This will be my first 52 Ancestors entry featuring deeper ancestry, one from my maternal side, and one from the paternal. Both of them are from the 17th Century, therefore I cannot flesh out any of their story with anecdotes. All I have is what the documents brought me, and in both cases their deaths were in very unfortunate circumstances, hence my choice to bring those to this week’s theme.
Matheus Coelho was my 9th great-grandfather. He is my brick wall in the Travassos family, one of three Azorean branches I have. Alas, Matheus did not use the name and I can only infer his father or mother had it, so did his children. It was not uncommon for surnames to skip one or two generations My line to him is through my great-grandmother Noêmia Travassos Serrano (1902-1989), Elisa Dulce Peres Campello Travassos (1859-1948), Vitorino de Souza Travassos Jr. (1827-1871), Vitorino de Souza Travassos, born in Rosto do Cão in the São Miguel Island, died in Recife, Brasil (1800-1865), Francisco de Souza Travassos (1765-1826), João de Souza Travassos (1742-1791), Bartolomeu Travassos (1700-1786), Francisco Travassos, born in Santo-Antônio-além-Capelas on 4 April 1666, and died in São Roque do Rosto do Cão sometime before June 1740. Bartolomeu was one of the children of Matheus Coelho and Maria Ledo.
Matheus was a widower when he was found dead on 6 Jan 1705 outside Capelas, in São Miguel. I am not certain exactly when wife Maria Ledo died, but she was already gone when daughter Margarida Travassos married Miguel Martins on 13 Oct 1685. This couple also has descendants in Brazil. According to the burial record written by the priest, Matheus was living as a beggar and was seen lying on a roadside in the days before he was pronounced dead. Passersby did not notice whether he was alive or not, which is heartbreaking. He was buried on the São João da Apresentação church courtyard, with the costs covered by funds sent by son-in-law Miguel Martins that lived on the other side of the island. Miguel also paid for six Masses to be said in Matheus’s memory. It appears that none of the children were still living in Capelas when he passed away.
My second ancestor this week also had an unusually unfortunate end. His name was Father Antônio Barreira Gonçalves. Alas, he was a priest, and my 8th great-grandfather. He had at least two children by different women. My ancestor through this line is Catarina Barreira, a child born around 1670 with Ana Vieira, a single woman from the village of Salgueiros in Vieira do Minho. Catarina married Francisco Ribeiro on 25 Jan 1688. The marriage entry lists her as a child born out of wedlock whose father, already deceased, had been the clergyman.
My line to the priest runs through my Nunes family: José Nunes Faria (1902-1978), Beralda Nunes (1872-1951), José Nunes de Carvalho (1822-1902), Mariana Lathaliza França (abt. 1800-1839), Mariana Josefa Ribeiro de Carvalho (1765-1841), her father, Portuguese cavalryman Simeão Ribeiro de Carvalho, born in Vieira do Minho on 1720, died in Minas Gerais in 1803, Manoel Ribeiro de Carvalho (1692-1766), son of Catarina Barreira and Francisco Ribeiro.
Death or Burial books are typically the hardest to find, and to read. They were the last ones to become mandatory after the Rituale Romanum instituted by Pope Paul V in 1614. Father Antônio Barreira died by stab wounds produced by a knife on 18 Aug 1669 in his parish of São Paio located in Vilar Chão.
Given that these records are so old, it is very unlikely I will ever find out what happened. I would like to locate the de genere et moribus diligence process that preceded Antônio Barreira’s ordination, hopefully add a bit more to his history and find out who were his parents and where they were from. I can’t be certain, but can’t stop speculating either, whether the priest’s murder had anything to do with his affairs with single women in his parish.
Regarding Matheus Coelho, it intrigues me that I cannot place him among the well-documented Travassos family of São Miguel. There are still baptism and marriage books I can search to find more information on him and his wife, Maria Ledo. If I can make the jump and connect him, I may be able to trace the family all the way back to continental Portugal. This is a big goal for me.
Until further discoveries, I leave these notes about two ancestors who died tragically, and I light a (virtual) candle in their memory.