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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 2000-01 > 0948955338


From: Francisco Antonio Doria <>
Subject: Re: Ratings issues--and TAG
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2000 06:42:18 -0000


Let me give you an idea of how things are here in Brazil, when it comes
to genealogical publications, and the whole field of genealogy. The main
difference, I guess, stems from the fact that Brazil was a monarchy for
most of its history - and an independent empire under Braganza princes
until 1889. So, the early 20th century genealogical publications were
more or less like libri d'oro della nobilità, lists of people descended
from grantees of titles during the monarchy, and of those that had some
kind of patent of nobility. This strong monarchical bias is evident in
our more traditional genealogical societies, like the Colégio Brasileiro
de Genealogia (founded 1948 out of a previously existing, informal,
group; I'm one of its 40 full members). Its meetings are usually chaired
by one of our princes, like D. Pedro Gastão or his sister D. Isabel,
Countess of Paris.

Most people from the old families are either successors to some title or
are closely related to someone in that condition: my next-door neighbor
is the ggdaughter of a Roman count; one of my first-cousins still has to
register his Portuguese, 19th century viscountcy, and so on... Therefore,
the original goal of our genealogical publications was (explicitly or in
disguise) to reassert nobility rights, and they were intended as a kind
of local Gotha, whose format was copied in the entries. (You must notice
that this old élite was, also, the kernel of the early Republican élite:
titles were common among the first high officers in the Republican
governments, like the baron of Rio Branco, or even Republican leader and
author of the Republican 1891 constitution, Ruy Barbosa, was in his own
right a fidalgo de cota d'armas, a nobleman armiger.)

More democratic genealogical societies, like the Brazilian Jewish
Genealogical Society (of which I'm a honorary member), have only appeared
in the last 15-20 years. A more technical, modern-style genealogical
publication has only recently appeared, the _Boletim da ASBRAP_, whose
editors are presently doing a very critical examination of the roots of
most Colonial-period Brazilian families.

Also, something that I'm always fascinated with is the difficulty you
have (or seem to have) with your `gateways to royalty.' We have always
known that people like Jerônimo de Albuquerque, Braz da Silva de Meneses,
Luiza de Mello e Vasconcellos, the several members of the Moniz Barreto
de Meneses family who came to Brazil, or Hierônimo Dornellas de Meneses e
Vasconcelloss, were of ancient, noble or even royal stock, which can be
easily traced - and if you can trace your family a few generations back
into the Brazilian past, you'll end up by tying yourself in the descent
of one of those people. (The élite was heavily inbred, and easily
incorporated newcomers, that's why. I can later elaborate on this very
peculiar amoeba-like behavior; they swallowed up, incorporated
newcomers.)

You never mention Colonial lineage books in the US. I suspect you had
them, but that they were of no real import. We had three, the
_Nobiliarquia Pernambucana_ (for northeastern Brazil), dated c. 1770, the
_Catálogo Genealógico_ (for Bahia, dated c. 1780), and the _Nobiliarquia
Paulistana_ (dated c. 1760, for São Paulo). They were written to reassert
the status of the old, land-based, families, in front of a rapidly
growing mercantile class. They were only published in the late 19th
century, but had long been known and copied and expanded in ms form.
Also, most Portuguese 17th and 18th century lineage books - the vast
majority is still unpublished, but you can get microfilmed copies of them
from the Torre do Tombo or from our own National Library, that has a few
of them - have chapters on the Brazilian branches of those families they
describe.

I can add three specific situations: in the early 17th century letters
were exchanged between the Drummonds in the Madeira and the earl of
Perth, whereas the Portuguese Drummonds were `formally' acknowledged as
members of the Scottish family. In the mid-18th century Antonfrancesco
Acciaioli, marquess of Novi, sent for a kinsman in the Madeira in order
to marry his eldest daughter, so that the agnatic family line wasn't
broken. And following a doubting remark by Brazilian early 20th century
sociologist Gilberto Freyre on the origin of the Brazilian Cavalcanti
family - which he conjectured couldn't be of Florentine stock - i just
had to write to the Archivio di Stato at Florence to get a facsimile of
the original letters patent of nobility for Filippo Cavalcanti, who
settled in Brazil around 1560.

Therefore, when it comes to medieval genealogies, our main interests and
focus are very different from yours in the US and generally coincide with
those of current Portuguese researchers who are trying to clean up their
(our) messy family origins. Also, only recently the goals in our
genealogical publications have changed, and moved from the assertion of
nobility rights to a more social-sciences dependent study of family
patterns (my own wife does this kind of research, in connection with her
psychiatric practice).

Hope this summary will be of some use. Best,

chico doria

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