Francisca de Jesus Lemos       Manuel Gonçalves Cordeiro

The Blood Walk

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     There had always been a loose end in my Terceira Island genealogy.  Before I went to Angra do Heroísmo the first time my Aunt Elaine had sent me the name of Francisca de Jesus Lemos, my great maternal grandmother from São Mateus.  Somewhere around 1890 she had gone by horse cart across the island from her hometown to marry Manuel Gonçalves Cordeiro of Biscoitos.
     Twenty years after my first visit to Terceira I had some time on my hands at Porto Judeu and decided to visit the ancestors of Francisca de Jesus Lemos.  One hundred years passed since her marriage at Biscoitos and none of my relatives in America had visited or made a connection with this Lemos family tie through four silent generations. 
     Another reason why I wanted to do this particular bloodline research was to introduce Ira, my son, to all of his family in the middle group of the islands.  In 2001 this was the his first glimpse he had of the Azorean archipelago.  When Ira visited earlier in the day his great great uncle Antônio Henrique Cordeiro, his younger sister Corbina wasn’t home.  It looked like he wasn’t going to get to meet his great great aunt.
     I always enjoyed visiting with my Granduncle Antônio.  I got to know him quite well over the years since 1986.  I couldn’t believe it when he told he had traveled to eleven different countries.  I only had one vivid regret about a bottle of wine my Granduncle had given me as I left his home.  At the time he made two hundred bottles of vinho a year for his family.  But I discovered when I reached Pico Island the top of the bottle had broken and I could see glass in the bottom of it.  To this day I haven’t tasted his homemade wine.

 
Art Coelho & Antônio Henrique Cordeiro
 

     
                                                    
 (cont…)