Asturian-American Migration Forum

Hello,

My name is Carina and I live in the UK. A few months ago I have started doing my family tree. All my searches so far were located in Portugal as my parents were born there. But I discovered that one of my ancestor came from La Braña (El Franco). Unfortunately his name is a very common Spanish name = Juan FERNANDEZ. He emigrated to Carviçais (Portugal) and married a local girl. I found 3 children of this couple José Albino (born in 1858), António Maria (born in 1862 – my ancestor) and Maria do Carmo (born in 1868) – all born in Portugal. From their baptism certificates, I discovered that Juan FERNANDEZ was the son of another Juan FERNANDEZ and Rosalia (ou Rosa) FERNANDEZ from “Nuestra Senora de la Braña” (Asturias).

By deduction, I am thinking that Juan FERNANDEZ was born around 1830 – 1840 in La Braña (El Franco) – [parents : Juan FERNANDEZ & Rosalia (ou Rosa) FERNANDEZ]

I contacted the Archivos Diocese de Oviedo directly by email back in May this year. They did reply to me in July asking me for my postal address. I replied to them with my address but since then nothing. I am still waiting for good news.

I was wondering if the archives of Oviedo can be consulted on-line? Any help would be much appreciated.

Thank you.
Carina

Caro75 wrote:I was wondering if the archives of Oviedo can be consulted on-line? Any help would be much appreciated.

Welcome, Carina. You've come to the right place in terms of Asturian genealogy. But unfortunately, the records you are looking for are not available online.

If Juan Fernandez and his siblings was born in El Franco in the mid-19th century, it is likely that their records are in the local parish there and NOT in Oviedo (Uvieu, in Asturian).

Only the earliest baptismal, marriage and death records are collected at the Archbishopric in Oviedo. So continue to post the information in this forum and someone here will eventually volunteer to find the records you are after--should they not be in El Franco.

Where in Portugal is your family originally from?

Thanks Is for your quick reply.

Is wrote:If Juan Fernandez and his siblings was born in El Franco in the mid-19th century, it is likely that their records are in the local parish there and NOT in Oviedo (Uvieu, in Asturian).

Only the earliest baptismal, marriage and death records are collected at the Archbishopric in Oviedo. So continue to post the information in this forum and someone here will eventually volunteer to find the records you are after--should they not be in El Franco.

I am confused now. I have been advised to search at the Diocesan Archive in Oviedo because my ancestor was born in the mid-19th century.

Is wrote:Where in Portugal is your family originally from?

I actually was born and raised in France. But my mother is from Carviçais (Trás-os-Montes - Portugal) and my father is from Torrão (Marco de Canaveses - Portugal).

Also for an unknown reason all the descendents of Juan FERNANDEZ (my ancestor who came to live to Carviçais) have been given the nickname "Mauricio" - my grandmother was known as "Maria Mauricia".
First we thought that maybe we had an Asturian ancestor called Mauricio (I am not sure if it's a common name in Spain) but so far I haven't find anything.

Caro75 wrote:I am confused now. I have been advised to search at the Diocesan Archive in Oviedo because my ancestor was born in the mid-19th century.

Sorry for the confusion, Carina. I may be wrong because there may be no hard-and-fast rule for when local parishes send their older records to the Archbishopric. I just know that in my own county of Ayande (Allande), the parish priest has 19th-20th century records, but nothing before 1808 because it's all in the Asturian capital at the Archbishopric. That may not be the case in El Franco, however. So give me some time and I'll look up the number for the parish there so we can find out.

Caro75 wrote:I actually was born and raised in France. But my mother is from Carviçais (Trás-os-Montes - Portugal) and my father is from Torrão (Marco de Canaveses - Portugal).

Interesting, Tras-os-Montes is quite beautiful. I've been to Braganca and the villages in that area reminded me of Asturias because they of the ways the farmsteads looked. Also, there is a language connection between the area around Mirando do Douro and Asturias that you may already know of.

As for 'Mauricio', it's very common in Asturias to use nicknames, often passed down through generations. It's surprising that your nickname goes all the way back to the 1800s, however. Again, very interesting story...