Impressões de um passado incógnito. Dos vestígios da memória pessoal à memória histórica entre o século XIX e o século XX em Portugal

Abstract

The present article departs from the genealogical tree research from one of the authors, driven by first-person oral testimonials transmitted by a great aunt. Such a rich but diffuse transfer of evidence from the past dating back to the early twentieth century in Portugal provided an opportunity to extend the documental collection from various types of archives to other ancestors. Records such as documents, photographs and objects support this oral memory, which depicts facts wrapped in a mixture of personal and affectionate contours. These records include nostalgic objects, family photographs and baptism, marriages and deaths records from various district archives. The rescue of scattered memories, which have hitherto remained in the dusk between generations, brought up enigmatic and significant events about Portugal history. Such as the mid-nineteenth-century migration and settlement of several Spanish families of Badajoz in Amareleja, or the 1909 Benavente earthquake witnessed by the paternal great-grandmothers of one of the authors, documented by the photographer Joshua Benoliel, providing a humanist and intimate overview on this natural catastrophe. A historical reconstitution, with simultaneous narratives based on genealogical, chronological and geographical evidence was drawn based on the collected findings. These manifested connections between photographs and texts, triggered by mental images that begin to gain shape. Driven from this shifting between the personal and collective dimension, and combining History and Visual Studies methodologies, we propose a critical reflection about the possibilities of memory embodiment, about migrations and the emotional remains from those places, about how personal memories are transferred between generations, how to reconstruct sparse memories and make possible framing a collective memory from personal memories.