Rounding up Felicianno's Siblings

[Research Journal #6, Entry #9]

I was making any head way with Felicianno so I decided to search for his siblings. I started with the marriage records. I was surprised to find only one siblings married in the 1840s. Jacinto Jose de Mello married Francisca Emilia Paiva on 9 Jan 1841.

As the baptismal records were easier for me to read. I went back to those. It didn't seem like any of his siblings were having children during the same period. I kept going back in years. When I got to 1840 I began seeing the familiar de Mello Castanho moniker. The baptismals for his siblings were much earlier than his own children.

I took notes for entries from 1830 to 1850. I had de Mello Castanho's coming out of my ears! The easiest thing to do was to take them home and sort out the family. I began by listing each parent and then their children. I began to see the families fill out.

A couple of things struck me while making notes.
1. While all the siblings appeared as godparents, Felicianno was absent. His name did not appear as a padrinho until 1835.
2. After some entries, the term seu juris followed Felicianno's name. I wondered what it meant.
3. Some of his siblings' children were almost the same age as Felicianno's wife!