Hi Long Lost Cousins Somewhere Down the Line!
I’m Pam out in California. Are you ready for me to add my pieces to our puzzle? Here we go (deep breath!):
My father is Dan Placido. His father was David Placido. David was one of 9 kids. He was the second to the youngest. His parents were Antone (possibly Antonio) and Ermalinda (Rebello) Placido. Antone was born in Portugal somewhere on the island of San Miguel in 1857. When he was about 15 or 16 he saw Ermalinda Rebello for the first time and fell in love. Unfortunately, she was a baby. He said when she was old enough, he would marry her. She was born in 1876 also in San Miguel. I don’t know when they got married but my sister-in-law, Kari (married to my brother and whom some of you have e-mailed already) has a copy of their marriage certificate! She’s really into this family tree thing and is doing a great job!
At some point, Antone and Ermalinda got on a ship (legend has it they had to stow away because they had no money but didn’t want to stay in Portugal any longer. They wanted to come to America) and came to Hawaii. They lived in Naalehu, on the big island for quite some time and had more children (one of which was my grandfather, David).
Ermalinda died in 1916 at the age of 40. Her cause of death was unknown but Antone was so upset about it, he quit eating. (Who knows if he was upset because he loved her so much or because he had no one to take care of him. You never knew in those days. And they say Antone was a very typical Portuguese man, which means he didn’t exactly put women on a pedestal. But you never know). The official cause of death for him was “colon disorder†which could very well have been caused by not eating. He started to eat less and less and he died only a couple of months after Ermalinda, same year, 1916. He said he didn’t want to live without her. I believe Kari (my sister-in-law) also has a copy of their death certificates and they are buried at King’s Cemetery in Hawaii. I can’t remember which island it’s on but I think Kari knows.
Most of the children were grown and on their own. The younger ones went to live with older siblings. David had just turned 6 so he went to live with his older brother, Joe and his family. Evidently, Joe had a heavy hand and by the time David was about 14, he wasn’t going to take it any more so he left to go live with his sister, Mary and her family.
Now here are some names of the siblings. See if you recognize any: Joe, Tony (also known as Plaus which was a slang short for “Placidoâ€. I remember hearing stories about “Uncle Plausâ€), Mary, Sarah, Cozy, Julia, Lizzie (which could be short for Louise?), Bea (short for Beatrice, also the youngest) and my grandfather, David, who was the second youngest.
Stay with me, folks. Here’s where it gets tricky. Mary married Steven Carvalho. They adopted a son named Clarence. They also had Carrie, Manuel, Jimmy and Mary (biological offspring). Carrie lived in San Diego, CA. for many years and just died maybe 7 or 8 years ago. Now when people “adopted†back in those days, it could have been—and most likely was—a family members’ child. For example, it’s possible Clarence’s natural mother was unwed and young so to “save face†and keep Clarence in the family, Mary and Steven adopted him because they were older and already married. I don’t know if this is the case with Clarence but these type of “adoptions†happened often. This is why so many of us are having a hard time finding our roots! They also adopted Barbara who is the mother of Mary Dorris.
Sarah married Marion Carvalho who happened to be the brother of Steven (also something that happened often, 2 brothers marrying 2 sisters). They had children of their own and one of them, I believe, was named Gloria (or was it Grace? I think it was Gloria). Gloria had a son and for some unknown reason, gave the son to her mother, Sarah, to raise as her own. The son’s name was Albert. This could be why Albert Traverns then became Albert Carvalho.
Now here’s where things get good! My dad, Dan, gets a phone call out of the blue a few weeks ago and guess who it is? Albert! So they talk about old times and now they’re trying to piece together our family. Turns out Albert has been online trying to trace the family and came across the message boards on the same site that we’ve all been to and he was wondering if my dad was related to this “Kari and Pam†who had messages on the board. My dad told him that I was his daughter and Kari was his daughter-in-law.
Now my dad is getting into it and this is great! He can talk to his mom and get all kinds of names for us! By the way, Marie Placido who was the wife of David, will be turning 90 later this year. We’re planning a huge shin-dig for Grandma! Are you still with me? My dad is trying to put together some sort of lineage matrix for us. As soon as he has all the information, he’ll send it out. I’ll be sure to forward it to my long lost cousins.
Mary Dorris and I found each other last year through this family ancestry site. We’ve been e-mailing ever since. Now, if I remember correctly, Mary’s grandparents were Mary (Placido) and Steven Carvalho. Mary (Placido)’s younger brother was David Placido. He was my grandfather. My dad, Dan and Albert (Traverns) Carvalho are cousins.
Do I still have everybody with me? I’ll tell my dad to hurry on that matrix!
If you have more pieces to our family puzzle, please feel free to e-mail me. I would love to hear from you. Some of you have already been in contact with my sister-in-law, Kari. That’s great! If you know of any other cousins that could add to my story, fine tune it or fill in more pieces, please forward this to them.
Hope to hear from you soon,
Pam in California