Maria de Purificaçao Garcia was born in 1785 in Lisbon. [1]
She is the daughter of Ventura Garcia and Gregoria Pumiana, both living in Lisbon but of Spanish origin.
In 1809 she married Antonio Augusto Albasini in Lisbon in the church of Sao Lourenço. The two witnesses of this marriage were Fernando de Lima (who was probably a priest because he studied canon law at the Coimbra university) and Thomas Mascarenhas a young man who later played an important role during the Liberal war on the side of queen Maria II and died during the siege of Porto. [2]
Antonio and Maria had two children, Maria, born in 1810, and Joao, born in 1812. [3].
At some point before 1809 Antonio Augusto and/or Maria de Purificaçao managed to establish a strong link with the Lima family, a powerful family of the portuguse nobilty. Both marriage witnesses of Antonio Augusto and Maria de Purificaçao wedding were members of the Lima family : Dom Fernando de Lima (who was also the godfather of Maria) and his nephew Thomas Mascarenhas,. The mother of Thomas Mascarenhas, Helena Maria countess of Obidos, was the godmother of Joao the son of Antonio Augusto. And the godmother of Maria, the daughter of Antonio was Maria Josefa the Viscountess of Villa Nova de Cerveira, the widow of Tomas Xavier de Lima a former Prime Minister of Portugal. The countess Helena Maria was also the sister of two well known historical figures : Domingos Xavier de Lima, admiral commanding the Portuguese fleet at the siege of Malta and Lourenço de Lima, Ambassador of Portugal in Paris until the french invasion of Portugal.
Maria de Purificaçao passed away in or before 1859. [4]
In some secondary sources (books and articles about Joao Albasini) the name de Purificaçao is frequently mispelled "d'Purifiacao" or "de Putificacua".
Some authors like Francis Hugh De Souza in "A Question Of Treason" (https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=_3SfxrH82Z8C) pretend that Maria was the daughter of a Spanish nobleman and a beauty in Portuguese circles. Was Ventura Garcia an hidalgo or did he have a nobilty title ? No clear evidence have been found until now. But the fact that Antonio Augusto and Maria had prominent people as marriage witnesses or godfather and godmother for their children could be an indication she was well connected with the Lisboan high society.
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