Question about a surname. portuguese????

Question

okay, i'm doinmy "hereditary research" and i've gotton as far back as 2 generations. i'm trying to find out if "Caturra" (my great grandmothers maden name) is portugese. can you gimmie some info about that please. thanks.

Answer 1

Never try searching by where a surname "supposedly" is/ is not. Names are not limited to one place of origin.  Ancestry.com has 2 entries for the name as you spell it, and both are immigrants from Italy.

Trace the PERSON.  Look for a valid record (death certificate? census? ) that proves who her parents were. Then find the record to confirm them as persons.  

I don't see the name AS YOU SPELL IT in the census. It may be entered with a wrong spelling, and it could be that she immigrated after 1930, which is the latest census open. You need to document her death, which is a more recent event, and build on that.

Answer 2

Caturra is almost definitely portuguese.

A Caturra is a bird from the crow family, many portuguese have names of animals, plants and trees because they were of jewish origin. In the early 1500's when the Inquisition arrived in Portugal there were thousands of portuguese jews who were converted to catholicism by force and their jewish name was substituted by those names of animals, trees, etc. That's why there are so  many Oliveiras (olive tree), Pereiras (pear tree), etc.

By the way, Portugal is one of the european countries with the richest family archives, mainly from churches where the baptisms, funerals and marriages were registered at least since the 12th century.