Sources & method
How we know what we know
Good family history is honest about its evidence. On this site, every person and story carries a label telling you how well it is documented — so you can trust the strong parts and help us strengthen the rest.
Our four evidence labels
Confirmed
Supported by at least one reliable primary record that a researcher has actually reviewed — for example a baptism, marriage, or civil registration that names the person and fits the family. The source is listed on the person's card.
Likely
Strong, consistent indirect evidence points this way, but a direct proving record hasn't been found or reviewed yet. A reasonable conclusion — held with appropriate caution.
Unverified
A lead, claim, or online hint we have not yet checked against real records. Included so it isn't lost, but not to be relied upon. These are our open research questions.
Family tradition
A story handed down by the family. Often it holds a real kernel of truth — and sometimes it doesn't. We treasure it, record who told it, and keep it clearly separate from proven fact.
Where the evidence comes from
Sources we use
Family history draws on many kinds of records, each with its own strengths and blind spots:
- Civil records — government birth, marriage, and death registration (in Portugal, from the late 1800s onward).
- Parish records — baptisms, marriages, and burials kept by the local church; the backbone of older Portuguese genealogy.
- Census & parish rolls — population lists such as the rol de confessados that place a family in a village at a moment in time.
- Immigration & passenger records — ship manifests and arrival records that trace emigration to Brazil, the Americas, and elsewhere.
- Oral history — first-hand testimony from relatives, carefully attributed and dated.
- Cemetery records — headstones, burial registers, and grave locations.
- Family bibles — handwritten birth, marriage, and death entries kept at home.
- Photographs — dated and captioned where possible; a photo can confirm a relationship or a place.
- DNA clues — used cautiously, only with the tester's consent and sound interpretation. DNA can support or challenge a paper trail, but it never overrides consent or privacy. We publish no one's genetic data.
Using paid platforms responsibly
About Ancestry and other commercial sites
Commercial genealogy platforms such as Ancestry.com can be genuinely useful for finding research avenues — spotting which record collections might hold a relative, what fields to look for, or where a family might have moved. We treat them as signposts, not as content to copy.
To keep this site lawful and respectful, we follow clear rules:
- We do not copy, scrape, or republish copyrighted text, record images, family trees, record abstracts, or database content from Ancestry or any paid platform.
- We do not reproduce private, paywalled, or other users' submitted content.
- When a paid platform points us toward something, we independently locate and summarise it in our own words, and cite the underlying original record (e.g. "1848 baptism register, Freixo da Serra parish") rather than the platform's paywalled page.
- Anything drawn only from such a platform, and not yet independently confirmed, is marked Unverified and flagged for manual review.
How we cite
Wherever possible, a fact on this site points to the original record behind it: the type of record, the place it was created, and the date or reference. This lets any relative or researcher follow the same trail and check the work for themselves. Where a fact rests only on a family memory, we say so and name who remembered it.
Background information about places and history (for example, the pages about Freixo da Serra and Gouveia) is summarised in our own words from public reference sources, and is meant as context rather than as proof of any individual's ancestry.
Documented sources
The Ludlow, Massachusetts branch
The American (Ludlow) line is labelled Confirmed on the strength of published obituaries, which name the founding parents and the five siblings and give dates and places. These are the sources behind that line, so the labelling is defensible and future researchers can verify or expand on it:
- The family's Ancestry.com member tree — “Guerra Robelo Sala Nkomba Family Tree” (2026), drawing on U.S. census and vital records. The current family tree is imported from this source; it records Antonio J. Guerra's birthplace as Freixo da Serra.
- Obituary of Serafim Lawrence Guerra — ForeverMissed.com online memorial (1926–2019).
- Obituary of John M. Guerra — Ludlow Funeral Home / Legacy.com (2006).
- Obituary of Lourdes (Guerra) Lourenço — The Republican / MassLive (2018); lists the siblings by name.
- Obituary of Grace Fitzsimmons — Legacy.com / Northern Virginia Daily / Valley Funeral Service (2020).
- Obituary of Anthony Lawrence Guerra Sr. — Beltway Cremation Center (2024).
Help us find
Open research questions
These are the questions we are actively working on. If you can help answer any of them — with a record, a document, or a family memory — please share what you know.
Origin parish.Answered Antonio J. Guerra's birthplace is now recorded as Freixo da Serra in the family's Ancestry.com tree. Remaining: locate the original parish baptism to fully corroborate it.- The crossing. Locate ship passenger manifests or Ellis Island records for Antonio and Angela's emigration to the United States.
- Florida? Investigate whether any descendants of this line eventually settled in Florida, as hinted in family tradition (currently unconfirmed).
- Which Angela? Clarify whether “Angela Guerra” in family stories refers to the immigrant matriarch (Angela Rebelo Guerra) or the later-generation Angela Guerra Roelse.