José Sarney
Birth Name: José Ribamar Ferreira de Araújo Costa
Place of Birth: Pinheiro, Maranhão, Brazil
Date of Birth: 24 April, 1930
Ethnicity: Brazilian [Portuguese, possibly Spanish and other]
José Sarney is a Brazilian politician, lawyer, and writer. A member of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, he served as President of Brazil, from 15 March, 1985 to 15 March, 1990. He was also Governor of Maranhão, from 31 January, 1966 to 14 May, 1970, Senator for Maranhão, from 1 February, 1971 to 15 March, 1985, Senator for Amapá, from 1 February, 1991 to 1 February, 2015, and Vice President of Brazil, from 15 March, 1985 to 21 April, 1985.
President Sarney is the son of Kiola Ferreira and Sarney de Araújo Costa, who was a landowner and sugar cane producer. His father’s first name is evidently after having been born on land owned by an English man named Sir Ney. In 1965, he legally changed his name to José Sarney de Araújo Costa. President Sarney is married to Marly Sarney, with whom he has three children, politician and sociologist Roseana Sarney, football administrator Fernando Sarney, and lawyer and politician Sarney Filho.
President Sarney’s paternal grandfather was José Adriano Araújo Costa (the son of Henrique de Araújo Costa and Josefa Benício Coelho). Josefa was the daughter of José Benício Rodrigues Coelho and Maria José Coelho.
President Sarney’s paternal grandmother was named Rita Amélia de Araújo.
President Sarney’s maternal grandfather was Assuero Leopoldino Ferreira (the son of João Leopoldino Ferreira and Maria Leopoldina Vilaça Albuquerque Barros). João was the son of Valdivino José Ferreira and Leopoldina Francisca Souza Martins.
President Sarney’s maternal grandmother was Maria Augusta Oliveira França (the daughter of Luís Oliveira França and Maria Vilaça Albuquerque Barros).
Source: Genealogy of José Sarney – https://www.geni.com
Sarney is of galician origin, and is both a given name and a surname, so i would add ”Distant Galician-Spanish
“Sarney”, as it sounds, that’s British (forebears.io site). In this case, that’s the first name of one of his ancestors.
He stated on multiple interviews that he’s Paternal grandfather was part spanish, really dont know if that’s just a family lore or not, but upper-class brazillian northeasterners like him tend to have a lot of spanish, libanese, french and dutch ancestry (the Netherlands colonized the state of Pernambuco and the French colonized Maranhão).
CORRECTION
“Sarney” comes from a wealth English landowner who bought some estate in rural Maranhão in the early 20th century, he became known as “Sarney” by the locals, a mispronunciation of “Sir Ney”, the landlord’s name. José’s paternal grandfather worked in the estate, and named his son Sarney in honour of Sir Ney, José later legally changed his name to include Sarney as one of his surnames.
Also, he probably doesn’t have any Spanish ancestry, actually. He’s about 90% Portuguese, with some distant indigenous ancestry from one of his great-grandmothers, or maybe great-great-grandmothers.