian from São Sebastião, Terceira Island – Azores, emigrated from the Azores to Brazil, for the first time, when he had just completed 13 years old. His passport was clear with several information about himself. I found it at the archives in Angra do Heroísmo, Terceira Island (see footnote 1.). This was the first of several others trips he was going to do during his life time between the Azores and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Finding his passports records at the Angra's archives brought so much life to my great grandfather, his family history, thus my family genealogy.

The second time he traveled to Rio de Janeiro was in the company of his second wife and a son of six months old. The year was 1893. After obtaining a copy of their passport for this second trip from the archives in Angra do Heroísmo, Terceira, BPARAH, I was able to learn when they were traveling - June or July of 1893. Attached to the family passport there was also the ship ticket’s receipt. On the ticket receipt there was the ship's name, the Lissabon. What a great find to continue my research.

I decided to find more about my great grandfather, his family and his arrival in Brazil. I knew the year and the approximate months of arrival in Rio de Janeiro. The best place to start my research was using the Arquivo Nacional do Brasil and their online database. This is the equivalent of the National Archives of USA. If I could find the ship manifest with his name and his family new doors were going to open, bringing more information and evidence. The Arquivo Nacional has a large online database in Portuguese immigration and is always updating their digital archives with more records.

After looking on some steamers arrivals at that time, all in pdf format, I finally found the ship they traveled to Brazil, the Lissabon, from the SÜDAMERIKANISCHEN DAMPFSCHIFFAHRTS GESSELSCHAFT , a german company leaving originally Hamburg, in Germany. After downloading the pdf to my computer, I took a careful look on the manifest and was able to find the date of arrival, July 8^th 1893, the commandant’s name, Holm, and extensive list of 363 passengers, all in 3^rd class. Although the ship steamer had 2^nd and 1^st class, only the third class was listed. No death took place during the trip and all arrived in good condition.

http://www.histarmar.com.ar

The newspapers of that time usually had information on what was happening on the Ports of Brazil, and knowing that the main library in Brazil, the Biblioteca Nacional, has them digitized and fully researchable, my next step was finding those with the approximate date of the ship’s arrival. I not only found the newspaper of my interest, but got more new information. The names of other passengers that were not listed on the ship manifest from Arquivo Nacional do Brasil were found on the newspapers. I don’t know why they did not list these passengers on the manifest, but they were probably traveling on the 1^st and/or 2^nd class. The number of days the ship took from São Miguel to Rio de Janeiro was 16 days, from a total of 27 days. The newspaper also has a list of all the ships that were arriving on that day besides the Lissabon, as well as other ones that were expected to arrive on the next couple of days.

I learned that we really need to go as further as possible in our research, searching all kinds of sources. When we less expect we can find something new that can lead us to unexpected discoveries!

Detail of "O Pais - Domingo,  9 de Julho de 1893"

Biblioteca Nacional 

Find more about how to research in the Azores and Portugal at:
https://myportuguesegen.blogspot.com/p/researching-in-azores-and-portugal.html

1.

Biblioteca Pública e Arquivo Regional Luis da Silva Ribeiro

Rua do Morrão, 42 - 9700-054 Angra do Heroísmo

Telefone: (+351) 295 401 000Fax: (+351) 295 401 009

email: bparah.arquivo@azores.gov.pt

http://www.bparlsr.azores.gov.pt/html/index.html