It is the goal of this paper to discuss the use of two historical sources, lists of confessions and parish records, for the study of stepchildren and the definition of their life courses in five Azorean parishes. The recent digitization of the 1830s Horta district lists by Casa de Sarmento provided the opportunity to analyse a topic less focused by historiography. Despite the difficulties presented by the sources in identifying and observing stepchildren, their numbers was significative due to a high mortality regime in the 18th and 19th centuries, which favoured remarriages following widowhood. Thus, it is proposed a methodology that surpasses the sources’ limitations and highlights the challenges these children faced with family recompostion. Preliminary results will be confronted with newly published research on Ribeira Seca parish, enlarging the scope of analysis to a regional level.

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Illegitimacy,Half-siblings,Methods,Stepfamilies