The next three blog posts will come in quick sequence. My trip to Brazil was good. Primarily, I saw my mother and my paternal grandmother, both of whom are not in good health and can use that extra love and attention. For me, the long goodbye continues. I also met with uncles, aunts, and cousins I hadn’t seen in a long time, including a reader of this blog (Hi, Márcia).
I also visited the judicial- and the general state archives in my home state, where I was able to find probate and land records that will help develop the Furtado de Mendonça and Rodrigues Atalaia lines, both of them linked to grandma Maria Helena. She spares her voice and her breath these days, but she gave me enough information throughout my life that gave me a good foundation for research. I told her about some of my findings, she gave me encouraging smiles.
The archives are a work in progress.
I also got more first-person accounts of facts from my oldest maternal aunt, who has a sharp memory and opened the doors to some new lines of research, including half-uncles and half-aunts on my maternal side, likely gone by now as they would have been born in the 1920s. I will not be able to find them unless it’s through a DNA match with a descendant.
My aunt told me this revelation was made by grandma Julia when she was old, that grandpa José had had children before marrying her in 1932, when he was thirty. It was not unusual at all for someone, specially a man, to have children out of wedlock at that time in Brazil. Men enjoyed plenty of freedom, whether they were single or not. This was justified, protected, even encouraged in a patriarchal society. I have a good collection of names of natural offspring fathered by ancestors, but none of them so close, so I will keep an eye on my DNA matches. There will be enough centimorgans hanging together that could offer a clue. Maybe someone who inherited the thinning hair genes, the left-handedness, the innate ability to do head math, the musical ear. This bit of knowledge was a nice plot twist.
A quick post because I am packing my bags to travel to Brazil in two days, hopefully returning with more documents, pictures and information for the tree. Here is a sweet pet story in two pictures.
How do you get two little girls to sit still to take a picture in front of the Christmas tree? You stand behind the camera holding something cute, like a cat.
Maria Luiza and Aldinha, circa 1952, Vila Velha – ES
As a reward, you let them hold their new pet kitten 🐈
The single biggest joy in doing family history is finding an ancestor’s picture. Even better: finding a family picture. Looking at each face, turning the picture around searching for a date, names, any notes.
The Wagner de Barros Family – Campos dos Goytacazes, RJ, Brazil – Circa 1920
Being able to see the faces of the people we devote so much of our time researching is a powerful feeling. When I saw my great-grandparents Alda and Miguel, not only did I recognized them, I relived a stream of memories of my talks with my grandmother Julia, with the added knowledge I gathered from the broader family thanks to the ability to connect with cousins through genealogy websites. Some had held on to notes, journals, news clippings, composing a patchwork of family history that we share and piece together as well as we can. This picture added to the mosaic of the Wagner, Ribeiro da Motta and Barros families. Now I had the faces to match the names of my grandmother’s family unit. There is more to that feeling of recognition, though.
As a child, I traveled to visit my grandmother’s hometown of Campos, in the Northern part of the state of Rio de Janeiro. The city was several decades removed from its most prosperous days, when sugarcane crops covered the fields, the mills and smokestacks were a ubiquitous sight, and the downtown area had a Gilded Age flair. There were still many old buildings around town, houses with small interconnected rooms and high ceilings. The family home I remember had once belonged to my great-uncle Armando Wagner de Barros, the young man with the tan suit standing behind great-grandma Alda. By the time of my visits, Armando’s only child Aldano was living there with his mother, whom we called Aunt Zica. Uncle Armando was long gone, as were all of grandma’s siblings.
Some of my fondest family memories from Campos involve cousin Aldano, who was nothing short of a perfect gentleman and one of the most cultured people I have ever met. I have a vague memory of him showing me old family pictures when I was a child aged 7 or 8. I believe the photo above was one of them, and that is why recognition struck me so strongly when I saw it last year, framed and hanging on the wall in my late aunt Aldinha’s bedroom. I spent my whole life until 2006 going regularly to my Grandma Julia’s house, but this picture was not on display. This doesn’t mean her family was not on her mind, though. She told me many stories, she spoke of her parents and siblings. She lost her father, Miguel, when she was 17, within a decade of this picture being taken. Her mother passed away in 1954 from complications after a stroke.
A couple of years after great-grandpa Miguel died, grandma Julia moved in with her older brother and his family in the state of Minas Gerais. She got married in 1932, never lived in Campos again, but visited often. I have pictures of my uncles and aunts taken in a local photography studio when she would visit her hometown and the siblings who still lived there.
I had a hard time locating one of her sisters, Maria, known as Neném. She is the child to the right of her mother. I did not know exactly what happened to her until a couple of years ago. After exhausting my research in Campos, I turned to Minas, thinking maybe she moved with grandma Julia. Thanks to the goodwill from a cousin who has access to old death records in Minas Gerais, I found out she died prematurely of tuberculosis in 1936, aged only 26. Figuring out her whereabouts took so long because none of my relatives had a recollection of her, she had been gone by the time they were born. That loss must have been particularly hard on grandma, they were only two years apart in age. Maria’s face is very familiar to me, I have cousins who look like her.
One of the siblings that lived in Campos was my great-aunt Rita, known as Lilita. She is the standing on the left, and her two daughters were close in age with my mother. Mom visited the cousins in the Summer and shared many memories with me. Hearing Campos stories from my grandma and from my mom is how my brain gathered missing pieces to form the string of sentimental memories I have of that place.
Several of these stories morphed into a recurring dream I have, which I believe stems from bits and flashes of childhood memories from my own Campos trips in which I was fascinated with the old homes and their high, narrow doors, the windows that creak and whistle and when the wind blows, bathrooms and kitchens with old fixtures. I never looked at them thinking they were rundown and needed to be replaced. Everything looked beautiful, proud in its simplicity, lived in, having witnessed its share of important occasions and a multitude of small, mundane occurrences in my relatives’ lives. I was, and still am, a big fan of old houses. Maybe family historians are born that way?
In my recurring dream, I’m in a house that resembles a lot Aldano’s, but it is not exactly the same. I always wander from room to room and end in the kitchen that has a door leading to a backyard with a lawn and a tree with long leaves, maybe a mango tree. I noticed the trees behind the family in the picture also have long leaves, but I do not know where this photo was taken, and it is certainly not a place I have ever visited. According to the death certificate, my great-grandfather Miguel died on his family’s farm, where his mother still lived. My grandmother was born in that same area, and I believe that’s where they posed for this photograph. The issue of the tree with the long leaves may have stayed recorded in my memory from decades ago. Perhaps there was one tree like that in Aldano’s yard, I can’t be certain, but the tree is there every time I have this dream. The brain picks up and stores so much more than we realize.
After great-grandfather Miguel died in July 1929, the family moved downtown, and that is where I always met the relatives. The Barros family farm was sold sometime after 1936 after the death of his mother Rita Ribeiro da Motta Barros, the daughter of one of the so-called Sugar Barons of Campos’s rich heyday. He actually had a title, and a piece of his emblazoned dinnerware survived the century-and-a-half, many-thousand-mile journey to a shelf in my Florida home. Great-great-grandma Rita’s house, once considered one of the region’s architectural jewels, had fallen in disrepair after her husband died in 1909, leaving more debt than wealth. The sugarcane cycle boon had dried out for most farmers, with only big operations surviving, those with enough output to feed the big sugar refineries that had replaced the old animal- and steam-powered mills.
Seeing my grandmother as a child, next to her mother, also gripped me intensely because of the strong resemblance Grandma Julia would have, as an older woman, to her own mother, whom I have never met. Great-grandma Alda died 18 years before my birth. Whenever I would visit my grandmother, I would sit next to her on the couch, she would gently lean over so our shoulders touched, and she would slip one of her hands between mine, much in the same way she does with her mother. I recognized that gesture immediately when I saw this photo, a memory so strong it is almost physical. We spoke holding hands, for hours, she told me so much about her life and I regret not recalling every detail. But those talks are stored somewhere in my mind, and they spring back in dreams and in a feeling of recognition of people and places that do not inhabit in the same timeline of my own existence.
After my grandmother Julia Wagner de Barros Faria died in 2006, her belongings were gathered by my aunt and godmother Aldinha, the youngest child and a loving caregiver. Little did we know that my aunt would herself depart prematurely in 2018. Her bedroom is still kept the way it was the last night she spent there. It took me a bit to muster the courage to ask my grieving cousins, two of Aldinha’s daughters, to let me see what was inside the boxes. They were happy to oblige. So, during one of my travels to Brazil last year, we got together to look at snapshots of my grandparents’ life.
None of us had many recollections of our maternal grandfather José Nunes Faria (the grandson of my subject in last week’s post). He passed away when I was six; one of my cousins was three and the other was born after his death, although his memory was, and still is, very present. All of us grew up very close to our grandmother, who had a large family, as did grandpa. Our hometown was not theirs, though: my grandfather hailed from the state of Minas Gerais, whereas grandma was from a town in the northern part of Rio de Janeiro. Grandpa José’s work brought the family to where I, and my cousins, were born. Over the years, we got to meet many of each side’s relatives, but we never had a big family reunion with everybody. Not that we were isolated, our local group by itself was a large one, but most of my great-uncles and great-aunts, and their families, lived far. In grandma’s boxes, I found photos of parties where people came from other states, but those had happened decades prior. Many of those in the pictures were already gone by the time I was a small child, including all of my grandmother’s siblings.
On my grandfather’s side, I remember traveling to meet two of his youngest sisters, Djanira, nicknamed Deja, and Isaura. My mother and grandmother always spoke fondly of them. Even if they went years without seeing each other, their names were always mentioned, and we knew what was going on with the Minas relatives. Deja died in 1986. She was the family historian and left a treasure trove of notes, the foundation for my research on that side of the tree. I owe so much to her. Isaura passed away much later, four years before my grandmother, and thus the book was closed on a whole generation of the Barros and Faria families. The mementos I found among my grandmother’s belongings offered me a glimpse of their lives decades before I came around. The picture above caught my eye and my heart immediately.
On the back, I saw my grandmother’s handwriting. There is no date, but it reads “On a stroll, with the Church of Floresta in the background, where the famed choir is comprised of, and directed by the Faria family”. It wasn’t difficult to find the church, Our Lady of Sorrows, located in the Floresta neighborhood in Belo Horizonte. The building was still in construction when the family moved there from the countryside town of Pirapora, in the western portion of the state, and became involved in this fledgling parish doing what they knew best: making music, which is a topic for a future post. The church was officially inaugurated in 1940, the year my great-grandfather Christóvam died.
I love this picture because the people look so carefree. My grandfather, married to a talented seamstress, always very dapper. His face cannot be seen, and he was not one to “say cheese” anyway, but I like to think he had a slight grin under the shade of the brim. My grandmother, linking arms with Isaura, was laughing, something she did often. I still see that smile when I think of her. I noticed Deja was looking up and beaming, her gaze towards someone she knew.
When I researched the church, I saw it is located on Silva Jardim Street. I had seen that name before, it was on my great-grandfather’s death record. It turns out, the family lived down the street from their church, and the house is still there, in need of care and repairs, but still conserves its lines, embellishments and character as the city grew and modernized around it. The street is still paved with the original cobblestones. The local architectural commission has the house listed on its website, where I found current pictures of the exterior, and part of the original blueprint from 1931. I hope the goal is to preserve this historical building.
I wish I could zoom out and see who was at the window, smiling back at Deja from inside the family home. Maybe my great-grandmother? I wish I could overhear their conversation, it looks like they were having a good time, or maybe trying to lighten up after a difficult period if this was taken not too long after Christóvam passed. It could be a well-deserved respite for my great-aunts, who cared for their father alongside great-grandma Beralda during his illness. I will never know, but I wish I could thank the photographer, likely my great-uncle Alysson, known for this love of cameras and all things audiovisual, a passion he turned into a successful career, deserving of a blog post of its own. He captured a precious fleeting moment, the shutter clicked at just the right time to preserve the happiness and camaraderie of my grandparents with the sisters. Whatever the conversation was, I can feel their joy.
Pará de Minas, Brazil – 1897 – José Nunes de Carvalho front, right
To kick off the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge, I chose my second great-grandfather, José Nunes de Carvalho. I would love to have met so many of my ancestors, in my years researching my family’s history I have found people who have lived interesting lives, but the picture above shows an ancestor that was sitting in the courthouse after being absolved from sedition charges, brought forth due to his political opposition to the then-ruling party in his small hometown of Pitangui, in rural Minas Gerais. My great-grandfather Christóvam de Faria, married to José’s daughter Beralda, was the leader of the town council, and was deposed by his own father-in-law. He was reinstated shortly after, but his political party lost the following elections and was weakened for a long time after. Politics and its dynamics interest me greatly, specially in times of deep divison such as these we live in. Maybe José would have a thing or two to say about it.
How they got to that situation is something I would like to find out. Local history books tell of the deep-rooted political rivalry that spanned decades before the events that unfolded in 1896 and 1897. My great-grandparents were married sometime in late 1886, certainly not without the blessing of the bride’s father. It could be that despite being on opposite sides, the families had a cordial relationship. Maybe there was some older blood relation that I have not yet discovered; this side of the family tree has been hard to research due to a fire that destroyed the local church and its precious records in 1914. Or, it this could be a case of young love, thankfully not Shakespearean and tragic, but one that successfully overcame family strife. I can only speculate.
Beralda was born out of wedlock, received her mother’s name, and was a couple of decades younger than her older half-siblings. There is evidence that she was not the only child he had outside his marriage. I found out he had a son who was a priest, and he may be a full brother of my great-grandmother’s. I have found strong evidence that there was at least one more brother in the same situation due to the custom of having a grandparent be the godparent of one’s firstborn. One of my great-grandmother’s brothers also had the elder Beralda hold his first child at the baptismal font. I believe he, too, was a full sibling.
Nevertheless, it appears Major Nunes’s children were all brought up close together, raised as siblings along with the ones he had with his wife, which survived him by more than a decade. This was not totally uncommon at that time in such a strongly patriarchal society, though it surely raised eyebrows and had people gossiping, as this was also a very devoutly Catholic people. The family origin of my second great-grandmother and the nature of her relationship with José, that evidently lasted for a long time, is another mystery I am still working to clarify. In May 2021, I traveled to Pitangui for the first time, and I was able to look at documents in the town’s historical archives. I found nothing about her, but plenty about the Nunes family, including José’s parents’ last wills and probate records. He received a significant inheritance when his father, a military officer dead in 1846, seven years after the passing of his mother, the daughter of a French physician. None of it lasted until the time of José’s own death.
The most poignant obituary I found was written by someone who knew him well and admired him. For a while I thought my great-grandfather, his son-in-law, known for his great way with words, was the ghostwriter. Later, I found out this newspaper belonged to one of his cousins, from the same family that was in a political feud with the Nunes clan. It shows reverence, and tells us of an eventful life, deeply intertwined with politics and music. He was known in town by both is military patent, and by his title of Maestro, being the regent of the oldest band in town, founded by his namesake father, that performed in both civic and religious services. Going through one of my great-aunt’s notebooks where she carefully took down names and dates until her passing in 1986, I found an old, damaged portrait of his, that I estimate dates from the 1870s or 1880s. It is now taped to a page, but judging by its edges, I believe it used to be displayed in a frame. It is captioned Master of Music Zé Nunes – Father.
Below is a free translation of the obituary, published by O Pharol, a newspaper from Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, on December 10th, 1902:
” The old city of Pitanguy lost, days ago, one of its veterans with the passing of the septuagenarian José Nunes de Carvalho, whose last years were bitterly marked by blindness and other tribulations.
A fierce spirit, cultivated by reading Latin classics, José leaves in the hands of local friends and published in newspapers many satirical verses, powerful opinion pieces, and lyrical poetry that he, a consummate virtuoso in both the viola and the cello, would turn into music, having formed with his nephews, nieces and children an excellent orchestra.
[…] A lawyer, José Nunes gathered a small fortune working in Pitangui and in nearby counties, but his Bohemian and overly generous spirit would not allow for him to have savings. However much he earned, he would spend, always lending a hand to those he cared about.
He was affiliated with the Liberal Party, leaving in 1888 when the first Republican clubs started to gather. One such club, named Aristides Lobo, met in his house.
[…] His last musical works, among many that he composed throughout his life, including religious pieces, were a song for the theatrical drama Dolores, as well as a ditty named The Sexton.
He leaves a widow, sons and daughters, as well as many grand- and great-grandchildren.
To his son-in-law, our friend and fellow journalist Christóvam de Faria, and his virtuous wife, our condolences. The old Major’s funeral was very busy with the presence of most people in town.
Terra tibi sit levis.“
My maternal grandfather was born six weeks before his grandfather died. He was named José Nunes Faria.
Brasão dos Condes de Faria, estilizado no século XV
O sobrenome existe em Portugal, Espanha e Itália, sendo que para nosso estudo somente consideraremos os dois primeiros como possibilidades. Os ramos espanhóis são de origem portuguesa, o italiano não tem qualquer relação. Em Portugal o uso deste sobrenome remete à época da formação do reino e sua raiz é possivelmente toponímica do julgado de Faria, termo de Barcelos, no norte do Portugal. O mais antigo registro deste sobrenome data do tempo de D. Afonso Henriques (1109 (?) 1185), primeiro rei de Portugal, quando vivia um senhor registado como João Faria, pai de Dom Godinho, Arcebispo de Braga. A fortificação no topo de um promontório denominado Terra de Faria ou Monte de Franqueira, juntamente com outra denominada Castelo de Neiva, foi das primeiras fortalezas tomadas por D. Afonso contra sua mãe Tereza, conflito que culminou com a Batalha de São Mamede em julho de 1128 a subsequente unificação e independência portuguesa. Em tempos mais ancestrais, esta região foi ocupada desde o final da Era do Bronze e passou por domínio romano, suevo (Galícia), visigodo e mouro, voltando ao domínio cristão no século XI.
Vestígios do Castelo de Faria, concelho de Barcelos, distrito de Braga. Foto de João Carvalho (Wikipedia)
Um personagem famoso da história portuguesa que tinha este sobrenome era o Alcaide Nuno Gonçalves de Faria, que deu a própria vida em 1373 para salvar o seu castelo de um assalto dos Castelhanos. As ruínas do castelo ainda existem no topo do monte e a história deste feito heróico faz parte do folclore popular da região. A freguesia de Faria foi extinta recentemente, em 2013, e incorporada à freguesia de Milhazes que passou a denominar-se União das Freguesias de Milhazes, Vilar de Figos e Faria.
No Brasil tem-se registro deste sobrenome desde pelo menos o princípio dos anos 1600 com presença em todas as principais capitanias como Pernambuco, Bahia, São Tomé (Rio de Janeiro), São Vicente e Santo Amaro (S. Paulo) . O local onde encontrei o registro mais antigo deste ramo de nossa família é a vila de Abadia em Minas Gerais, o que faz-me pensar serem eles ou de origem paulista-bandeirante, remontando aos primeiros povoadores de São Vicente e aos fundadores do Colégio de São Paulo que subiram o sertão paulista a caminho de Goiás, ou portuguesa de imigração mais tardia, parte do contingente que veio para as Minas Gerais no ciclo do ouro instalando-se nas cidades mais prósperas, mas que dispersaram-se com a exaustão das jazidas. Ainda busco nos livros da paróquia de Nossa Senhora da Abadia algum registro que cite a naturalidade dos Faria que localizei ali. Sabendo-se que a vila foi fundada pouco mais de uma década antes do recenseamento, podemos deduzir com bastante firmeza que os Faria vieram de outro lugar.
A vila de Pitangui e outras nas cercanias foram fundadas por bandeirantes paulistas que seguiam “para os sertões além do Taubaté, era o mesmo que deu origem aos núcleos urbanos das cidades paulistas de Pindamonhangaba, Guaratinguetá e Jequeri. Ele perdurou na direção Centro-Oeste do sertão desconhecido durante todo aquele período. Depois de descoberta a zona aurífera dos ribeirões do Carmo (Mariana), do Tripuí (Vila Rica) e Sabará, os homens continuaram desbravando os matos à frente, tanto à procura de ouro, diamantes e pedras preciosas, como abrindo picadas, fundando povoados, aproximando de outros existentes e surgidos no Alto São Francisco. Aqueles que se estabeleciam à margem direita do rio eram chamados de baianos e os da esquerda de pernambucanos, mesmo sendo portugueses ou ascendentes de paulistas. O resultado dessa movimentação foi o surgimento do famoso Caminho dos Currais. O território dos matos gerais, depois das minas gerais, se formou entre o Rio Grande e o Rio Verde; este, próximo a Pitangui.” (Maria das Graças de M. Mourão, Especialista em História e Cultura de Minas Gerais pela PUC-MG para o Museu Histórico de Pará de Minas – MUSPAM).
Antes de descobrir o registro dos Faria em Abadia eu os busquei em Pitangui, e pelo que pude levantar até hoje não são relacionados com duas famílias deste nome naquela cidade, os Faria Sodré e os Faria Morato. Um dos líderes do famoso Motim de Pitangui, a revolta contra o estanco da cachaça acontecida em julho de 1719 contra o governo provincial de São Paulo sob cuja jurisdição Pitangui se situava (não existia ainda a província de Minas Gerais), chamava-se Roque de Faria, mas não pude levantar nada sobre a sua descendência. De posse somente do conhecimento via tradição oral familiar que é corroborada no livro “Precursores e Figuras Notáveis de Minas Gerais” de Almênio José de Paula e Saturnino G. Ferreira sabemos que nosso bisavô Christovam nasceu em Pitangui. Realizei extensa pesquisa nos poucos e danificados livros paroquiais da Matriz de Nossa Senhora do Pilar, sem sucesso, mas ao expandir a minha pesquisa para paróquias das cercanias encontrei os seus avós em 1832 na cidade de Martinho Campos, que à época ainda era um vilarejo denominado Abadia, situado 60 km ao noroeste de Pitangui.
Segundo a Enciclopédia dos Municípios Brasileiros – Volume XXVI, “A Cidade de Martinho Campos formou-se de terras de duas fazendas pertencentes a Jerônimo Vieira e Maximiniano Alves de Araújo, pernambucano. Conta-se que mais ou menos entre 1808 e 1820, esses dois proprietários deliberaram mandar construir uma capela em honra a Nossa Senhora de Abadia. O local foi escolhido de forma singular e dizem que ambos se colocaram em suas fazendas e combinaram começar a andar na mesma hora, para que no ponto de encontro dos dois, ficasse assinalado o local onde deveria ser iniciada a capela. Esse local foi onde hoje se situa Matriz de Nossa Senhora da Abadia. Criando-se o povoado, este desenvolveu-se com rapidez principalmente quando passou a contar com estrada de ferro, cuja estação de Abadia servia as localidades próximas de Patos de Minas, Dores do Indaiá, Formiga, etc. O Distrito foi criado com o nome de Abadia de Pitangui, pela Lei provincial nº 911 de 8 de junho de 1858 e confirmado pela Lei estadual número 2, de 14-IX-1891. Em 1938 foi elevado à categoria de município, recebendo o nome de Martinho Campos em homenagem ao grande estadista, que nasceu em terras da região. O município pertence à comarca de Pitangui.“
Localização de Martinho Campos em relação a Pitangui e Belo Horizonte
No recenseamento da Província de Minas Gerais (que fora criada em 1822) realizado em 1832 localizamos o casal Emiliano Manoel de Faria, 28 anos, ofício de sapateiro e tecelão, e Angélica Gonçalves de Oliveira, 27 anos. O casal tinha os filhos Júlio de 7 anos, Ignácio de 5, Flávio de 3 e João de 7 meses.
Recenseamento de N. Sra. da Abadia – 1832 – Arquivo Público Mineiro
Flávio Máximo de Faria, seu nome completo, era nosso trisavô, casado com Maria Salomé de Faria, cujo nome de solteira ainda desconhecemos mas que tenho como hipótese ser Barcellos. Com uma vasta região e muitas paróquias ainda por serem pesquisadas, até hoje só encontrei mais informação a respeito do seu irmão João, que em registro de matrimônio aparece como João Emiliano de Faria, casado com Maria Francisca da Silva a 25 Nov 1851 em Dores do Indaiá – MG. A esta época o pai Emiliano Manoel já era falecido, a mãe Angélica ainda vivia.
Casamento João Emiliano de Faria
Não sabemos exatamente quando Flávio Máximo de Faria se mudou para Pitangui. Uma cobrança tributária publicada em jornal o localiza na cidade em 1864; nosso bisavô Christovam de Faria nasceu em 14 Jul 1867. Além dele, localizei mais um filho e uma outra pessoa que poderia ser irmã ou ter outro parentesco próximo com a família dada a similaridade do nome. São eles:
Flávio Máximo de Faria Júnior nascido em torno de 1861, jornalista que morreu prematuramente aos 25 anos em 19 Set 1886 segundo noticiado em diversos jornais mineiros e cariocas. Ele era o proprietário do Jornal O Pitanguy.
A Provincia de Minas (Ouro Preto) – 7 Out 1886
Anna Máxima de Faria, segundo registro paroquial do óbito no dia 11 Abr 1928 em Pitangui, casada com Antônio Cândido Rodrigues. Ela teria nascido em torno de 1878, o que me diz um pouco nova para ser irmã de Christovam e Flávio Jr., mas poderia ter outro parentesco próximo, como sobrinha.
Flávio Máximo de Faria (pai) era sub-delegado no distrito de Cardosos e procurador da Santa Casa de Misericórdia conforme abaixo:
A Actualidade (Ouro Preto) – 15 Jun 1881
Ele era também sócio do filho Christovam como podemos ver no documento abaixo que também cita a data de sua morte a 1 Nov 1898. Com base na idade que ele tinha no censo de 1832 podemos calcular que ele faleceu aos 69 anos.
Jornal do Commercio (RJ) – 26 Oct 1901
Nada sabemos a respeito de nossa trisavó Maria Salomé, mas tenho ela como madrinha de batismo do neto Leônidas, primogênito de Christovam e Beralda Nunes de Faria em 10 Jan 1888.
O incêndio da Matriz de N. Sra. do Pilar
Este tópico é pertinente para a nossa história tanto pelo lado Faria como Nunes de Carvalho. Um incêndio destruiu a matriz da cidade de Pitangui na noite de 28 Jan 1914, segundo relatos locais devido a uma vela que foi esquecida acesa em cima de uma caixa de paramentos. A igreja que fora consagrada em 1703 perdeu a vasta maioria de seus livros, o que faz a pesquisa de nossa família mais difícil. Existem alguns registros esparsos, e para atos ocorridos após a Lei do Registro Civil de 1889 podemos consultar fontes cartoriais. A Arquidiocese de Divinópolis possui alguns livros paroquiais que foram enviados para lá antes do incêndio e alguns destes estão online, mas a pesquisa é demorada pois estes registros estão misturados com os de outras paróquias da região.
Matriz de Nossa Senhora do Pilar – Fotos cedidas por D. Neusa Lopes para o Blog Daqui de Pitangui
Filhos de Christovam e Beralda
Talvez nunca encontremos a data exata do casamento de nossos bisavós, mas podemos situar este acontecimento entre o final de 1886 e o princípio de 1887, baseado no nascimento do primeiro filho Leônidas em 10 Nov 1887, o que confirma as histórias de família que diziam que Beralda teve o primeiro filho aos 15 anos. Ela nasceu em 27 Nov 1872 em Pitangui. Foram 24 filhos, sendo alguns natimortos, dentre eles dois pares de gêmeos. A melhor fonte que temos para este ramo da família são as notas deixadas por Djanira (Tia Deja), que me foram enviadas pelo primo Aluísio. Vários deles parecem ter sido natimortos, inclusive dois pares de gêmeos, pois nem nomes foram registrados por Tia Deja.
Capa do caderno de família de Djanira. Na foto superior Christovam e Beralda, na inferior Djanira dentro da casa e Isaura fora.
Notas de Djanira
Filhos do casal:
1 – Leônidas (10 Nov 1887 em Pitangui – 6 Nov 1911 em Belo Horizonte). Casou-se com Francisca (Chiquita) Caetano em 3 Jul 1909 em Pitangui e faleceu prematuramente deixando a filha Iolanda de um ano, e uma segunda filha, Leonita, que nasceu pouco antes ou pouco depois da morte dele. Não sei de detalhes do ocorrido, mas ele morreu em decorrência de um ferimento sofrido talvez no exercício de seu trabalho de guarda fiscal na cidade de Cedro – Caetanópolis. A filha Leonita faleceu de tuberculose aos 15 anos em 19 Nov 1926 em Pitangui. Iolanda casou-se e morreu com idade avançada deixando o único ramo de descendentes de Christovam e Beralda que ainda mora na cidade natal da família.
Iolanda, filha de Leônidas
2 – Cecy (13 Mar 1889 em Pitangui – 28 Mar 1954 em Belo Horizonte). Casou-se em 1908 no Cedro – Caetanópolis com José Joaquim Fernandes Ramos, tiveram oito filhos de nomes Helena, Lúcio, Christovam Joaquim, Frederico Ozanam, Paulo, Maria do Carmo, Ruth e Helena, sendo que nem todos chegaram à idade adulta. A família estabeleceu-se em Pirapora, Cecy ficou viúva em 1925 e posteriormente mudou-se para Belo Horizonte.
Cecy Faria Ramos
3 – Oscarina (3 Nov 1891 em Pitangui – ca. 1920 em Pirapora). A data exata da morte não é sabida. Era casada com José Figueiredo e deixou três filhos de nomes Pedro, Leônidas e Geraldo.
4 – Antônia (4 Jan 1894 em Pitangui – ?) Morreu bebê.
5 – Maria Salomé (22 Dez 1896 em Pitangui – 15 Out 1976 em Belo Horizonte). Casou-se em Pirapora a 23 Mai 1914 com Clodoveu Soares Mattos e teve um grande número de filhos, a saber: João, Maria Auxiliadora, Lygia, Iris, Lourdes, Paulo, Sylvia Terezinha, Maria Efigênia, Maria Luiza, Antônio, Maria Aparecida e José (Zé Mattos).
6 – Beralda (ca. 1897 em Pitangui – 17 Jan 1968 em Belo Horizonte). Casada com Bazin Pinheiro, teve os filhos Maria de Fátima, Geraldo, Neuza, Christovam, Heber, Maria Cândida, Sebastião e José.
7 – Alysson (25 Ago 1898 em Pitangui – 9 Set 1975 em Belo Horizonte). Casado com Fernandina Jardim, tiveram os filhos Orion e Hélio. Alysson de Faria foi um dos precursores do cinema com som no Brasil, era membro da Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers nos Estados Unidos.
Alysson de Faria
8 – Jovita (19 Jan 1900 em Pitangui – ?). Morreu ainda bebê.
9 – Flávio (20 Fev 1901 em Pitangui – 12 Mar 1966 em Belo Horizonte). Casado com Delmira Teixeira, tiveram os filhos Hélcio, Hugo, Helena Terezinha, Haroldo e Flávio Jr.
10 – José (11 Out 1902 em Pitangui – 14 Jul 1978 em Vila Velha ES). Casado com Julia Wagner de Barros a 15 Out 1932 em Manhuaçu MG. Era funcionário do Instituto Brasileiro do Café. Tiveram os filhos José Gilberto, Wilma, Guilherme, Luciano, Alda Maria, Luiz Álvaro, Gustavo, Eduardo Marcos, Maria Luiza e Alda Regina.
José e Julia com os filhos José Gilberto, Wilma e Guilherme
11 – Dinorah (11 May 1904 em Pitangui – 12 Ago 1999 no Rio de Janeiro RJ). Casada com João Boltshauser, tiveram os filhos João Geraldo, Jorge, Ana Helena, Maria Luiza e Ana Maria.
Dinorah Boltshauser
12 – Leonel (1 Jun 1907 em Caetanópolis – 26 Dez 1963 em Belém PA). Casado com Sulamita Rego, tiveram os filhos Leonel Jr., Fernando, Ana Lúcia e Silvana.
Leonel com a filha Ana Lúcia
13 – Ester (ca. 1909 em Caetanópolis – ? em Belo Horizonte). Casada com Adalberto José de Souza. Tiveram os filhos Luiz Cláudio, Marco Antônio e Inês.
14 – Rubens (27 Dez 1910 em Caetanópolis – 27 Ago 1991 em Belo Horizonte). Casado com Célia Cardoso, tiveram os filhos Iracema, Maria da Conceição, Maria Antonieta, Aloísio e Margarida.
15 – Djanira (1913 em Pirapora MG – 15 Fev 1986 em Belo Horizonte). Solteira, sem filhos.
Beralda e Djanira
16 – Isaura (ca. 1914 em Pirapora MG – 4 Abr 2002 em Belo Horizonte). Solteira, sem filhos.
Rubens, Isaura e Beralda
Christovam e Beralda tiveram outros filhos que não sabemos em que ordem vieram. São eles Amélia, Geraldina, Beralda (primeira do nome), Leonel (primeiro do nome), Arlindo, e um par de meninas gêmeas e um par de meninos gêmeos que não chegaram a receber nomes.
O legado jornalístico e cultural de Christovam de Faria
Christovam de Faria fundou ou contribuiu para diversos jornais por onde passou, entre eles O Pitanguy, O Curvelano, Folha do Cedro e O Pirapora. Além disso, ele também serviu como vereador em Pitangui iniciando mandatos em 1892 e 1897, foi coletor geral do estado na cidade de Pirapora a partir de 1913 e finalmente tesoureiro da Associação dos Funcionários Públicos de Minas Gerais em Belo Horizonte até perto de seu passamento. O seu envolvimento com política corria juntamente com a sua vida jornalística, pois os jornais da época eram órgãos dos partidos locais. O seu período como verador em Pitangui foi um de conturbação política. Membros do partido de oposição, entre eles o seu sogro José Nunes de Carvalho, invadiram o fórum da cidade pedindo a renúncia do prefeito Vasco de Azevedo e dos seus correligionários vereadores, dentre eles Christovam. Este incidente será melhor detalhado na página da família Nunes.
Juntamente com Beralda foi grande apoiador das artes, tendo juntamente com Beralda fundado ou participado de associações como o Club Dramatico Pitanguyense, o Club Literário e Recreativo Cedrense e o Club Dramatico Piraporense.
Fonte: Blog Daqui de Pitangui
Jornal O Pirapora
Do livro “Precursores e Figuras Notáveis de Minas Gerais” de Almênio José de Paula e Saturnino G. Pereira
