Article Nº 2081 Family, surname or lineage Vol. II · p. 523
Lira
Entry on the surname Lira, still common in Madeira, and the noble Lira family of Calheta said to descend from Teresa de Lira.
This surname is still common today in some parishes of this island. In Calheta (‘small cove’) there was a noble family of this surname, to which Canon António Veloso de Lira and Father Manuel de Lira belonged (see those entries). Some genealogical works state that it descends from Teresa de Lira, wife of Dom Afonso de Aragão, of the late 15th century; their son, named Lopo Dias, adopted that surname, which has survived on the island ever since.
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