South of the Cannons

The Portuguese Families of Stonington, Connecticut Compiled by Henrietta Mello Mayer

Portuguese families took root in Stonington, Connecticut, over 170 years ago, when sailors from the Azores shipped aboard Yankee whalers and landed in America to stay. Over the years, hundreds of other Azoreans followed, rearing their families and working as fishermen, shop owners, builders, dressmakers, railroad conductors, ice merchants. South of the Cannons focuses on the heart of this community, the compact neighborhood near Stonington Borough’s Cannon Square. This is where Henrietta Mello Mayer, her relatives, friends, and children, were born and grew up. A skilled genealogist, she provides a history of four large families, chronicles the community’s life, compiles previously unpublished church and census records, and, finally, traces her Azores forebears back to the seventeenth century. The Stonington Historical Society is proud to publish this unique record of a community’s past.