Chapter 11: The Tree
One Hundred Years
On February 16, 2019, nearly one hundred years after Antonio Bento came to America from Cape Verde, Julian received a Facebook message from a stranger named Denise Adusei.1
She had been researching Cape Verdean history on Ancestry.com and was looking for her grand-uncle Antonio Bento’s family tree — lost after he left Cape Verde for America in 1914.
The Whole Story
In an hour-plus phone conversation, Julian heard about uncles and aunts, great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents, cousins in New Bedford, Providence, and around the world.1
“After all these years with no connection to the history of our family — here comes the whole story, all the way back to Portugal and Africa.”
The Timeline
Antonio arrived in New Bedford in 1914. Barbara died of a heart attack in 1942 — before any grandchildren were born. The children scattered along the railroad line: New Bedford, Fall River, New Rochelle, Port Chester. Antonio died in 1984. Mary in 1989. Anna in 1993. Manuel in 2012.1
Nearly a hundred years of American life. Fourteen children in one generation. Scattered, detached, disconnected. Then a stranger on the internet put the pieces back together in one phone call.
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