Over the next few years we visited as a family many times. Both South to Avo Amelia and North to the Seldens in Seattle. Alexandria was born shortly after meeting Avo Amelia and my brother Rich had a daughter, Crystle, about the same time. The girls grew up apart but visited a lot during those years, and are still very close. I got to know many cousins and aunts/uncles but none of them had further knowledge of Helene's little indescretion , that would be me. I even met Bud Tucker, an old boyfriend of Helene's. They both worked at the "Porthole", just off Georgia St in Vallejo. With little dates on pictures and such it seemed they were an item prior to 1944 and he had no new information to share. Everyone I met were on the (De)Souza side of my maternal history. My maternal Bio grandfather, Manual Vincente, was from Lisbon Portugal. He and Avo met and married in Oakland. According to Amelia he did have cousins in the old country. She divorced him in the 30's and had several self induced abortions. She felt he was abusive and a philanderer. She had her opinions and for whatever reasons it seems to me that she was a very independent driven woman for a Roman Catholic wife in that era.
This story, so far, starting almost forty years ago, has been a journey following one picture, one newspaper article or document, one shred at a time leading to what I felt was my maternal biohistory.
No where was there a "proof" of my linage and very little information on my mysterious "Bio dad". At one point I was able to speak to an archivist at Providence where I was adopted. She said there was very little information about my father. The notes given by Helene indicated that my father was a red headed Irish submarine sailor. He was a diesel motor mechanic. Another irony is that I have always loved the smell of diesel fumes, not gas, just diesel...As sketchy as this seems it had a great influence about forty years later, So I was essentially dead in the water in my search unless something new popped up. And then along came DNA and Ancestery .com. Several years ago Alexandria suggested I sign up and see where it led. I did and did it ever go somewhere!
The first results showed up a definite Portuguese(Iberian Peninsula) component. And besides Alexandria being my daughter(and since then my son Michael as well) It confirmed three of my nieces from the Selden clan in Washington. And as I was soon to discover several other distant cousins and such from the DeSouza tree. So this, of course, gave that proof element I had been searching for all those years. And then as if more proof was needed another niece showed up, Nina, who was the daughter, by another mother, of my half brother Richard. This match actually showed up on the 23 and Me DNA site. So besides confirming my maternal link there is now another tool available in my Biodad search. With one assumption, that my Biodad was not Portuguese, then any match showing up on Ancestry who had no Iberian Peninsula would probably be related to my Biodad. This, of course, was just an assumption but guessing that he was supposed to be a red headed Irishman made that assumption more likely accurate. To Be Continued:
These are the Ancestry Trees reflecting the Maternal links
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