I have been researching my genealogy over the lat few years, discovering a direct link to John Howland of the Mayflower. However, the other half of my lineage is Portuguese. I am from Lowell, MA, and my maiden name was Garcia. I am told that it was changed from the original surname “Garcez” when my great grandfather and his wife emigrated from the Azores. In addition, my Howland line includes a “Marshall,” whom I am told was from Portuguese descent.

Up until now, I thought that there was no hope for researching that part of my genealogy, but you have given me renewed interest!

Thank you again!

Portuguese genealogy can be challenging. Do you know which region of Portugal your family is from? Sometimes, you can get a sense of where to start, based on the surname (or, if you get really lucky – a note about their origins in ships’ records or an obituary). Once you get a location, it’s not too hard to start asking for birth/marriage certificates from the regional archives. I’ve attached a link to a directory of archives across Portugal (it’s in Portuguese):

http://dgarq.gov.pt/rede-portuguesa-de-arquivos/rede-dgarq/arquivos-regionais/

I have a book containing the history of most Portuguese surnames and can look up yours, if you like. Good luck!

Also didn’t realize that Portugese records were so difficult to come by… many of the issues you mention are also issues with Eastern European and Jewish ancestry (my grandfather was a Russian Jew)– bad record keeping (sometimes intentionally, due to anti-Semitism), changes of name spellings and often the whole names themselves, etc.

How fortunate you were to be able to go back so far on your Portugese line!