Boa Vista: Getting a feel for ancestry

Full photo album for Boa Vista.

Friday 25 – Saturday 26 November 2016.

After a room in Praia with an internal window (facing the hall/courtyard), the room I have here in Sal Rei has 3. On the Friday night I could hear the children in the place next door singing and a couple of adults playing kora and a drum. Eventually noise had a pattern to it and I realised that it was a Capoeira class. The kids were so cute.

The next day was a half day tour around the north eastern areas of Boa Vista. In 1968 a Spanish cargo ship got caught in a storm, had engine trouble and ran aground on the remote northern coast of Boa Vista. It was carrying gifts for favour with the Brazilian and Argentinean governments. The Spanish tried to get it off the sand but in the end proved too hard, so they abandoned it. With the Portuguese still in control of the islands at that time, they didn’t want the locals to know about it, but one man would often walk these beaches combing for whatever washed ashore. Soon after the Spanish abandoned it, the locals came to take what they could. Apparently some doors in homes are from the shipwreck.

When we arrive at the beach, we can see walls have been build of stones all along the back of the beach. The land was owned and farmed by Portuguese and slaves were required to build these walls as punishment. The stone had to be hewn from the rocky landscape then erected.

In the 48 years since the ship wrecked, the sea it making a grand effort to reclaim it. You can see the area where when the tides are high the water level can reach has been eaten away much more. The port side of the ship has collapsed into the sea and the fore and aft areas have fallen away completely.

It is quite a beautiful place to be in its own way.

From there we travelled back to the old town of Rabil to a pottery place. The original business was making roofing tiles but failed. When the owner abandoned it, it was taken over by a local who was able to get support from the government to set up and it how employs a number of local people.

The village itself is poor, but a few places were well maintained.

From there we went to Bahai for lunch by the beach. The food was excellent, the other people on the tour lovely. Richard from Giggling Gecko a wonderful guide.

I spent the afternoon catching up on editing this blog. My dilemma is too many photos to choose from – over 580 taken so far – and I’m not quite 2 weeks into the journey!

As far as finding anything here in Boa Vista as to where Antonio was born, visiting made it clear that my best chance is in Praia. There didn’t seem to be a place to look here in Boa Vista. I would need to confirm, but I doubt that records from back in the 1840s are still in the churches. That could be one thing for me to do is look at what churches are still in Boa Vista. Interestingly many people asked if my ancestor was Jewish. It seems that Jews were fleeing persecution in Europe and travelled widely to find a safe home. While researching Jamaica I found a similar story.

Unfortunately birth, death and marriage certificates are only as accurate as the information supplied. In particular death certificates can be incorrect as the actual person is not around to correct it. Going by Antonio’s death certificate, he arrived in Australia in 1867. Since slavery was abolished in 1869 in Portuguese territories, does that mean he wasn’t a slave? Or was he was and had been freed, or had he run away? It may explain why he changed his name.

My cousin Juelo said that with the birth of every one of Antonio’s children, he made the trek to Melbourne to make sure there was a record of their birth. Does that mean I’ll never find a record of him?

In the evening I joined Giggling Gecko Saturday Night Fever where we went to another beach restaurant for meal and an African drumming performance with a fire eater/dancer.

I have loved world music since my travels in Africa 1989-1990 and have heard some of the best drumming performers in the world. Given this, I needed to moderate my expectations of other performers. This group was okay although they didn’t have a unique sound. After hearing the music of Cesária Évora from São Vicente, I expected something different.