52 Ancestors: #1 ~ Mathias Rodrigues Vasques

This is part of the "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" Challenge begun by Amy Johnson Crow, author of the blog No Story Too Small.

Mathias Rodrigues Vasques

Amy Johnson Crow, author of the blog No Story Too Small, has issued the following challenge:

"...have one blog post each week devoted to a specific ancestor. It could be a story, a biography, a photograph, an outline of a research problem — anything that focuses on one ancestor. Not only should this get me blogging more, but also to take a deeper look at some of the people in my family tree."

I've decided to give this challenge a try…gulp! I already try to publish about two blog posts in this genealogy blog per week, which includes my weekly Fab Finds post. And I also try to publish one blog post per week in my other blogs, Jana's Photo Journal, and Grandpa's Postcards.

But, this challenge seems like a great way to make sure I write about lots of different ancestors in my genealogy blog, instead of focusing too much on just a few.

So, here we go!

The first ancestor I'm writing about for this challenge is my maternal 2nd great-grandfather, Mathias Rodrigues Vasques. I wrote a blog post about him a very short time after I started this blog, which was in April of 2012.

Mathias was born about 1834 in Rio Grande, Rio Grand du Sul, Brazil to his parents Raimundo Rodrigues Vasques and Maria Joaquina Velho.

Mathias and his wife, Margarida De Farias Correa, were the parents of thirteen children. I don't have definitive marriage information for Mathias and Margarida. That's something I need to work on.

Here are their children:

1. Margarida Vasques (7 February 1854 – ?)
2. Maria Do Carmo Vasques (14 April 1855 – ?)
3. Margarida Vasques (21 June 1856 – ?)
4. Rosalia Rodrigues Vasques (4 September 1857 – 24 April 1930) [My great-grandmother]
5. Othilia Vasques (27 November 1859 – ?)
6. Mathias Vasques (31 December 1860 – ?)
7. Raimundo Vasques (28 September 1863 – ?)
8. Joao Vasques (25 August 1865 – ?)
9. Thereza Vasques (Christened 22 December 1867 – ?)
10. Maria Francisca Vasques (9 Jan 1870 – ?)
11. Maria Francisca Vasques (17 June 1871 – ?)
12. Cazimira Vasques (22 July 1874 – ?)
13. Miguel Vasques (15 May 1877 – ?)

As you can see, I have a lot of research to do in order to replace those question marks with dates of death.

I love this picture of Mathias! It's so interesting. It appears that he was in the Brazilian military at some point during his life. Check out his hat on the chair. Doesn't it resemble a U. S. Civil War hat? It's interesting that the military hat styles of that time period were similar in both the United States and Brazil.

I found this picture (below) on the Wikimedia Commons website. It shows an officer (left) and a soldier (right) from the Brazilian Empire's Army, circa 1867. It's interesting to compare this picture with the picture of Mathias in his uniform.


Mathias passed away in 1890 in Rio Grande, Rio Grand du Sul, Brazil. Information for the date and place of death for Mathias was taken from a hand-written pedigree chart written by my maternal grandfather, Debs Warren Webster. I will need to do some research to verify this information.

Thanks for reading!

Jana

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