Introduction: Who am I ?

Hi, my name is Rainer Manuel Sousa Hernández. I was born in Caracas Venezuela on 11th September, 1976. Since my childhood I have always felt attracted by history and genealogy. Presently I am 30 years old and there are a lot of information I would like to share with you about my ancestors. As I have said, I am Venezuelan and as a citizen of this beautiful country, I have a rich ethnic heritage that I received from my father and my mother. My dad is a Portuguese man (that's why I have a Portuguese surname "Sousa") and my mum is Venezuelan. Within my mother's family I have Spanish, Italian and possibly Indian ancestors. We cannot forget that Venezuelans are a mixed-blood people (mestizos) and I am pretty sure that I am not an exception. Actually, I am very proud of it.

On the following days I will post a lot of information on the surnames of my forefathers and additional information about Portugal and Venezuela. The main language of this blog will be the English language, so that many people around the world can read it. I am totally aware of the importance of English as a "lingua franca". English has proved to be the most efficient tool to communicate with people of a wide variety of nationalities and tongues. But other languages can be used in this blog too. This includes Portuguese and of course Spanish. Remember that most of the records, that I have, were written in those two languages.

On my father's side I have the following surnames: Rodrigues de Sousa, Oliveira Crespo, Quadros Corte Real, Figueiredo da Cruz, Valente da Silva, Almeida Cabral, Figueiredo e Carvalho, De Oliveira, da Glória, Amaral and many others.

On my mother's side: Hernández, Polanco, Martínez, Rullo (italian roots) González, Romero, Rangel, Farias, Conde(italian) and so on.

Obviously geographic names of sites and places ( in Portugal, Venezuela and Italy) will be given in order to better identify the roots of these family names. If I have in my possession pictures of my ancestors I will gladly submit them. Please, your comments are very important for me. One of my aims is the interchange of useful information in order to complete this wonderful puzzle called Family History

My best regards

Rainer Sousa H.