The late Antonio Marques Teixiera da Silva believed he was born around 1904. He vaguely remembered his mother’s name as Rosa or Rosella and had little memory of his father. The only thing he did know was he Portuguese and born in Villa Nova De Gaia, Porto, Portugal. Somewhere around 1919, when he was approximately fifteen years old, he left Portugal on a fishing boat. For some unknown reason he was later put off the ship in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland (Terra Nova). He had no idea where he was and did not understand the language.
I have heard of many families of Portuguese heritage who have similar stories with lots of unanswered questions about their bloodline including my husband’s. Antonio da Silva was my husband’s grandfather. I have spent months researching his journey including going to Porto with my husband, Robert Escott and speaking with experts in genealogy.
To understand Antonio’s journey, first you must understand the history of Portugal including the religion, poverty and civil unrest. After being one of the richest countries in Europe, by the beginning of the 20th century Portugal had become one of the poorest.
Trying to trace the history of someone who did not read or write is challenging. They leave very little written information behind. Something as simple as confirming the date a person was born can turn into months of research that yields little. Therefore, I had to start with what we knew for sure. I knew I had his full name and possibly the year he was born.
In 1904, very little of Portugal’s population was literate. Birth and death records were kept by the churches in the parishes. Villa Nova De Gaia had sixteen parishes. There is no way to know which one he belonged to. Hours of research in Porto’s genealogy centre led to nothing. Births and deaths were not kept in alphabetical order. They were marked: 1, 2, 3, etc.. as they happened. They are also in cursive writing done with a fountain pen on paper made from recycled cotton and linen rags and of course they are written in Portuguese. The documents are available in digital format only. The original books are in storage. A photo of each page is available on line.
I searched several parishes and found similar names. The genealogist said to ensure I had the right person I would need all four names on the document. The search was tedious. We don’t know if he was born in 1904 for sure. To be accurate the search would have to include the years 1902 – 1906. Each of the parish directories would have to be searched for each of these years. That is still an ongoing process. You can find the directory here: https://pesquisa.adporto.arquivos.pt/
The genealogist explained how the Portuguese name their children, which explains a lot about Antonio’s heritage. Robert’s family was always led to believe that Antonio was an orphan, but his name says otherwise.
A Portuguese name is typically composed of one or two personal names, the mother's family surname and the father's family surname (rarely only one surname, sometimes more than two). That means his name breaks down like this: Antonio (given name) Marques (Mother’s maiden name) Teixiera (maternal or paternal maiden name) da Silva (father’s name).
For practicality, usually only the last surname is used in formal greetings such as: Antonia de Silva. Portuguese law establishes the need for a child to have at least one personal name and one surname from one of the parents. Usually, the maternal surnames precede the paternal ones, but the opposite is also possible. If the father is unknown, or he has not acknowledged the child, only the mother's family name is used. Antonio had both parent’s names which means he was likely not an orphan. His father was probably a fisherman who was absent most of the year to fish. Also, a child can receive surnames from their parents' ancestors, even if those surnames are not part of the parents' names, provided that the parents prove those names were used by their ancestors. In Portugal, the custom of giving a child four surnames is popular, since this way a child can have each of their parents' surnames. This is where the surname ‘Teixiera’ comes from.
In fact, since from 1870 it was mandatory for parents to identify themselves. It is also tradition to name your first son after the father, which is very similar in a lot of countries. Antonio married Mary Slaney. Their first son was named Robert de Silva. Robert was Mary’s fathers’ name. His middle name was Francis, which is the English version of Francisco which is a very popular Portuguese name. More than likely his father’s name was Francisco de Silva and his mother’s name was Rosa or Rosella Marques
Following his journey, I established a time line of how old he was when he left, and why. Originally I was told he could have been as young as seven when he left or as old at twelve. But the fact that he kept his Portuguese language, and accent told me he had to be much older that seven. If he was born in 1904 and left in 1919, then he was fifteen. A boy of fifteen would be considered a man in 1919 Portugal not a child.
As a child, his life would have been hard.
A survey conducted in 1852 revealed that about 25 percent of surveyed workers in industry were below the age of 16 (3,147 children). According to the 1881 survey, the absolute number of working children rose to 5,998 while child participation as a percentage of surveyed workers fell to 7 percent. The surveys shows that about 50 to 55 percent of the minors worked in the textile and weaving industry—cotton, wool, and silk. The dangerous pyrotechnics industry was the most “minor intensive” with minors accounting for almost 63 percent of its labor force. Most of the reported child workers in industry were concentrated in Oporto district indicating its early industrial development.
The Communist Party, which was in opposition, also tended to support child labor, even though it also emphasized education. In 1936, Avante, the journal of the Portuguese Communist Party, pledged that the “Portuguese Communist Party. . . struggles for the liberation of adults and the salvation of children.” In 1938 it denounced the differences between children of different classes. While some children could go to school, others had to work, selling newspapers or vegetables. Six- or seven-year-old children worked in quarries near Lisbon, “earning painfully their bread, those children that never knew where there was a school.” In 1937, it reported a work accident in Aveiro, where stone mines used almost exclusively 7- to 14-year-olds as workers, who received salaries varying between one-fourth to two-fifths of the adult pay.
A story collected from the 1920s states:
Children did not stay long in school and girls were worse off because of prejudice and of their usefulness for other tasks. Most children started working when they reached nine years, sometimes sooner. The ones who did not go to school used to work full time while those who did attend school worked after school hours. Girls worked in domestic services for the big landowners, or would go to the nearest village, city or even Lisbon. Often there was no remuneration, and the work only assured their meals. Boys started by taking care of cattle, chicken and pigs and by twelve or thirteen, they could try to work in the fields. The tasks were harvesting olives or wheat, and children were always included in large groups of workers, but earned less. The money would go to the family or more likely to the father. Children would usually get up at five o'clock in the morning, eat something before work and then walk many miles to the fields. The work finished at sunset and they reached home at nine, ten o'clock in the evening. Girls could still have domestic chores to do.
Children in Portugal have provided labour contributions for many centuries. In 1850, Portugal had a 15 per cent literacy rate which rose to 55 per cent by 1950
A worker’s revolt in Porto, demanding better working conditions led to a decree passed in 1891. It included sentences such as, the decree intends to protect both women and children ‘as society has an obligation to protect the weak. As a result of this legislation, the minimum working age for industrial employment was set at 12 years—agriculture was excluded —, except for 10 years with completed primary education for metallurgists (a person who studies or knows about metals - mining).
The earliest mention of children working comes from ships’ logs that report children being an important part of vessels’ crews during the 16th century.
In 1863, school inspector Manuel Barradas, on an inspection in Alentejo is surprised to find zero enrolment. He wrote: The teacher assured me that after the harvest [of grapes] is finished, maybe some students will apply to come to school (…); before that it would be impossible, because their own mothers would beat them if they want to attend school.
A military coup in 1926 led to an extremely conservative dictatorship that kept the country under tight control until 1974. The regime idolized a rural and modest life style and feared economic development. The conservative philosophy was summed up in the motto ‘God, Fatherland and Family.’
Education was perceived as a threat and therefore reduced to a minimum. In 1926, schools that trained secondary school teachers were closed. In 1929, compulsory education was reduced from five to three years, and co-educational schools were forbidden. More enlightening than laws were the opinions expressed by some supporters of the regime. It is noted the leaders said:
The more beautiful, stronger and healthier part of the Portuguese soul resides in the 75 per cent of the illiterate; [referring to the rural inhabitants] What advantages did they get in school? None. Nothing won. Everything lost. (…) knowing how to read and write they create ambitions: they want to go to the cities, apprentice store clerk, sales clerk, gentlemen; they want to go to Brazil. They learned to read! What do they read? Criminal relationships; wrong notions of politics; bad books; leaflets of subversive propaganda. They leave the hoe, become uninterested in the land and only have an ambition: to become civil servants— (Virgínia de Castro e Almeida, writer (1927); Portugal does not need schools—João Ameal, writer and historian.)
After speaking with Antonio’s daughter, Phyllis Cavallini I was able to establish a timeline. Phyllis recalls going with her father to Porto in 1959. He told her that as a young boy, he along with his family and other people joined the pilgrimage to Fatima. The fact that he mentioned ‘his family’ says that by 1917 he still had contact with family. Antonio says they walked several days in the rain, sleeping under the stars and they arrived where the apparition was to take place again.
The Blessed Virgin Mary appeared in the village of Fatima, Portugal, on May 13, 1917. On that fateful day near that tiny village, The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, appeared to three young peasant children: Francisco, Jacinta, and Lucia; ages 10, 9 and 7. As was the custom, these youngsters were tending their family’s sheep when “a Lady all in white, more brilliant than the sun… indescribably beautiful,” standing above a bush, appeared to the youngsters.
From May through October 1917, the Lady appeared and spoke to the children on the 13th day of each month. News of these apparitions began to spread throughout the region. When it became known the Lady would visit the children for the last time on October 13, 1917, and had promised a sign that would convince the world she had appeared, many pilgrims made plans to attend. Though the region had been subjected to three days of torrential downpour, nearly 70,000 people journeyed through the heavy rain and mud to the place of the previous apparitions to witness the predicted miracle. Antonio mentions walking in the rain which verifies this version of his story.
This means, as a boy, he personally witnesses one of the most revered events in the history of Christianity: The Miracle of the Sun. On that day it is reported that the “clouds separated…and the sun appeared between them in the clear blue, like a disk of white fire.” The people could look at the sun without blinking and while they gazed upward, the huge ball began to “dance”. The huge fireball whirled rapidly with dizzy and sickening speed, flinging out all sorts of brilliant colors that reflected on the faces of the crowds. The fiery ball continued to gyrate in this manner three times, then seemed to tremble and shudder, and plunge in a mighty zigzag course toward the earth. The crowd was terrified, fearing this was the end of the world. However, the sun reversed course and, retracing its zigzagging course, returned to its normal place in the heavens. All of this transpired in approximately ten minutes. After realizing they were not doomed, the crowd began ecstatically laughing, crying, shouting and weeping. Many discovered their previously drenched clothing to be perfectly dry.
In 1917 Antonio was approximately thirteen years old. At that point in Portugal’s history, they were going through political turmoil.
The uprising of 1910 impacted the country. This was a rebellion led by military and armed civilians commanded by Machado Santos, a junior Naval officer with ties to the Freemasons and the revolutionary secret society Carbonaria. It was the military’s outright neutrality at the time that allowed the rebels to succeed and proclaim the Republic. When the rebels bombarded the Palácio das Necessidades during the revolution of 5 October 1910, a young King Manuel II was forced to flee while the army did nothing.
This was not the first time Portugal’s royal family had been attacked by rebels. Two years earlier, in February 1908, Manuel’s father, King Carlos I, and his brother, Crown Prince Luís Filipe, had been murdered by Republican radicals belonging to the Carbonarians. The two murderers—Alfredo Costa and Manuel Buíça—were fanatic and committed rebels that were eventually killed by the king’s guards.
On the 28th of May of 1926, a military revolt began in Braga, a city in northern Portugal. It took only a few days for this uprising to overthrow the democratic First Republic and establish a nationalist military dictatorship, which lasted until 1933. This was soon followed by Salazar’s national-authoritarian regime of the Estado Novo which lasted until the Carnation Revolution of April 1974.
In theory, the First Republic was a democracy, although only 7% of the population voted. Additionally, suffrage was restricted to men. Alfredo Costa didn’t want women to vote because he thought they were all under the influence of Catholic priests. Monarchists and Catholics, as well as the syndicalist Left and even conservative Republicans, were all arbitrarily arrested by Costa’s security forces.
The young members of the armed forces leading the 1926 National Revolution also had vividly in mind the chaos and violence of the 16 years period of the First Republic. From its very first days, the country was dominated by the Portuguese Republican Party (PRP, which was inspired by the jacobinism and radicalism of the Third French Republic). Its main enemy was the Catholic Church. The PRP’s leader, Afonso Costa, had even declared that he hoped to wipe out Catholicism completely from Portugal within one or two generations.
Antonio always said he could not find any records of his family because the church records had been burned. This happened under Costa’s command.
As a Roman Catholic young man his life would have been harsh. Leaving behind the tyranny of Portugal must have been a dream for him. Da Silva remembered his mother sold fish in the local market and his father was absent. Poor and illiterate, the most Antonio could hope for would be the harsh life of a fisherman. That was most likely the catalyst to flee Portugal aboard a schooner bound for the rich fishing banks off Newfoundland. The Portuguese had been fishing off the Grand Banks for over 400 years, since navigator Gaspar Corte-Real had proclaimed Terra Nova to be land of the King of Portugal.
Family history said he stowed away on board a Portuguese fishing ship and was let out in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland. It is unlikely that he did stow away. In the early 1920s, the average voyage from Europe to America by ship took about 7 to 10 days, depending on various factors such as the port of departure, the type of ship, and weather conditions. However, some ships could take longer or shorter, depending on their route, speed, and other circumstances. Could he have hid from the crew for up to ten days and how did he survive? More than likely, he needed to leave Portugal, and he was hired as crew or forced labour, which is another word for slave labour and human trafficking.
Why did he get off the ship in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland. The ship would not willingly give up cheap labour unless there was a good reason. The fishing ships were largely Catholic. If someone died at sea, they were buried at sea. If they were on death’s doorstep, they would be dropped in the nearest community for medical assistance.
The Spanish Influenza of 1918 and 1919 was the deadliest pandemic in human history. It was a true pandemic in every sense of the word — nearly every country in the world was affected by the epidemic and experienced unusually high morbidity and mortality as a consequence. We have all lived through COVID and can relate to it. Except there was no internet or world-wide news channels to get information from.
From 10 September 1918 through 5 June 1919 Wave II of the Spanish Flue hit Newfoundland. A total of 901 influenza deaths and 278 pneumonia deaths were recorded in the provincial death records during this period, representing 80 percent of all influenza deaths recorded during the three-year period from 1918 to 1920 and 62 percent of influenza and pneumonia deaths combined. Several possible clues to how the second wave may have entered the island are found in an article published in the Evening Advocate on 30 September 1918:
A steamer is anchored on quarantine with the yellow flag at her foremast. The censorship regulations [related to the war] prevent us from saying anything as to the port. Three of the crew were removed to hospital this a.m. and Dr. Campbell, the port physician, is enforcing the strictest regulations. In Boston and other American cities this deadly disease is now raging and many deaths have occurred. A schooner which arrived here some time ago also had several of the crew sick with what is believed to be the same sickness.
Although nearly all influenza deaths recorded in St. John’s occurred in October or later, there was a flu death recorded on 13 September and four pneumonia deaths were reported in the latter half of September, casting suspicion on the purported role of the boats and their sailors as presented in these newspaper accounts. This list suggests that if the epidemic did arrive by sea, it most likely entered the island at St. John’s, although other points of entry, especially the Burin Peninsula, are also possible.
When Antonio landed in Placentia Bay in 1919, it is quite possible that he had the Spanish flu which is why he was let off the ship and did not return. At that time whether he was forced labour or a paid fisherman, the Captain of the ship would not let go of a man of fifteen unless there was a good reason.
Antonio died in 1984 and deeply regretted that he never again saw his mother and family. Yearly he reconnected with his countrymen through the visits of Portugal's White Fleet fishermen to the port of St. John's. He was always the first to greet the fishermen after their endless months at sea. By nightfall, they'd all be singing, dancing and drinking in the kitchen of Antonio and Mary’s downtown boarding house. For Antonio, the fishermen were like long-lost family returned to him by the sea.
Television producers Patricia Fogliato and David Mortin's created a series called The Scattering of Seeds and made Antonio the focus of an episode called: The Stowaway. https://www.whitepinepictures.com/a-scattering-of-seeds/episodes
It is natural to be curious about exploring your family’s history, discovering potential relatives, and gaining insights into your ancestral origins and cultural heritage. This is why ancestry tests are so popular. We all want to put a human story to our roots. My husband believed his family roots stopped at his grandfather. By researching the name Antonio Marques Teixiera da Silva, establishing a timeline and digging into the history of Portugal I discovered the truth was right in front of us. His name and memories held the answers to everything.
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