Those were the days: The Soares clan, with friends & neighbors

Vintage photographs from the 1930s and beyond from the family of Victor Faria Soares, Sr. and Rose Raymond Soares of Somerset, Mass., my grandparents. These were digitized by my uncle, Arthur Faria Soares, who also provided me with many stories about my family and his experiences growing up. The children of Rose and Victor Sr. were: Victor Jr., Beatrice, Raymond (my father), and Arthur.

Today I thought I would highlight "The Origin Story;" or such as I know it. This is the family of Manuel Faria Soares, Sr. and Anna Rebello Soares in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, around 1898. We do not know the name of the daughter on the left, but she died in childhood. Anna is holding Victor, my pépère, while Manuel is with Anthony. Anna and Manuel were Azoreans who emigrated to Brazil. They met on the ship, married, and bought a cafe in Rio. This establishment may have been a coffee house, but my father thought it was more of a saloon with rooms for hanky-panky upstairs. Manuel was dead of tuberculosis by 1908; leaving Anna a widow with three sons (Manuel, Jr. was born in 1900). They came to Fall River in 1910. Both my father and Uncle Arthur said they believed Anna had been a schoolteacher in Portugal. Although I have no evidence of that, it's plausible; the house on Sherman Road was filled with books, and everyone in the family loved reading and learning.