João Amorim was my Father's name; his father's was Fernando Antonio Amorim and his mother's name was Albina Rosa de Jesus. This is Albina's family history.
Before we go any further I'd like to stress that in the 19th and early 20th century, Brazilian families had a peculiar way of passing the Father's name (Male surname) only to their Male offspring and passing the Mother's name (Female surname) only to their Female offspring. So there was no way one could guess whether your sister was your real sister and vice-versa.
Albina's father (my great-grandfather) was called Quintino Pavão de Oliveira, born in 1865, and Albina's mother (my great-grandmother) was called Florência Rosa de Jesus, born in Valencia-RJ on 11 March 1869. They were married on 4 October 1890, in São Sebastião do Rio Bonito-RJ, and had 10 children who lived to adult life. Probably, there were other children who died in infancy we don't know about.
Circa 1919, they all moved to São Paulo in search for a better life. As they were labourers in their native Rio de Janeiro (state) the only work they could do was farm work. They all went to work as peasants in coffee or sugar-cane plantations. 1918 was the year the Great Spanish Flu pandemic broke out, so the family tried to flee from certain death.
All children of Quintino Pavão & Florência Rosa de Jesus were born in São Sebastião do Rio Bonito-RJ, which was re-named Pentagna in the 1950s.
1. Olímpio Pavão de Oliveira - born on 26 July 1891; died on 17 March 1932. We know very little about him. It's said he married a woman of German extraction called Alzira. The only thing we know about her is she used to sleep in her wedding gown long after being married but due to a habit of peeing in bed, she would hang up her stained wedding gown on the clothes line to dry as soon as she got up. This must have been a bizarre act to have survived in people's memories all these year. Olímpio Pavão died when he was 41 years old. For some unknown reason he never migrated with the family to São Paulo.
2. Altina Rosa de Jesus - born on 29 June 1893; got married to a man called Quintino (like her father) who was 40 years old. She was only 17. Altina & Quintino left the State of Rio de Janeiro in 1919, with the rest of the family. They all arrived in São Paulo together. As they didn't have a place to go, they would lounge at Jardim da Luz (Light Park) next to the railway station waiting for men who worked for coffee plantation owners to show up and take them to the various plantations in the states of São Paulo, Paraná or Minas Gerais. Most of family was relocated to Ourinhos-SP on the border of São Paulo and Paraná.
Altina & Quintino ended up being taken up by a coffee plantation master to Londrina-PR (according to Antonia Amorim) or Vargem Alegre-MG (according to Albina) in a conversation I had with them in the 1970s. The bulk of the family in Ourinhos lost contact with Altina for the rest of their lives. Fernando Amorim, Albina's husband used to make inquiries about Altina's whereabouts all his life. Fernando used to be a traveling man selling ladies' fashion magazines (figurinos) around Paraná and São Paulo. Once, Fernando even advertised on Radio Tupi which had a 'Find-a-long-lost-relative' section in their news programme... but to no avail.
3. Maria Rosa de Jesus - born on 6 June 1895; died on 12 April 1925; 2nd daughter. She also migrated to São Paulo in 1919. She married a man called José Ignácio Lacerda and had a boy named Roldão Lacerda, who lived to be an adult. Maria died during her second child-birth leaving little Roldão alone for his father Ignácio soon went his way and formed a new family near Ribeirão Preto-SP. Roldão was raised by Florência Rosa de Jesus, his grandmother.
4. Altina Rosa de Jesus aka Albina - our grandmother was born on 2nd August 1897, in Sebastião do Rio Bonito-RJ (whose name has been changed to Pentagna-RJ, in the 1950s). One may find it strange that the 2nd and 4th daughter had the very same name. Her father, Quintino Pavão was known to drink rum (pinga or cachaça) quite often, so he must have drunk more than usual the day his 4th child was born. He went to the Registry Office quite 'light-headed' and when the officer asked the name of the new child he wasn't sure so he said 'Altina' in the spur-of-the-moment. When he was back home Florência asked him if all was right, Quintino told her the new girl was called Altina. Florência was mortified with his carelessness but couldn't do much. So, they decided to change a 'T' for a 'B' and Altina Rosa de Jesus II became Albina Rosa de Jesus.
Nobody would never know this 'comedy or errors' if it weren't for a Presbyterian pastor circa 1958, in Marília-SP. Albina wanted to be baptized at the same church Nadir Martins (her adopted daughter) and Maria Rosa Amorim (her youngest child) were members. Such Pastor asked for Albina's birth certificate to attest to her name and age. It took a few months for the document to arrive in Marília by mail... It was a shock to everyone when they realized Albina's name at the Registry Office was Altina, like her older sister. The Presbyterian pastor went ahead and baptized Albina as Altina, and tried to convince everyone that Albina was actually Altina. Some people accepted that fact, like Herself and Fernando, her husband... but others like her brother João Pavão e sister Margarida went on calling her Albina (or Dona Albina) as before. Fernando himself used to call her Bininha affectionately before 1958.
5. Anna Rosa de Jesus - was born on 9 September 1900; died on 20 May 1981, in Ourinhos-SP; Anna married Manoel de Oliveira a man of Potuguese ancestry and stayed back at Estado do Rio. A couple of years later Fernando Amorim sold a sewing machine and with that money paid for the fares of Manoel and Anna. Manoel de Oliveira started working as a grave-digger at Ourinhos Cemetery and ended up becoming really well-off in the end. They had a fairly large family too.
6. Augusta Rosa de Jesus - born on 20 May 1904; Not much is known about Augusta, even though there is a photo of hers around. Augusta married José Filisbino da Silva, whose mother was a mid-wife. Apparently José, who also went by the name of Benedito or Nelson, was a little wild having been accused of being a horse thief. The fact is Augusta had two daughters: Aparecida, who lived until the 1970s in Avaré-SP and Antonia. Augusta ended up dying of child birth in Palmital-SP.
7. José Pavão de Oliveira aka Zéca - born on 12 April 1906; only the 2nd male after 5 girls. Not much is known about Zéca who died at 18 years of age at Santa Casa of Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo-SP, a place a northeast of Ourinhos. They say he died of rheumatism in the knees. Some kind of knee inflamation that was not uncommon then.
8. Joaquim Pavão de Oliveira aka Quincas - was born on 19 April 1908. Quincas was João Amorim's favourite uncle for he played either guitar or Brazilian ukelele (cavaquinho). João said uncle Quincas played and sang Noël Rosa's 'O orvalho vem caindo' (1933) when João was 10 years old. Quincas married a Black lady called Joana Ribeiro, who had a baby-boy called Ramiro (or Ramilo) Ribeiro from a previous man. He died on 11 August 1951, when he was only 43 years old.
9. João Pavão de Oliveira - was born on 26 October 1910. João was still a child when the family migrated to São Paulo in 1918. João married a Spanish lady called Dolores Lopes Moreno, who was commonly known as Rosalina (or Rosalinda). She was born in 1920, and died of a heart ailment on 1st August 1962. My mother Yolanda Darin Amorim used to visit them regularly. They had a little wooden house on Rua Bom Fim; uncle João Pavão was known to make great bonfires in front of his house every 24th of June, Saint John's Day. João & Rosalina had an adopted son called Toninho (Antonio Pavão Oliveira) who had a blondish curly top and used to do the rounds with his father and his cart (barrow); he had some sort of business and was a popular fellow around town. I was told Toninho went to another town and never came back. Nobody knows whatever happened to him. João Pavão had a red complexion maybe helped by his intake of alcohol. But João Pavão was never a drunkard. Never, ever. He died in Marília on 24 November 1978, at 67, which considering his family story was a ripe old age.
10. Margarida Rosa de Jesus - was the 6th daughter; she was born on 30 June 1915. Legend tells Margarida was 21 years old when she married José Tacla aka Gazuza, owner of a traveling circus. When his circus left Ourinhos, Gazuza abandoned his newly-wed bride to her own devices and was never seen again. Much later, in her 30s, Margarida met a man from Ceará called Domiciano and they lived together until her death. Margarida & Domiciano lived next-door to Quincas & Joana ever since her mother Florência aka Dindinha died in 1949. My Mother Yolanda used to visit both on Rua Coroados, Marília, until we left for São Paulo in 1960.
Margarida was always a nice lady; she knew how to 'read cards'. They lived in a one-bedroom house. Every time we visited them, we sat at their double bed while she went about making coffee and talking to my Mother. Domiciano was always quiet. They were both in their 40s in the late 1950s. Both of them smoked cigarettes made out of tobacco rolled in straws. Margarida died on 30 April 1966, in Marília-SP. She accidentally drank bleach out of a cup thinking it was coffee or maybe rum. As she was thin and undernurished she didn't survive.
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