CALVINADAGE
Newsletter of the Portuguese of the West Indies website on Rootsweb
Issue One
28 July, 2001
Published irregularly at the whim (a.k.a. vaps) of the site owners.
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If you are receiving this newsletter, you are subscribed to the Portuguese of the West Indies (PoWI) Mailing List, or left comments on the site Guestbook (or because we think you might be interested!).
We'd like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to all of you who've sent in ideas, feedback, very constructive criticism, and questions and queries, and to thank you for all your support and encouragement!
Please send us an e-mail if you do not wish to receive this newsletter.
CONTENTS
1. Welcome to Our First Issue!
2. Our Feature Article
3. Guestbook vs. Message Board and the Mailing List
4. Search Function Now Available
5. New Content Galore
6. Future Plans
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WELCOME TO OUR FIRST ISSUE!
They say that if you want a job done, give it to the busiest person. Well, sometimes that's true, sometimes it's not! Dean and Jo-Anne have finally been able to come together again after quite some time (Jo-Anne was in Brazil for 6 months, and Dean's been studying), so it's a real pleasure to be able to send you our very first newsletter.
We are aiming towards realising our goal of being a centre and a portal for the history and genealogy of those Portuguese and their descendants wherever they settled in our beautiful Caribbean region.
There are lots of new additions and features to our site, and we hope you find them useful and interesting. Read on for more details!
Enjoy this first issue, and we will be sending out our newsletter whenever we have major updates and improvements. We look forward to your feedback!
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FEATURE ARTICLE
Please visit Sr. Menezes' article "Some preliminary thoughts on Portuguese emigration from Madeira to British Guiana," Stabroek 7th May 2000: http://www.guyanaca.com/special/portuguese.html
In this section, we will host a variety of features articles from a number of different writers.
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GUESTBOOK vs. MESSAGE BOARD and the MAILING LIST GUESTBOOK vs. MESSAGE BOARD
The Guestbook at PoWI is intended for visitors to post comments and/or suggestions related to the site. In our experience, very few people actually visit the Guestbook. Therefore, if you want to post a question, or simply list your research interests so that others can make contact with you, the Message Board is a much better option. The board is searchable throughout all of Rootsweb, unlike the Guestbook. The address is: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec?htx=board&r=rw&p=localities.caribbean.portuguese
You are required to sign up for a free account in order to post to the boards. We try to clear the boards of non-relevant posts on a regular basis. For your convenience, you can also select an option to have notifications of new messages delivered to your e-mail address.
MAILING LIST
The PoWI Mailing List is another free service we offer. The list is set up so that subscribers can send messages to all the members of the list by sending a message to a single address. Join the PORTUGUESE-WESTINDIES mailing list by sending an e-mail to: PORTUGUESE-WESTINDIES-L-request@rootsweb.com, or (for the digest list) PORTUGUESE-WESTINDIES-D-request@rootsweb.com and put the word "subscribe" in the message body. Further instructions about how to use the service will automatically be sent to you at that time.
The archives of the mailing list can be found at: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/PORTUGUESE-WESTINDIES, and they can be searched from: http://searches2.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl.
For more on Rootsweb Mailing Lists in general, you can visit: http://helpdesk.rootsweb.com/help/mail1.html.
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SEARCH FUNCTION NOW AVAILABLE
We recently added a search engine to the site, which can be accessed through the front page at: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~portwestind/index.htm
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NEW CONTENT
Dean and Jo-Anne have been on a roll here, adding new stuff and improving the site generally. Two great new features are the Search engine (see above) and the new index map: http://search.freefind.com/find.html?id=391820&pid=r&mode=ALL&n=0&query=&sitemap=Site+Map
In terms of new content on the site, here is a breakdown according to our three (3) main sections: The Diaspora, Genealogy, and Research Help.
*The Diaspora* - Across the Deep BLUE Seas: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~portwestind/diaspora/index.htm
1) We now have a link to a very good article on Guyanese Portuguese by Sr. Noel Menezes (featured in the this newsletter's Feature Article above).
2) For Trinis, the People & Culture section might be especially interesting, with new links to Carnival (Geraldo Vieira and Sean de Freitas), Film (another article on Sam Mendes), Politics (Albert Gomes) and Sports (Gene Samuel and others).
*Genealogy* - The EverGREEN Family Forests: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~portwestind/genealogy/index.htm
NEWS DU JOUR: we've finally begun to work on this section! This is the main event.
1) We have put a link to our Genealogy Links in the Research Help section.
2) There's now a link to the PoWI Message Board.
3) A new section called "Surname Resources": http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~portwestind/genealogy/surname_resources.htm a) This section boasts a Surname Researcher Index: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~portwestind/genealogy/surname_index.htm, and b) soon to follow Surname Information.
4) A Researcher Directory, found at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~portwestind/genealogy/researcher_directory.htm
a) This directory lists, in alphabetical order, Luso-West Indian researchers with details of their research interests. If you have a particular surname in mind, check out the Surname Researcher Index, as the family surnames being researched by these researchers are listed alphabetically in the Index.
b) To add your own surnames, with a little blurb on your own research efforts/success, go directly to the Researcher Application form: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~portwestind/genealogy/researcher_app.htm
5) And there's more to come! See below for Future Plans.
*Research Help* - BLACK Ink, White Paper (or Screen): http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~portwestind/research/index.htm
1) Sources
a) New bibliographies: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~portwestind/research/sources/index.htm#biblio
b) Library Collections and Catalogues: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~portwestind/research/sources/index.htm#catalogs
c) New list of books and bookstores: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~portwestind/research/sources/index.htm#books
d) The beginnings of a list of microfilmed church records: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~portwestind/research/sources/index.htm#Church Records
2) Our Archives (lots of additions here)
a) Historical Documents: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~portwestind/research/archives/index.htm#Documents (no changes in this section, which comprises historical articles on Azoreans in Trinidad, extracts from the Port-of-Spain Gazette, and some Colonial Office Correspondence)
b) Extracts of Records, a new section, with Extracts from Original Sources, as well as Lists and Compilations: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~portwestind/research/archives/index.htm#Extracts
Some of the new extracts include:
* List of Portuguese surnames found in the St. Ann's Baptismal Register: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~portwestind/research/archives/st_anns_baptisms.htm*
* Expanded list of some immigrants to T&T based on Passport Register of Arquivo Regional da Madeira: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~portwestind/research/archives/passenger.htm
*Persons of Portugese Descent who Left Trinidad to Serve in the Great War: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~portwestind/research/archives/service_in_great_war.htm
* The Appendices from Jo-Anne's article in Portuguese have been translated and put into this section.
*Links to Deb Kleber's ship lists c) Essays, Articles and Other Writings: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~portwestind/research/archives/index.htm#Articles
*A short story (fiction) by Anthony Milne: http://www.gowanusbooks.com/winter.htm
*A little article by Jo-Anne about her impressions of mainland Portugal and Madeira: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~portwestind/research/archives/ferreira/guardian_06_21_2001.htm
*Six (6) more articles (under Other Articles), including a reproduction of a 1923 article on the St. Ann's Church of Scotland (with the kind permission of Rev. Clifford Rawlins): http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~portwestind/research/archives/presbyterian_missions.htm.
*The other five (5) articles are at the bottom of the page.
3) Internet Links - some new ones under Genealogy (Portugal and Madeira) and throughout.
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FUTURE PLANS
Here are some future plans that we are batting around for the website. We welcome any and all suggestions, criticisms etc.
A Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page
Surname Resources - a page of resources for each of the more popular Portuguese Surnames including general history of the name, variations in the name due to anglicising etc., links to other websites, links to surname mailing lists and message boards, lists of researchers, biographies, etc.
Family History Pages - Write up a little essay on your Portuguese family history and we'll add it to the website, complete with pictures if you like!
PoWI WorldConnect Tree - Family Tree Pages: send us your family tree in GEDCOM format for inclusion in a master file for the site. We will link families where possible to try to create one giant tree. This file will also be uploaded to Rootsweb's WorldConnect project so that other researchers can try to link to you.
Ship Names and Voyages
More on other countries besides T&T
We need YOUR help - those of you researching Portuguese (including Catholics, Presbyterians and Sephardic Jews) from Antigua, Bermuda, Guyana, St. Kitts, St. Vincent, and Barbados, Curaçao and Jamaica. If you have any suggestions, we'd love to hear them.
Até logo!
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Copyright 2001 by Jo-Anne Ferreira and Dean de Freitas