An actual tree, and you can fly through it
Degrees are counted the way Portuguese nationality law counts them: steps up the direct line. That number matters later.
drag · scroll or pinch · arrow keys walk the generations
Fan shows the shape of the family; chart lays it out as a conventional pedigree, and the nodes travel between the two. The trunk is a single line: you, your father, your grandfather. It only forks at Antone Bee, because that is as far as the maternal lines have been traced. Above him it doubles every generation and turns almost entirely Madeiran. Each ring out is one generation back and roughly twice as wide, so zooming out at a steady rate walks you back through time at a steady rate. Names fade in when a generation is close enough to read.
Where the name changed
The family told two stories: that the name was once Barboza, and that the family came from Cabo Verde. Both are true, and both are on paper.
The marriage record, 1920
Territory of Hawai‘i, Record of Marriage no. 1598. Licence issued 19 April 1920, ceremony at St Agnes Church, Honolulu.
“Full name of groom: Manoel Bee, alias Barboza”
Age 59. Nationality Portuguese. Birthplace Cape Verde. Father Antonio Barboza, mother Maria de Pina, both born Cape Verde. The bride, Christina Baptista née Vieirra Cabral, birthplace Madeira, her father João Vieirra Cabral and mother Antónia de Gouveia, both Madeira.
Image via Find a Grave memorial 291934475 · indexed by FamilySearch as “Manoel Bee Alias Barboza”, Hawaii Marriages 1826-1922
The passenger list, 1890
Printed passenger list signed by H. H. Smyth, Master of the S.S. Pele, dated 1 November 1890. Kingdom of Hawai‘i, eight years before annexation.
Manuel Bee · Laborer · Cape de Verde
He is already Bee here, on his own crossing, with no Barboza anywhere on the document. Whatever happened to the name had happened before he reached Hawai‘i.
Hawaii, Collector of Customs, Ships’ Passenger Manifests, 1843-1900 · FamilySearch ark 1:1:ZFXZ-M5MM
The obituary, August 1928
Honolulu newspaper notice on his death at Queen’s Hospital.
“Born in Cape Verde, Portugal, Bee was 70 years old and came to Hawaii 40 years ago, making his home in Honolulu the past 35 years.”
He lived at 1730 Houghtailing Road, Kalihi. Buried in the South King Street Catholic cemetery. Survived by his widow, Mrs Christina Bee.
Clipping via Find a Grave memorial 291934475 · source paper not yet identifiedOne parish, three hundred years
An eight-generation pull from the FamilySearch shared tree returns 211 ancestors. The overwhelming majority were born in a single Madeiran parish.
- b. 1863Christina de Gouveia
Santo António da Serra · the one who sailed - b. 1816João Vieira Cabral
Santo António da Serra, Santa Cruz - b. 1783Manuel Vieira de Freitas
Santa Cruz, Madeira - b. 1750Maria Baptista
Santa Cruz · d. 21 February 1796 - b. 1706Manuel “Maquino” Vieira
Santa Cruz, Madeira - b. 1672Sebastião Vieira Flamengo
Santa Cruz · d. 23 July 1771, aged about 99 - b. 1643João Vieira
Santa Cruz, Madeira - b. c.1635Gaspar Vieira
Santa Cruz · the earliest named ancestor on the line
This is one thread pulled from a much wider tree. The full list of all 211, with dates, places and FamilySearch identifiers, is held in the research file rather than reproduced here.
What the family became
The Bee Sisters
Genoa Keawe
The Adolpho line is Mexican
Why none of this yields one
There is no Portuguese citizenship claim on this line.
Not for lack of Portuguese ancestry. Cabo Verde was Portuguese territory until 1975 and Madeira still is, so Manoel Barboza and Christina de Gouveia were both Portuguese nationals, and their 1920 marriage record says so in terms.
The problem is distance. Portuguese law caps nationality by descent at the second degree in the direct line, meaning a grandparent.
Manoel and Christina sit at the fourth degree. Two generations too far.
There is a second reason the chain breaks even earlier. In 1901 the governing law was the Civil Code of 1867, under which a child born abroad to a Portuguese father was not automatically Portuguese. Nationality vested only if the family took up domicile in Portugal or filed a declaration. Antone was born on American soil at Pepeekeo in 1900 and neither happened, so nothing passed down to 1935.
One provision does reach further. Article 6(8) allows discretionary naturalisation for a third-degree descendant of Portuguese-born nationals. Counting from Dino rather than Jordan, Manoel and Christina are exactly third degree, so Dino fits the descent test where Jordan misses it by one generation. It is discretionary, it is naturalisation rather than nationality by origin, and it still requires five years of legal residence in Portugal. Worth knowing. Not a plan.
What is not settled
A family page that only shows the tidy findings is a worse page. These are the open conflicts and the things still unproven.
- Antone’s birth is contested. FamilySearch carries eleven sources for 12 July 1900 at Pepeekeo. A 1994 family group record says 4 July 1901 at North Kona. Find a Grave says 1900. The weight favours 1900 and Pepeekeo, and a plantation village fits a labourer father, but it is unresolved.
- The 1890 manifest’s direction is unproven. The Hawaii customs series covers sailings both ways and the handwritten header is illegible. FamilySearch reads it as immigration. The part that does not depend on direction, and the part that matters here, is that the name written on it is Bee.
- The story about the mob is unverified. Family lore holds that the name was changed while running from organised crime. The Honolulu papers of the period were searched in full (the Star-Bulletin, the Hawaiian Gazette, the Hawaiian Star, the Pacific Commercial Advertiser and the Independent) and nothing supports it. That archive stops around 1922 and a private name change would not necessarily be reported, so this is a weak negative rather than a disproof.
- The 1920 marriage was the second for both. Antone was born nineteen years earlier. The tree records Christina as his mother, which makes the ceremony a formalisation rather than a first union, but the certificate’s “second marriage” markings sit awkwardly with that.
- A hand-drawn chart from 2018 is partly wrong above Antone. It attached Christina’s mother’s surname to Christina herself, and names two ancestors, Agostinho de Gouveia and Ann de Nobrega, who do not match the marriage record. It was useful for its FamilySearch identifiers and little else.
- Still unread: Manoel’s WWI draft registration card and his death certificate, both attached to his FamilySearch profile. The draft card states citizenship, which would settle whether he ever naturalised.