Doug Rocha Holmes is perhaps one of the most respected Portuguese genealogists on the Internet. He lives in Sacramento, California, but has helped other fellow genealogists from around the world. He also teaches classes in Portuguese-genealogy.

Mr. Holmes was interviewed through e-mail so that his valuable insights might help Portuguese-Bermudian genealogists.

The world wide web can be an extremely valuable tool for local family researchers, who often find themselves isolated from major centres of information. One of the most valuable tools are computer mailing lists which are subscribed to by sending an e-mail to a particular address. They act as a virtual gathering place for people looking for advice and assistance and those who can provide it.

For genealogists new to the mailing lists, remember to observe netiquette.

When someone has provided assistance, say `thank-you' when applicable, and provide as much aid as possible when the tables turn.

Although this article discusses on-line Portuguese genealogy, the Internet contains thousands of web pages dedicated to particular nationalities and individual surnames.

Q: I notice on the Portuguese mailing list you tend to answer a number of queries from genealogists who need help.

A: As I found out in 1992, there were so very few people in the computer world (before the Internet) who seemed to know much about Portuguese genealogy. I was totally self-taught and at that time had traced my ancestors back to the 1600s. So I started to give people help and advice by computer.

Q: Are you a professional genealogist? A: I had a business at the local mall and did genealogy research on my own family as time permitted. Sometime around 1995 I offered my services for hire and decided to become a professional genealogist full-time. So as of January 1, 1999, I have been a full-time professional Portuguese genealogist. I have a specialty in the Azores, mostly the islands of Pico and Terceira, where the majority of my Portuguese ancestry is from.

Q: I understand that one of the surnames you are researching is `Simas' and `Simoes'. There are two large Portuguese families on the island that are Madeiros Simons and Farias Simons. Can you talk a bit about the origin of Simons in Portugal? (Note: This refers to Portuguese Simons. Simons is one of the most common names in the world and can also have an Anglo, French Huguenot and Jewish origins, among others.) A: Simoes is the origin of the name Simons, a name that has been converted to its closest English equivalent. Simoes is what we call a patronymic surname.

It comes from the father whose name was Simao and literally means `son of Simao'. It is not the same as Simas. Simas is a toponymic name meaning it is derived from a location because it is written as `de Simas' which means `of Simas'. I have both of these surnames in my ancestry. My Simoes family is from Sao Bento, island of Terceira. My Simas family is from Sao Roque, island of Pico, and I am in the process of researching this name worldwide for a future book. There are no variants for either name, except the `i' can be replaced by a `y'. But a name similar to Simoes is `Simeon'. That is a name found usually on the island of Faial, but I have seen a few on Pico. I believe the people of Bermuda called `Madeiros Simons' were originally known in Portugal as `Medeiros Simoes'.

Q: How would you say on-line genealogy has affected the sport of hunting dead ancestors? A: There is still nothing on the Internet which allows original Portuguese research to be conducted. You can't find documents of your ancestors online.

Some projects for the future will change that, but for now, the best you can hope for is to find a person who is also researching in the village of your ancestors and knows your people. So the biggest help the Internet can give is to find another person who can give you tips and information they found by looking through the original documents of some archive or a microfilm copy of church records at a library. If someone thinks some person they find on the Internet will magically hand them a copy of all their ancestors, they are most likely going to be very disappointed. It is still very hard and time-consuming work to build a family tree.

Q: For the person who is just beginning to research their Portuguese genealogy, where should they start? What are the best sites on-line? A: Start by going to the local library and reading a `how-to' book on genealogy, or purchase one. In this way, one can learn the types of sources that are available. However, since this question is asked of me all the time, and I teach classes on Portuguese genealogy, I have compiled a 23-page booklet called the `Portuguese Genealogy Syllabus'. It should be used only after the general book from the library has been read.

Q: Tell me more about this syllabus.

A: This syllabus lists exactly what the Portuguese researcher must find. But for the people of Bermuda, it won't be 100 percent applicable since my audience is in California and I list many sources found in California. Despite that, the same types of records should be available in Bermuda, just not at the same places or called the same things as they are in California. I have described my syllabus on my website page: / www.dholmes.com /syllabus.html/ .

Q: Where else should amateur genealogists go on the Internet? A: Probably the best place to start to look on the Internet is called `Cyndi's List' at www.cyndislist.com . It includes information about all the genealogy websites in the world and is divided into categories. There is a category for Spain & Portugal and many of the links one finds there lead to my own website which I call the `Portuguese Genealogy Home Page' found at / www.dholmes.com /rocha1.html/ . I have tried to put together all the things a person would like to find on the Internet about Portuguese genealogy. But one must realise the field is too vast to be entirely covered by just one website. For that reason, one of the handiest things I have compiled is my "links'' page which includes links to other websites a person interested in Portuguese genealogy will like to know about: / www.dholmes.com /links.html/ . Some of the links include the National Archives of Portugal, translations to and from Portuguese, airlines, currency converters, other people's websites, passenger lists, maps of Portugal, for example.

Q: Can you explain what on-line mailing lists are? A: A mailing list is like a newspaper, but instead of coming once a day, it comes as often as an individual, anywhere in the world, writes a message to the list. For instance, when I send a message to the list, it is received by everyone in the world who subscribes to the list (which costs nothing). My message arrives and is distributed to everyone in a matter of a minutes. When I check my e-mail I get all the messages that have been posted since the last time I checked. The messages arrive along with my other personal e-mails.

Q: What are the benefits? A: The benefits are that the lists are virtual gathering places where people of like interests are found. Conceivably, a person interested in a certain breed of dog, for example, can find a mailing list for that breed and meet people from all over the world. Applied to genealogy, a person interested in the Azores can find a whole community of people, beginners and experts alike, who share that interest. Instructions for how to subscribe the Portugal and Azores lists can be found on my website.

Q: What if your genealogy research has hit a major roadblock? A: If a person is researching their family and finds a situation preventing any progress, a message sent to the list often allows someone else who knows the answer to solve that problem. Topics like culture, history, current events, cuisine and genealogy are all discussed (depending on how rigid the list-owner is about the list's subject matter). Writers, historians, professionals, self-taught genealogists and beginners are all found on the list and help each other. Some messages are in Portuguese, but most are in English.

Q: How should a mailing list query be constructed to be most effective? A: This is an important question because often people don't properly ask a question and when they don't get a response, they get upset. The answer is similar to what you need to know to trace your own ancestors: 1. Name 2.

Location 3. Date. I have listed them in order of importance. For example, you can't hope to find a nameless person even if you know the location. Once the name of the person is known, all the emphasis is placed on the location.

(Knowing the island in the Azores is often not enough to obtain older vital records. A church parish is often critical).

Q: What about the actual query composition? A: When composing a message which is intended to help one find out more about a particular ancestor, always list their name, where they are from, when they are born, married or died in that location. But if all these things were known, there is not likely a reason to raise a question about them. Let's suppose our ancestor is named Manuel Simoes and came from the island of Sao Miguel in the Azores. (This is simply hypothetical). We know he was born about 1880 since he was 60 years old when he died in 1940. We know his wife was named Maria Gomes and they married after they each came to Bermuda in different years, she from the island of Santa Maria, Azores. We want to learn the names of their parents, when they married and exactly in which village each was born. To help the experts answer your question, we must include when their first child was born which helps pinpoint the year of marriage and the year of arrival in Bermuda. If their first child was born about 1905, include that information and post your message. That would certainly be enough for a good answer to your query.

Q: What does a really bad query look like? A: Too many times we see a message like, `My grandfather is from Portugal and I want to know more about him. Please tell me all you can'. Seriously, such messages are sometimes asked by people who don't have any idea of what they are doing. So keep the above three items in mind and you will get some good and useful help.

Family portrait Manuel Inos and his family, a formal family snapshot taken at the end of the last century. Courtesy of Bermuda Archives