Frank Silva Sr

Frank Silva Sr

Azores, PortugalConfirmed

The Azorean immigrant, June 1863 – 27 November 1946 · new to this record, 14 Sept 2026

Born

June 1863 in "Azores Port"

Died

27 November 1946

Buried

St. Joseph's Cemetery, Fremont / Centerville

Sources

14

Images

10

Life in the order the records give it

Death1946

Died 27 November 1946 at San Jose Hospital, aged 83, after more than fifty years at Mission San José; buried beside his wife at St. Joseph's, Fremont S67S54

Birth1863

Born June 1863 in "Azores Port"

his own line in the 1900 census: age 37, Head of household, married 13 years, arrived in the United States in 1888 S47

Census1910

The 1910 census of the same township puts father and son in one household on one line-pair

Frank Jr entered as Son, age 12, born California of two Portuguese parents — and records him a Foreman in a wine cellar, owning his house free of mortgage, married 23 years S146

Census1930

The 1930 census finds him still in Washington Township, in Mission Precinct, enumerated 7 April 1930

age 66, owning his home, valued $1,000, no radio set, occupation beginning "Farm", with Anna beside him at 61 S147

Arrival1930

🔑 He was naturalised — confirmed. Column 23 of the 1930 sheet reads Na for both him and Anna, in a clean cell. The reading was checked against control glyphs in the same hand on the same rows: the enumerator's capital N in "No" matches it exactly; his capital P in "Portugal" does not resemble it. That corroborates the blotted, unassignable superscript on the 1910 page, which on its own could not say S147S146

Death1930

🆕 Aileane Marie Silva is in his household in 1930, at 11, entered as grand daughter. Her father Frank Jr had died in 1924; her grandparents were raising her. This is the first document placing her in that house. ⚠️ The sheet gives only an age, bracketing her birth to 8 April 1918 × 7 April 1919

no day, no month S147

Census1940

The 1940 census, now read off the image rather than taken from an index, finds him at Mission San Jose in Washington Township

E.D. 1-180, sheet 20-B, line 59, household 481, enumerated 1 May 1940: age 76, Head, Widowed, birthplace "Azores", citizenship Na, home owned and valued $1,000 S149. The 1920 and 1930 returns say "Portugal" S48S49 — the same fact at lower resolution; enumerators commonly wrote the sovereign state.

Census1939

🔑 He owned and ran a grocery store. Occupation Owner, industry Grocery Store, 52 weeks worked in 1939, 48 hours in the census week, no wage line but other income of $50 or more

the signature of a self-employed proprietor. He was a farmer in 1930, so this is a documented change of trade at the age of 76, and it is the record behind the "former farmer and grocer" in his own obituary S149S67

Residence1935

🔑 Residence on 1 April 1935: "Same house." It is the one question no other census asks, and it holds him in that Mission San Jose house continuously from at least 1935 to 1940. With 1900, 1910, 1930 and his son's 1918 draft card, the family is documented in Washington Township without a gap S149S148

Census1920

🔑 The 1920 census puts four of them under one roof. At Mission San Jose Town in Washington Township

E.D. 213, sheet 8-B, lines 59–63, dwelling 131, family 132, enumerated 17 January 1920 — the household is Frank (Head), Anna (Wife), Frank (Son), Mildred entered as Daughter-in-law, and a boarder, Frank Vargas, aged 7. He is a Farmer on a general farm he holds owned, free of mortgage, with the farm-schedule mark in the margin S150

Arrival1895

🔑 It is the first document anywhere that DATES the naturalisation. Every other sheet writes only Na; this one writes immigrated 1895 and naturalised 1904 against both him and Anna. The blotted 1910 cell and the clean Na of 1930 and 1940 are finally given a year S150S146S147

Death1946

Island: Faial Confirmed

his own November 1946 obituary says it in plain words: "He was a native of Fayal, the Azores" S67. Before that it was an inference from the 1896 registers of two Portuguese fraternal lodges at Mission San Jose, UPEC Council No. 10 and IDES Council No. 1, which record a Francisco da Silva, 33, married, farm labourer, island Fayal, with Anna da Silva as his heir; and in the same IDES book in 1914 a Frank Silva, 16, born "Mission", names Anna L. Silva as his mother S64S65. The obituary names the same lodges, the same wife and the same son as those books, so it both settles the island and confirms that the lodge rows are this man. Mission San Jose in 1896–1914 is consistent with every census — none names a town before Niles in 1940 — and with Aileane's own "Mission San" birthplace.

Death1946

Died 27 November 1946 at San Jose Hospital, a resident of Mission San José for more than fifty years, a former farmer and grocer, member of IDES Council No. 1, St. Anthony's Sodality and UPEC S67; buried St. Joseph's Cemetery, Fremont / Centerville

the Portuguese Catholic cemetery of the Mission San Jose district S54

Photograph1908

🆕 Studio portrait, about 1908–1912 Confirmed (family testimony): he, his wife Anna and their son Frank Jr, from the print kept by his great-granddaughter Patricia (Proeger) Collins, who named all three on 1 October 2026: “Frank Da Silva Jr. My mother’s Dad, his Mother and Father Frank Da Silva Senior”. In Photos below.

Family parents, marriages, children, siblings

Marriage2026

🔑 Re-read 22 September 2026: the column reads Foreman, Wine Cellar, wage earner — and in 1910 his wife could speak English and he could not. The column asks whether able to speak English, or, if not, give language spoken; Annie's cell reads English, Frank's Portuguese. Ancestry files hers as Native Tongue: English, the reverse of what the column says. By 1930 both are marked as speaking English S146S147

Marriage1887

Married about 1887–1888, from both sides independently. The 1930 sheet records his age at first marriage as 24 and hers as 19, which agrees with the 12 June 1886 Santa Bárbara, Horta record and with 1910's married 23 years S147

Marriage1940

🔑 Widowed in 1940, and naturalised a third time. Column 13 reads Wd

Anna had died before 1 April 1940 — and column 17 reads Na, agreeing with 1930 and with the blotted 1910 cell S149

Open questions what is probable, weak or missing — confirm or correct it

Open question

⚠️ He is indexed in that census under the Anglicised spelling "Frank Silver", which is why earlier searches for Silva in Alameda County never surfaced him.

Open question

🔴 So a naturalisation file exists, and it is the most valuable document still unheld. He was naturalised in California between the 1900 return, which recorded him alien after twelve years, and 1930. A naturalisation packet carries an arrival date and often the vessel

the one thing four censuses have failed to agree on S147

Open question

⚠️ His year of arrival is not settled, and four censuses give four answers. 1900 says 1888, 1910 says 1887 (for his wife too, where 1900 had said 1895), and the 1930 sheet, read off the image, says 1891 for him and 1899 for her

the spread on her is now eleven years. ⚠️ Both 1930 immigration cells are over-inked and are read at high magnification against clean entries elsewhere on the same page. No year on this page is hardened. Only a passenger manifest or the naturalisation paper can close it S141S146S147

Open question

⚠️ The age columns and the gravestone: one disagreement, not three. Age 45 on 19 April 1910 implies a birth in April 1864×April 1865, against the June 1863 on the stone

a discrepancy, not a correction, because an age column is the enumerator's arithmetic. 🔑 But 1930 does not join it. Enumeration there was 7 April 1930, so age 66 means a birth between 8 April 1863 and 7 April 1864, and June 1863 falls inside that window — that sheet supports the stone. Ancestry's abt 1864 index is subtraction, not a reading. ⚠️ An earlier version of this page said three censuses pointed at 1864; that was our arithmetic and it is withdrawn. None of it settles the year: the 1862 Faial baptism outranks every age column, and 1862 is not 1863 S146S147

Open question

🔴 Four children born, one living. In 1910 Annie is recorded with 4 children born and only 1 living; in 1900 she had two born, two living

Mary, b. August 1896, and Frank. Mary and two further children, unnamed on any sheet held here, died between 1900 and 1910. No names, no dates, no places are on the document and none are supplied S146

Open question

⚠️ The 1940 age column does not settle the birth year either. Age 76 at census day 1 April 1940 brackets the birth to 2 April 1863 × 1 April 1864: June 1863 falls inside that window

and so does part of 1864. The sheet is consistent with the stone and is not an independent witness for either year. Ancestry's abt 1864 is subtraction from the census year, not a reading, and the withdrawn "three censuses" framing is not restored by it S149

Open question

⚠️ Correction: the sheet says Mission San Jose, not Niles. This page previously placed the 1940 return at Niles, following the FamilySearch index of E.D. 1-180 S50. The printed header of the sheet itself gives the township as Washington and the unincorporated place as Mission San Jose. Both lie in Washington Township, a few miles apart; where the sheet and the index differ, the sheet is preferred S149

Open question

⚠️ In 1940 he is enumerated alone

household 481 holds one person — so that document evidences no family relationship at all. He is, however, his own informant: the enumerator's circled informant mark stands beside his name S149

Open question

⚠️ A naturalisation year on a census is a pointer, not a certificate. It points at an Alameda County or federal naturalisation file of about 1904. That file has not been found, and until it is, 1904 is the enumerator's answer and not a recorded date S150

Open question

🔴 Correction stated on the page: his age on this sheet is wrong, and it is rejected here. He is entered as 64 in January 1920; June 1863 makes him 56, and Anna is entered as 62 against 1867, which makes her 52. Both are overstated by eight to ten years. The reason for rejecting them rather than reopening the birth year is on the same five lines of the sheet: the two young adults are exact

Frank Jr at 22 and Mildred at 21 are both right. The error is confined to the two people whose ages an informant would have been guessing, and 1910, 1930 and 1940 all agree with June 1863 once their reference dates are applied S150

Open question

⚠️ Aileane Marie Silva, born August 1918, is not on this sheet

she should be about sixteen months old, and the household runs Head, Wife, Son, Daughter-in-law, Boarder and stops. The record does not explain her absence and no explanation is supplied for it here. She appears in her grandparents' house ten years later, in 1930 S150S147

Open question

⚠️ The 1920 schedule records ages only — no months, no days — and writes "Portugal" as the whole birthplace. Azores and Fayal come from other documents S150S67

Open question

⚠️ A California Death Index entry for a Frank Silva, b. 1 June 1863, d. 27 November 1946 at Santa Barbara shares his birth date and his death date and is not him: the obituary puts this man's death at San Jose Hospital in Alameda County, for which that index is simply incomplete. Recorded here, and deliberately not attached, so that nobody buys the wrong certificate.

Photos & documents 2 photos · 8 documents

Photos (2)

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Documents (8)

Documents · 8 page images all documents

Retrieved from the UNT Libraries' Portal to Texas History, or — for the University of Texas Cactus yearbooks — from Texas ScholarWorks. Each thumbnail opens the full page scan, which can also be downloaded. The quoted text is the OCR that ships with the scan, copied verbatim; the page image is the authority.

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Baptism of Francisco, 9 June 1862 — Santa Bárbara, Horta, Faial

Parish register · 9 June 1862

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Marriage of Francisco da Silva and Anna Luiza do Coração de Jesus, 12 June 1886

Parish register · 12 June 1886

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1900 U.S. Federal Census — Washington Township, Alameda County, California; ED 404, sheet 14 B, dwelling 275, family 278, enumerated 15 June 1900 by Antone Dutre (Ancestry coll. 7602, records 36140336 and 36140335 — one sheet, two hints, one pull; image 4118417_00621) · full resolution 3700 × 3708 px, DeepZoom level 12, 64/64 tiles — page sheet 14B, lines 73–78

Federal census · 15 June 1900

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1910 U.S. Federal Census — Washington Township, Alameda County, California; Supervisor's District 3, ED 158, sheet 4 B, dwelling 86, family 91, Vallejo Street, enumerated 19 April 1910 (Ancestry coll. 7884, records 939010 and 181169056 — one sheet, two hints, one pull; image 31111_4327262-00314) · full resolution 4042 × 2746 px, DeepZoom level 12, 48/48 tiles — page sheet 4B, lines 93–95

Federal census · 19 April 1910

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1920 United States Federal Census - Mission San Jose Town, Washington Township, Alameda County, California; S.D. 5, E.D. 213, Sheet 8 B, lines 59-63, dwelling 131, family 132; enumerated 17 January 1920 (Ancestry coll. 6061, record 3289996; image 4293692-00489) - full resolution 4000 x 2896 px, DeepZoom level 12, 48/48 tiles — page dwelling 131 / family 132, lines 59-63

Federal census · 1 January 1920

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1930 U.S. Federal Census — Washington Township, **Mission Precinct**, Alameda County, California; Enumeration District 1-349, Supervisor's District 8, sheet 2 B, dwelling 43, family 43, enumerated 7 April 1930 by "Iny W. Cull" (Ancestry coll. 6224, record 88915983; image 4532332_00361) · full resolution 3932 × 2844 px, DeepZoom level 12, 48/48 tiles — page sheet 2B, lines 78–80

Federal census · 7 April 1930

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1940 United States Federal Census — Washington Township, **Mission San Jose**, Alameda County, California; E.D. 1-180, S.D. 6, Sheet 20-B, line 59, household 481; enumerated 1 May 1940 by Joseph Fonte (Ancestry coll. 2442, record 68940180; image m-t0627-00191-00688, NARA T627 roll 191) · full resolution 7162 x 5402 px, DeepZoom level 13, 154/154 tiles — page line 59, enumerated alone

Federal census · 1 May 1940

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“Frank Silva Dies at Mission San Jose” — Oakland Tribune, 28 Nov 1946, p. 22

Obituary · 28 November 1946

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In the record Generation 5 — the immigrants and the frontier

1. S47US Census, 1900 — Washington Township, ED 404, Alameda County, California; household 278, sheet 14B line 75. FamilySearch ark:/61903/1:1:M9P7-T13. The single most important document on the Silva line. Frank Sr: age 37, born June 1863, birthplace "Azores Port", arrival 1888, Head, married 13 years — and his own father's and mother's birthplace, both "Azores Port," which is the sixth generation. His wife Annie, 34, "Azores Port"; daughter Mary, 4; son Frank, 3, California. ⚠️ Indexed under the Anglicised spelling "Frank Silver", which is why he was invisible to earlier searches.
2. S48US Census, 1920 — Washington Judicial Township (originally Washington, ED 213), Alameda County; household 132, sheet 8B line 62. FamilySearch ark:/61903/1:1:MH38-KY1. Frank Silva, 22, married, born California 1898, relationship to head of household: "Son", both parents born Portugal; in the household with "Mildresk" Silva, born 1899 California — an OCR mangling of Mildred. The relationship column is what makes the father–son link a record rather than an inference from a "Jr" on a headstone.
3. S49US Census, 1930 — Washington, ED 349, Alameda County. FamilySearch ark:/61903/1:1:XCX2-4JJ (Aileen) and 1:1:XCX2-4JF (Frank Sr, Head, age 66). Aileen Silva, age 11, relationship to head: "Granddaughter", father's and mother's birthplace both California — which matches Frank T. Silva and Mildred A. Rose exactly and rules the Azores-born generation out as her parents. Her father had died in December 1924. 🔑 Re-served 22 September 2026 under Anna's hint; the image-level reading and its supplement are at [S147].
4. S50US Census, 1940 — Washington Judicial Township, Niles, ED 1-180, Alameda County. FamilySearch ark:/61903/1:1:K9Q4-7JC. Frank Silva, age 76, birthplace "Azores", Head, Widowed, residence in 1935 "Same House." The second of two federal enumerations forty years apart that name the archipelago — and, like the first, it names no island. Niles is a few miles from Mission San Jose, which is the "Mission San" birthplace on Aileane's own NUMIDENT.
5. S54Find a Grave Index — three consecutive ARKs from one cemetery transcription batch at Saint Josephs Cemetery, Fremont / Centerville, Alameda County: Frank Silva (Sr) 1863–1946 1:1:QVVZ-XNZK, Anna L. Silva 1868–1938 1:1:QVVZ-XNZ6, Frank Silva, Jr 1897–1924 1:1:QVVZ-XNZ2. St. Joseph's is the Portuguese Catholic cemetery of the Mission San Jose district. All three are flagged "Photograph Included," which is the cheapest unexplored route to the island. ⚠️ Indexing artefact: FamilySearch's place authority wrongly normalises Frank Jr's Event Place to "Saint Josephs Cemetery, Preemption, Mercer, Illinois"; the Event Place (Original) on the same record reads "Fremont, Alameda, California." There is no Illinois connection.
6. S64UPEC Council No. 10 "Amor do Proximo", Mission San Jose — membership register, 1891–1913. União Portuguesa do Estado da California; PDF scan of the LDS microfilm hosted by Azores GenWeb, file mission-san-jose_2-10.pdf (the file is Council No. 10 only, despite its name). Page 21, member No. 66, February 1896: Francisco da Silva, 33, lavrador, [M.S.J.], Paiz Fayal — a struck Portugal beneath; page 22, heir certificate 2223: Anna da Silva. Re-read at 200 dpi on 15 September 2026. The first record of any kind to name an island for this family. Age within a year of Frank Sr's June 1863, a farmer, wife Anna, in the family's township. Probable, not Confirmed: the row carries no birth date, no parish and no parents, and "Francisco da Silva" is a common name in this colony. It is read with S65, not alone.
7. S65IDES Council No. 1, Mission San Jose — membership register, book 2, 1889–1946. Irmandade do Divino Espírito Santo; PDF scan of the LDS microfilm hosted by Azores GenWeb, file ides_council_1_bk2.pdf. Page 21, member No. 178 (admitted 15 November 1896, suspended 3 October 1897): Francisco da Silva, 33, cazado, trabalhador, mission San Jose, Naturalidade Faial. Page 79, member No. 220, 5 April 1914: Frank Silva, 16, [solteiro], [trabalhador], San Jose / Mission, Naturalidade Mission; page 80, heir certificate 16362: Anna L. Silva, Mãi (mother), San Jose / Mission. Re-read at 200 dpi on 15 September 2026. The 1896 row is the same man as S64 in the neighbouring lodge — same name, age, town, marital state and island. The 1914 row is Frank T. Silva Jr: 16 in April 1914 fits 2 December 1897 exactly, he is California-born ("Mission"), and he names Anna L. Silva — the exact form on her death index and headstone — as his mother, in the same book. That pairing is what made Faial a strong inference from these books alone; neither book carries a birth date, so neither settles it. His 1946 obituary [S67] does, and it names these same two lodges — which is also what confirms that these rows are him.
8. S67Frank Silva Sr — obituary, November 1946. Syndicated death notice datelined Mission San Jose, Nov. 28, retrieved 15 September 2026 as two independent OCR captures of the same text on Newspapers.com (Publisher Extra, via Ancestry All Access), image ids 205259611 and 205515816. "Frank Silva, 83, resident of this community for more than 50 years and former farmer and grocer, died at the San Jose Hospital yesterday… interment will be at St. Joseph's Cemetery… He was a native of Fayal, the Azores, and was a member of IDES Lodge No. 1, St. Anthony's Sodality and the UPEC Lodge. He was the husband of the late Anna L. Silva, the foster father of Frank S. Vargas, father of the late Frank Silva Jr. and Mamie Silva and grandfather of Aileen Roberts of Philadelphia." The record that confirmed the island. Not one indexed field: it independently corroborates every axis the lodge registers rested on — age 83 (b. ~1863), Mission San José, both lodges, wife Anna L., son Frank Jr — and adds the granddaughter by her married name. The second capture's OCR reads "Azures" for Azores: a scanning slip, not a variant place. It also overturns the "d. Santa Barbara County" reading this page had taken from the California Death Index; the index is simply incomplete for Alameda County.
9. S1411900 U.S. Federal Census — the Frank Silva household, Washington Township, Alameda County, California. Ancestry collection 7602, records 36140336 and 36140335 — one sheet, two hints, one pull — image 4118417_00621. Enumeration District 404, sheet 14 B, dwelling 275, family 278, enumerated 15 June 1900 by Antone Dutre. Read from the image at full resolution — 3700 × 3708 px, 21 September 2026; read-only, nothing accepted, attached or edited. Lines 73–78: Frank Silva, head, 1863, age 36, married 13 years, Farmer, alien, born the Azores of Azorean parents, immigrated 1888, 12 years in the United States; Annie, wife, Jan 1866, age 33, immigrated 1895, 5 years in the United States, 2 children born, 2 living; Mary, daughter, Aug 1896, California; Frank, son, Dec 1898, California; Joe, partner, Mar 1863, arrived 1885; and Antonio S. Escobar, laborer, Dec 1869 the Azores, arrived 1895. The eight-year arrival gap is confirmed on the page and given a shape. His 1888 and her 1895 are both written in the immigration column, and beside them the sheet records married 13 years — about 1887, a year before he emigrated. The reading the image supports is a marriage in the islands, his passage alone in 1888, hers seven years later, and the first child born in California in August 1896. ⚠ That is a reading, not a settled fact: no document here states a marriage place or a separation, and years-married columns are soft. ⚠ Her birth year is not settled by this sheet, and the age column leans against the record. The image reads Jan 1866, but age 33 at the 15 June 1900 date is right for January 1867 and would be 34 for 1866. The sheet contradicts itself by a year and cannot decide between the record's 1866 and the tree's about-1867; her year stays open. Also new: Antonio S. Escobar is in the household and arrived in the same year she did. Escobar is the surname of her father, Thomás Pereira d'Escobar, one generation up; a brother travelling with her is the obvious reading, but the sheet states no relationship — he is entered as Laborer. Not confirmed. The month in Frank's date-of-birth cell is not legible with confidence; the year 1863 and the age 36 are clear and agree. Ancestry indexes the household as "Silver"; the page reads Silva — a transcription artefact, not a name variant.
10. S1461910 U.S. Federal Census — the Frank Silva household, Washington Township, Alameda County, California. Ancestry collection 7884, records 939010 and 181169056 — one sheet, two hints, one pull — image 31111_4327262-00314. Supervisor's District 3, Enumeration District 158, sheet 4 B, dwelling 86, family 91, Vallejo Street, enumerated 19 April 1910. Read from the image at full resolution — 4042 × 2746 px, 48/48 DeepZoom tiles, 21 September 2026. Lines 93–95: Frank Silva, head, age 45, married once, 23 years, Foreman, wine cellar, born Portugal of Portuguese parents, immigrated 1887, mother tongue Portuguese; Annie, wife, age 42, married once, 23 years, 4 children born, 1 living, born Portugal of Portuguese parents, immigrated 1887, mother tongue English; and Frank, son, age 12, single, born California of Portuguese parents. The home is recorded owned, free of mortgage, a house. This sheet settles the household and opens three questions. Father and son are on one document, in one household — Frank Jr is entered as Son, born in California of two Portuguese parents. The two men of the same name are no longer told apart only by the tree's own edges; a census page now does it. His age 12 in April 1910 is consistent with the 2 December 1897 the tree carries, but ⚠ the sheet gives no day and no month and does not independently date his birth. Married 23 years — about 1887 — agrees with the 1900 sheet's thirteen years [S141] and with the 1886 Santa Bárbara, Horta marriage record. ⚠ The arrival year is now four witnesses and four answers, and it is further from settled than before. The 1900 sheet wrote 1888 for him and 1895 for her; this sheet writes 1887 for both; the 1930 sheet, read off the image, writes 1891 for him and 1899 for her [S147]. The disagreement about her is eleven years wide. No date on this site may harden out of these four — only a passenger manifest or a naturalisation paper can close it. ⚠ The naturalisation cell is overwritten and blotted. A superscript that reads as "Na" sits on the rule between lines 92 and 93 and cannot be assigned to either row with confidence, so this page does not say whether he was naturalised by 1910. The 1900 sheet had recorded him alien after twelve years, and the California Voter Register hint that looked like the answer belongs to a different man — that Frank Silva was naturalised in San Francisco in 1874, when ours was eleven and still in the Azores. ⚠ The age column disagrees with the gravestone by about a year. Age 45 at the 19 April 1910 enumeration puts the birth between April 1864 and April 1865, where the tree and the stone carry June 1863. This is recorded as a discrepancy, not a correction: an age column is the enumerator's arithmetic and not a witness to a birth, and the 1862 Santa Bárbara, Faial baptism already held on file outranks it. ⚠ An earlier version of this entry said the 1930 and 1940 returns made it three censuses pointing at 1864. That was our arithmetic, not the record's, and it is withdrawn. The 1930 sheet was enumerated on 7 April 1930 and gives his age as 66, which means a birth between 8 April 1863 and 7 April 1864 — June 1863 falls inside that window, so 1930 supports the gravestone rather than contradicting it [S147]. This 1910 page remains the one age column that genuinely points later. None of it settles the birth year: the 1862 Faial baptism outranks every age column, and 1862 is not 1863 either. ⚠ The hardest new fact on the page is a count, not a name: Annie bore four children and only one was living in April 1910. In 1900 she had two born, two living — Mary, b. August 1896, and Frank. By 1910 only Frank Jr survives. Mary and two further children, unnamed on any sheet held here, died between 1900 and 1910. No names, no dates and no places are on this document, and none are supplied. His occupation has moved from Farmer in 1900 to Foreman in a wine cellar, as a wage earner. As in 1900, Ancestry indexes the household as "Silver"; the page reads Silva — a transcription artefact, not a name variant. 🔑 SUPPLEMENT, 22 September 2026 — re-read under Anna's hint, and three things on the sheet had never been adjudicated. Her own columns read four children born, one living — three children of Frank and Anna Silva died before April 1910 and are named nowhere in this research. Anna could speak English in 1910 and Frank could not: the column asks whether able to speak English, or, if not, give language spoken; her cell reads English, his Portuguese. Ancestry files hers as Native Tongue: English, inverting the column. Frank's occupation reads Foreman, Wine Cellar, wage earner. Both arrivals read 1887 and M1, 23 years puts the marriage at c.1887; the index carries only Anna's year, which is why the conflict with 1930 [S147] never showed in the queue.
11. S1471930 U.S. Federal Census — the Frank Silva household, Washington Township, Mission Precinct, Alameda County, California. Ancestry collection 6224, record 88915983, image 4532332_00361. Supervisor's District 8, Enumeration District 1-349, sheet 2 B, dwelling 43, family 43, enumerated 7 April 1930 by an enumerator signing as "Iny W. Cull" — ⚠ the given name is not confidently legible and is not asserted. Read from the image at full resolution — 3932 × 2844 px, 48/48 DeepZoom tiles, 21 September 2026. Lines 78–80: Frank Silva, head, age 66, 24 at first marriage, born Portugal, immigration 1891, naturalisation Na, occupation beginning "Farm"; Anna, wife, age 61, 19 at first marriage, born Portugal, immigration 1899, naturalisation Na; and Aileen, grand daughter, age 11, born California of California-born parents. The home is owned, valued $1,000, with no radio set. Both adults are recorded able to read, write and speak English, mother tongue Portuguese. 🔑 This sheet answers the naturalisation question the 1910 page could not. Column 23 reads Na — naturalised — for both Frank and Anna, in a clean, unblotted cell. That is not a guess at a smudge: the capital was checked against control glyphs in the same hand on the same rows — the enumerator's capital N in "No" (col. 16) is a flat-topped crossbarred loop and matches the cell exactly, while his capital P in "Portugal" (col. 18) is a tall open ascender with a closed bowl and does not resemble it. The 1910 sheet's blotted, unassignable superscript [S146] is now corroborated from an independent document. 🔴 The consequence is a document we do not yet hold: a naturalisation file exists. He was naturalised in California somewhere between the 1900 return, which recorded him alien after twelve years, and this one. A naturalisation packet carries an arrival date and very often the vessel, and is now the single highest-value unpulled record for this family. 🔑 Age 66 is consistent with June 1863 and does not point at 1864. Ancestry indexes this record abt 1864 by subtracting 66 from 1930, but enumeration was 7 April, so age 66 means a birth between 8 April 1863 and 7 April 1864 — and the June 1863 on the gravestone falls inside that window. ⚠ The earlier framing on this site that "three censuses agree on about 1864" was an artefact of index arithmetic and has been withdrawn [S146]. It does not settle the birth year in the other direction either: the 1862 Santa Bárbara, Faial baptism outranks every age column, and 1862 is not 1863. 🆕 Ages at first marriage — 24 and 19 — put the marriage at about 1887–1888 from each side independently, agreeing with the 12 June 1886 Santa Bárbara, Horta record and with 1910's married 23 years. 🆕 Aileane Marie Silva is in this household at age 11, entered as grand daughter — her grandparents were raising her after Frank Jr died in 1924. This is the first document placing her in that house. ⚠ The sheet gives only an age, which brackets her birth to 8 April 1918 × 7 April 1919; it gives no day and no month. 🔴 And the arrival year got worse for the second sheet running: four witnesses, four answers. 1900 → him 1888, her 1895; 1910 → 1887 for both; this sheet → him 1891, her 1899. The spread on her is now eleven years. ⚠ Both 1930 immigration cells are over-inked — the second digit of each has filled in — and 1891/1899 are read at DeepZoom level 12 against the clean 1877 and 1907 entries elsewhere on the same page as controls; Ancestry's index also reads 1891. No date on this site may harden into a settled arrival year. Another census cannot close this; a manifest or the naturalisation file can. ⚠ Frank Silva Jr is absent, as expected — he died in 1924, which is what makes this sheet Frank Sr by definition rather than by inference. 🔑 SUPPLEMENT, 22 September 2026 — the sheet contradicts itself, and that is why it cannot simply be preferred. Frank 1891, Anna 1899 in the immigration column, eight years apart on consecutive lines — and on the same lines age at first marriage 24 against 66, and 19 against 61, which both put the marriage at c.1888, before either arrival. Either the arrival years are wrong, or the couple married in the Azores and emigrated separately, husband first — a reading this sheet raises and cannot settle. Open question; review queue. A passenger list or the naturalisation petitions (both are marked Na) would close it.
12. S148World War I draft registration card — Frank Silva Jr., 12 September 1918, Mission San Jose, Alameda County, California. Ancestry collection 6482, record 29586428, image 005240885_02265. Local Board for Division No. 2, County of Alameda, Hayward, California; serial 939, order A 2696; the third and final WWI registration. Read from the image at full resolution — 3048 × 1464 px, 18/18 DeepZoom tiles, 21 September 2026; the image carries both sides side by side, the Registration Card and the Registrar's Report. 🔑 A full birth date for Frank Jr in his own hand: "4. Date of birth: Dec. 2, 1897", on a form he signed beneath the printed affirmation "I affirm that I have verified above answers and that they are true." Everything else this site holds for that date is an index or a gravestone. ⚠ It is a SELF-REPORTED date on a form the subject signed, not a birth register — evidence of a different kind from a baptism or a civil birth entry, and it is not written up as though it were one. ⚠ The arithmetic on the card agrees with itself, which is the reason to trust it as far as it goes: age 20 at 12 September 1918 brackets the birth to 13 September 1897 × 12 September 1898, and 2 December 1897 sits inside that window. 🔑 Box 10, NATIVE BORN, is ticked; boxes 11 (Naturalized) and 12 (Citizen by Father's Naturalization Before Registrant's Majority) are empty, as are both alien boxes. Frank Jr was a citizen by birth — independent of, and consistent with, the Na recorded against his parents in 1930 [S147]. 🆕 The first document in which Frank Jr himself names Mildred. Questions 19/20, nearest relative: "Wife Mildred Silva", at his own address. That dates the marriage to before 12 September 1918, consistent with Aileane's 1918 birth. 🆕 First occupation and employer on any document for him: Laborer, Ritchie Bros Co., Mission San Jose. 🆕 Physical description: medium height, medium build, gray eyes, brown hair, no disqualifying injury. His permanent home address is Mission San Jose — the family's township in 1900, 1910 and 1930, with no gap. ⚠ The card gives no birthplace. The revised Form No. 1 records citizenship status but not the town or state of birth, so Native Born fixes the country and nothing finer; California comes from the 1920 and 1930 censuses, not from here. ⚠ Frank Sr appears nowhere on the document — the father/son link is not evidenced by this card and continues to rest on the census sheets already cited. ⚠ The serial is read as 939 with a soft final digit, and the registrar's signature was not confidently legible and is not transcribed.
13. S1491940 U.S. Federal Census — Frank Silva, Mission San Jose, Washington Township, Alameda County, California. Ancestry collection 2442, record 68940180, image m-t0627-00191-00688 (NARA T627, roll 191). Supervisor's District 6, Enumeration District 1-180, Sheet 20-B, line 59, household 481, enumerated 1 May 1940 by an enumerator signing as "Joseph Fonte". Read from the image at full resolution — 7162 × 5402 px, 154/154 DeepZoom tiles, 21 September 2026. Silva, Frank, Head, M, W, age 76, Wd — widowed, attended school no, highest grade completed 3, birthplace Azores, citizenship Na, residence on 1 April 1935: Same house; at work in the week of 24–30 March 1940, 48 hours; occupation Owner, industry Grocery Store; 52 weeks worked in 1939, no wages, and other income of $50 or more: yes. Home owned, valued $1,000, not a farm. 🔑 He owned and ran a grocery store. Owner / Grocery Store, 52 weeks in 1939, 48 hours in the census week, no wage line but other income of $50 or more — the exact signature of a self-employed proprietor. In 1930 he was a farmer [S147], so this is a documented change of trade between 1930 and 1940, at the age of 76, and it is the first document to give him a business of his own. His 1946 obituary calls him "a former farmer and grocer" [S67]; this sheet is the record behind the second half of that phrase. 🔑 Widowed. Column 13 reads Wd. Anna L. Silva had died before 1 April 1940 — the tree carries 17 December 1938 — and this is the first census in which he appears without her. 🔑 Residence on 1 April 1935: Same house. It is the one question no other census asks, and it puts him in this Mission San Jose house continuously from at least 1935 to 1940. With the 1900, 1910 and 1930 sheets and his son's 1918 draft card [S148], the family's documented centre of gravity is Washington Township, Alameda County, without a gap. 🔑 Naturalised, a third time. Column 17 reads Na, agreeing with 1930 and with the blotted 1910 entry [S146]. ⚠ He is enumerated ALONE. Household 481 holds one person; line 60 opens a new household. No parents, no spouse and no children appear on the line, so this document evidences no relationship at all — every family link on his card continues to rest on the sources already cited there. He is, however, his own informant: the enumerator's circled informant mark sits beside his name, so the answers on this line are Frank Silva's own. ⚠ The sheet gives an AGE, not a date, and it does not decide 1863 against 1864. Age 76 at census day 1 April 1940 brackets the birth to 2 April 1863 × 1 April 1864. June 1863 falls inside that window — and so does part of 1864. It is consistent with the gravestone and is not an independent witness for either year. Ancestry indexes it abt 1864 by subtracting 76 from 1940, which ignores the census day, exactly as it did on the 1930 sheet. ⚠ The withdrawn framing is not restored. The claim that three censuses agreed on about 1864 was our own arithmetic and was withdrawn [S146]; this sheet does not bring it back. ⚠ Birthplace reads only "Azores" — an archipelago, not a parish. The 1862 Santa Bárbara, Faial baptism already on file is finer than anything this column can give. ⚠ The place on the sheet is Mission San Jose, not Niles. The FamilySearch index of this same enumeration district labels it Niles [S50]; the printed header of the sheet itself gives the township as Washington and the unincorporated place as Mission San Jose. Both are in Washington Township and a few miles apart; where they differ, the sheet is preferred over the index, and the earlier "at Niles" reading on this site is corrected. ⚠ Line 58, immediately above him, is struck through and annotated "Omitted By Error" — a voided line, not a lost household. ⚠ The street-name column is a vertical entry running above his line and was not read confidently for line 59; his house-number cell is blank. ⚠ The enumerator's surname is read as Fonte with less confidence than the given name, and the education cell is read as the third grade from a single digit with no further qualifier. Nothing on the page depends on either.
14. S1501920 U.S. Federal Census — Frank Silva household, Mission San Jose Town, Washington Township, Alameda County, California. Ancestry collection 6061, record 3289996, image 4293692-00489. Supervisor's District 5, Enumeration District 213, Sheet 8-B, lines 59–63, dwelling 131, family 132, enumerated 17 January 1920 against a census reference date of 1 January 1920. Read from the image at full resolution — 4000 × 2896 px, 48/48 DeepZoom tiles, 21 September 2026. 🔑 The whole household stands in one frame: Silva, Frank, Head, M, W, 64, married, immigrated 1895, Na 1904, born Portugal, Farmer, general farm; Anna, Wife, 62, immigrated 1895, Na 1904, Portugal; Frank, Son, 22, married, born California, Laborer, general work; Mildred, Daughter-in-law, 21, married, born California; and Vargas, Frank, Boarder, 7. Tenure O F — owned, free of mortgage — with the farm-schedule mark in the left margin. 🔑 This is the first and only document that places Frank Jr and Mildred under his parents’ roof, and it is the sheet behind the "Mildresk" index entry carried on her card — now read rather than indexed. 🔑 It is also the first document anywhere on this record to DATE the naturalisation. Every other sheet writes only Na; this one writes 1904 for both of them, and 1895 as the year of immigration. ⚠ A naturalisation year on a census is a pointer, not a certificate — it points at an Alameda County or federal naturalisation file of about 1904, which has not been found. 🔑 Frank Sr was a farmer here and a grocer in 1940 [S149]; the change of trade is now documented at both ends rather than inferred. ⚠ WHAT THIS SHEET GETS WRONG, STATED PLAINLY: the two parents’ ages are overstated by eight to ten years. Frank Sr is entered as 64; June 1863 makes him 56. Anna is entered as 62; 1867 makes her 52. These cells are rejected here, and the reason is on the same five lines: the two young adults are exact. Frank Jr at 22 is right for 2 December 1897 on 1 January 1920, and Mildred at 21 is right for July 1898. The enumerator was not systematically careless — the error is confined to the two people whose ages an informant would have been guessing. The 1910, 1930 and 1940 sheets all agree with June 1863 once their reference dates are applied [S146][S147][S149]. The 64 is recorded on this page and rejected on this page. ⚠ Aileane Marie Silva, born August 1918, is NOT on this sheet. She should be about sixteen months old. The household runs Head, Wife, Son, Daughter-in-law, Boarder and stops. This record does not explain her absence and no explanation is invented for her here. ⚠ The 1920 census records ages only — no months, no days. ⚠ "Portugal" is the whole birthplace on this sheet; Azores and Fayal come from other documents [S67]. ⚠ The enumerator’s signature is read as Anna A. Solon with low confidence, and the boarder’s age is a single glyph read as 7. ⚠ The boarder is entered as Boarder, not as kin; no relationship to this family is claimed for him. 🔑 SUPPLEMENT, 22 September 2026 — re-served under Anna's hint (rid 3289995) and re-read at full resolution. The street is Vallejo Street, written in the street column; the farm-schedule number is 79, a line on the 1920 agricultural schedule for E.D. 213 not yet sought; Frank Sr answers Yes to speaking English in 1920, where in 1910 he did not [S146]; Mildred's father and mother are both born in Portugal on her own line. ⚠ Anna's age reads 62 on the image, not the index's 52; the rejection of this sheet's ages stands. ⚠ The arrival year here is 1895 for both — a fourth answer; no arrival year is published as settled.