So far my new lost cosuin Stevan and I are researching the Ornelas with detail and trying to find documents proving Alvaro from Lagos de Moreno came from Madeira Islands. I got this from rootsweb. but the link to the actual source appears broken. I will upload the will of Alvaro I later in the week I am busy today!
I think thats where it specifically states them being of La Casa Real de Joao I.
-Daniel
O GRANDE
Registao says the family is descended from the king
In the short time of twenty six years after the beginning of Madeira, Port
ugal's colonization, the islanders got themselves involved in the compl
ex dispute for the Canary islands, servicing the master, the Infant Henr
y. Such conditions defined the Madeiran presence in this slave market, eme
rging, in the first half of the fifteenth century, some incursions which r
esulted in the imprisonment of slaves. Of these. three are referred as hav
ing left from Madeira, Portugal (1425, 1427, 1434). Later, with the expedi
tion to the African coast in 1445, the Madeiran Alvaro de Ornelas went o
ff course to the island of La Palma where he took some indigenous to bri
ng to Madeira, Portugal. In the numerous trips organized by the Portugue
se between 1424 and 1446, slaves come, that are later sold in Madeira, Por
tugal or in Lagos
It is said that its first “discoverer” was Jos d' Utra, capitão donatár
io (commander of the province) of Faial, who was also capitão donatár
io of Pico. However, the first capitão donatário of Pico Island was Álva
ro de Ornelas from Madeira, Portugal Island, the son of Lopo Esteves de Do
rnelas and Maria de Ayala e Vasconcelos, relatives of Diogo de Silves, 1
st Count of Portalegre http://www.picoazores.com/english/pico_island/paris
h/ilha_do_pico.php
Grande numero de fazendas de importancia houve o Canico, sobressain
do a de Alvaro de Ornelas. da casa do Infante D. Henrique e navegadoe, q
ue teve em 1465 sesmaria desde a Ponta do garajau are a Ribeira, Seu filh
o, Alvaro de Ornelas Savedra, instituiu com sua segunda mulher Branca Fern
andes de Abreu, o grande morgado chamado Canico, por testamento de mao-com
um, em 1495. http..www.canico-online.com/perspectivahistorica.htm
Heres the rootsweb source:
http://worldconnect.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:33…
