The presentation of the work Arquivos de Família: Memórias Habitadas. Guia para salvaguarda e estudo de um património em risco, whose edition was co-sponsored by the Art, Heritage and History Consultants, was held yesterday at the Centro Nacional de Cultura in Lisbon.

With the intent of “providing owners of family archives with a wide range of information and practical advice on these family collections, to serve as a starting point for a better understanding, processing, preservation, protection and dissemination of this heritage at risk”. The Guide is organized in five chapters, covering the following themes: "Understanding your family archive”, “Taking care of your family archive”, “Preserving your family archive”, “Protecting your family archive, through deposit agreements” and “Valuing your family archive”.

The book was developed under the coordination of Maria de Lurdes Rosa and Rita Sampaio da Nóvoa, with the collaboration of Margarida Leme, Inês Correia, Sofia Fernandes and Maria João da Câmara Andrade e Sousa, the foreword having been written by Silvestre Lacerda, Director of the Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo. Following the initial speeches by Guilherme d'Oliveira Martins, president of the Centro Nacional de Cultura, and by Amélia Andrade, director of the Instituto de Estudos Medievais da Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas da Universidade Nova de Lisboa, as well as by the coordinators of the study, the presentation of the work was carried out by Luís Mendia de Castro, Count of Nova Goa, who shared with the audience his vision on this issue as the owner of an important family archive. The Spanish expert Francisco de Borja Aguinagalde Olaizola closed the session.

For LMT Abreu Loureiro, Correia de Matos & Galvão Teles, the publication of this guide is a step of fundamental importance in the journey that has been pursued around the safeguarding and appreciation of family archives. This sponsorship is thus not only the recognition of the importance of the use of this type of collections for historical research – as can be seen in the study by Joao Bernardo Galvão Teles, "O Arquivo da Casa de São Paio: história e memória de uma família aristocrática" published in 2012 in the collection Arquivos de Família, séculos XIII-XX: que presente, que futuro? –, but also from the experience of the Art, Heritage and History Consultants in the organization of family documentary collections, at the request and in conjunction with their respective owners.

The Guide is available online here.

The study «que os do nome de Tavora que de nos descenderem nam haja de ser esquecido»: a sucessão dos condes de São Vicente no morgado dos Távoras, , by João Bernardo Galvão Teles and Lourenço Correia de Matos, partners at LMT Abreu Loureiro, Correia de Matos & Galvão Teles,received the 2012 National Prize of Genealogical Studios, awarded by the Federación Española de Genealogía y Heráldica y Ciencias Históricas, which recently announced its prizes for the years of 2012 and 2013.

The sentence of the 12th of January of 1759 condemned the marquises of Távora and several elements of their family to death, confiscated their patrimony and abolished the use of the name Távora. The violence and reach of this decision created a generalized perception of the extinction of the entire Távora family. It just so happens, however, that one of the most important elements for the identity of this lineage – the former entail – was carried over to the branch of the counts of São Vicente, whom, as relatives of those sadly executed, could through this line perpetuate the memory and the representation of the primitive strain of the Távoras. The objective of this now distinguished study was to ascertain in exactly which circumstances the transference of the former entail of the Távoras was passed to the counts of São Vicente.

Lourenço Correia de Matos was also awarded the 2013 Premio Nacional de Estudios Hispanicos for "sus iniciativas, estudios y proyectos culturales hispânicos en Portugal", having already been awarded the same prize in 2008 and the Premio Nacional de Estudios Heráldicos in 2005.

The Federación Española de Genealogía y Heráldica y Ciencias Históricas brings together several Spanish academic institutions dedicated to studies on genealogy, heraldry, nobility and other, being chaired by Alfonso de Ceballos-Escalera y Gila, Professor at the Technical University of Lisbon, at the ISCSP (Faculty of Social and Political Sciences), corresponding academic of the Portuguese Academy of History and of the Spanish Real Academia de la Historia. The Federación publishes the Cuadernos de Ayala magazine.