Manuel Correa Silva was born Nov 16, 1867 at Covas, Graciosa, Azores and immigrated April 22, 1882 at the age of 15

That supports the family lore that he came as a stow away.  I can find no records of him on any passenger lists of the time.

His age and DOB vary from document to document but my best guess is that 11/16/1867 is the correct date.

The first record I can find is from the 1883 City Directory, a year after he arrived, where he is listed as a hairdresser and boards at 111 South Water St.  He would have been only sixteen or seventeen at that time.

In most of the documents I have found, he self identifies as a barber, but the city directories often list him as a hairdresser.

He was married to Anne or Annie in 1886. Anne arrived before he did in 1881. She is older than him, born in May, 1864. This is from the 1900 Census

So, here is my romanticized theory.  Anne probably came over with her parents a year or two before Manuel.  He came as a fifteen year old stowaway.  I'm guessing that he ran away from home as a lovesick teenager to find his girlfriend in America.

The 1890 census is not available, records were lost in a fire.

In 1900 they lived at 67 Acushnet Ave. in New Bedford
They rented and there were at least 4 other families at that address
He was a barber and had been out of work for three months in 1900
He could read, write and speak English, Anne could speak English but not read or write.

They had 4 children
Mary, Born Mar 1887
Anna, Born Feb 12,1891
Manuel Jr., Born Feb 3,1894
Charles N., Born June 14, 1899

Here I will use Anne for the mother and Anna for the daughter.

Mary married Edmund Burke on Feb. 8, 1906.  She was a music teacher in Boston, he was a machinist in Tremont.

Anna married John Key on Oct. 25, 1915.  He was a salesman and she was a clerk.

In early June of 1894, Manuel, his wife Annie, and their two children Mary and Annie visited the old country and the passport application has his birth date and immigration date which I assume is the most accurate.

Anne died on 12/22/1909 of "Aortic Regurgitation" a heart valve problem.  She was buried on 12/24/1909 (Christmas Eve) at St John's Cemetery. They lived at 121 Fair St.
After Anne died, apparently Mary and Edmund and their three year old daughter Dorothy moved in with Manuel and the rest of the kids at 121 Fair St. per the 1910 census.

Manuel Jr. was an optometrist in New Bedford and later in Providence.  He was married to Harriet or Hattie.  I have become convinced that Manuel was Uncle Steve, though I have no idea why he would use a different name.

Charles started as a clerk in 1917 at 639 County St. and lived at home at 121 Fair St.  By 1923 he is a druggist at the same store and is married to Katherine.  He lives at 65 Borden.
In 1930 he has his own drug store at 492 Pleasant and lives at 366 Hawthorne.  However, the 1930 census shows him living at 406 Hawthorne.

By 1937, I can find no further record of Charles and 492 Pleasant St is vacant.

In the 1920 census, Manuel owned the house at 121 Fair St. without a mortgage.  He was 52. He is married to Laura (Dad's mother).His mother-in-law Mary Dimendos also lives there. I cannot find any reference to the name Dimendos anywhere else.

The story of Laura (or Laurentina) is very interesting.

Laura is related to Anne, vovoo's first wife.  I'm not sure of the exact relationship, but they shared the same maiden name, Menconca and came from the same small village of Covas, Graciosa..

In June of 1908, well before Anne's death, Manuel returned from Graciosa on the S.S. Romanic with Laurentina, age 21, her mother Maria Victorino Mendonca, age 60, her brother Philipe de Mendonca, age 18, and her sister Maria Mendonca, age 14.

In the ship's list of passengers, Manuel lists his local contact as his Aunt and Sister-in-law Maria Victorino at Covas, Graciosa, Azores.

Did you know that Dad visited the "Old Country"?  In 1925, when he was 4 years old.  There is a passport application (with a photo) and a ship's passenger record showing their return via Providence.

In the 1930 census Manuel, Laura and their son Leonard lived at 317 Bedford St.  He owned the house without a mortgage which is valued at $7000. 315-317 Bedford St is a duplex. The other side rents for $50.00 per month. He is a barber and she does not work.

The home at 121 Fair St. was built in 1903.  It would be interesting to know if he was the first owner.

The home at 315-317 Bedford St. was built in 1922 as a duplex,  Again, I wonder if he built it.

In 1943 (the year I was born) he lived at 43 Buttonwood Rd, South Dartmouth Rented, I remember that house. He was retired.
In 1955 he lived at 14 Columbia St.  I spent a lot of time there.

He died sometime between 1956 and 1958, just from my memory.  Laura died within a year or so.  She lived with us on Seabury St for a while then to a nursing home.  She had pretty severe senile dementia.

I have City Directories from the period that confirm the addresses, but not much more.

The birth dates and immigration dates on the census records don't seem too accurate and change with each census.  The most accurate information I found came from passport applications. That could have been because he was covering up for how he came to the country.

Memories

I spent a lot of time with Vovo and vovoo in my early years, almost from birth to around 4 years old when we moved to Dartmouth.  After that, I often overnighted there until I was about ten or eleven.

Writing this has triggered some memories of those early days.

I vaguely remember them living on Buttonwood road in a white house but that's about all.

Later they moved to 14 Columbia Street and that's what I remember most.

Vovoo would take me shopping with him, I'm quite sure we walked everywhere so it must have been fairly close.

I remember walking by a store front that had a large Western Union clock and he would set his pocket watch from that every week.

I remember the chicken store.  He would pick a live chicken from a wooden cage.  They would take it into the back room and slaughter it there.  I remember a large, maybe four foot rotating wooden drum with what looked like black hoses about six inches log sticking out all over it.  They would hold the scalded chicken against the drum and it would remove all the feathers.

I remember home made linguica, about three to four feet long hanging behind the kitchen stove in the winter.

I remember vovo making Portuguese bread every week.  I don't think they ever had store bought bread.