NAMES ANALYSIS REPORT
You searched for:"Costa",
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The English meaning of Costa is Rib in old Castillian; which comes from the coast;itis the name of a small parish that belongs to the
Council of the District of Guimarães..
The name Costa is of Portuguese,Spanish origin.
The surname Costa is aCompound name, which means that it is derived from a man's given name, usually a father , paternal ancestor or patron.
There are many indicators that the name Costa may be of Jewish origin, emanating from the Jewish communities of Spain and Portugal.
When the Romans conquered the Jewish nation in 70 CE, much of the Jewish population was sent into exile throughout the Roman Empire. Many were sent to the Iberian Peninsula. The approximately 750,000 Jews living in Spain in the year 1492 were banished from the country by royal decree of Ferdinand and Isabella. The Jews of Portugal, were banished several years later. Reprieve from the banishment decrees was promised to those Jews who converted to Catholicism. Though some converted by choice, most of these New-Christian converts were called CONVERSOS or MARRANOS (a derogatory term for converts meaning pigs in Spanish), ANUSIM (meaning "coerced ones" in Hebrew) and CRYPTO-JEWS, as they secretly continued to practice the tenets of the Jewish faith.
Our research has found that the family name Costa is cited with respect to Jews & Crypto-Jews in at least 66 bibliographical, documentary, or electronic references:
Finding Our Fathers: A Guidebook to Jewish Genealogy, by Dan Rottenberg
In this work Dan Rottenberg shows how to do a successful search for probing the memories of living relatives, by examining marriage licenses, gravestones, ship passenger lists, naturalization records, birth and death certificates, and other public documents, and by looking for clues in family traditions and customs. Supplementing the "how to" instructions is a guide to some 8,000 Jewish family names, giving the origins of the names, sources of information about each family, and the names of related families whose histories have been recorded. Other features included a country-by-country guide to tracing Jewish ancestors abroad, a list of Jewish family history books, and a guide to researching genealogy.
From the publication, "Los Sefardíes" (The Sephardim),by Jose M. Estrugo. Published by Editorial Lex La Habana, 1958.(Surnames common among the Sephardim)
When the Romans conquered the Jewish nation in 70 CE, much of the Jewish population was sent into exile throughout the Roman Empire. Many were sent to the Iberian peninsula. The area became known by the Hebrew word "Sepharad". The JEWS in SPAIN and PORTUGAL became known as "Sephardim" or and those things associated with the SEPHARDIM including names, customs, genealogy and religious rituals, became known as SEPHARDIC.
Hebrews of the Portuguese Nation, by Miriam Bodian
This work explores why the Portuguese Jews of northern Europe never established a solid sense of belonging to the wider Sephardi diaspora. It explores how, historically, the Conversos lost the consciousness of being “Sephardi” in the generations after the expulsion from Spain and the mass baptism of Portugal’s Jews in 1497. To be sure, once the Portuguese ex-Conversos organized in Jewish communities, their leaders made efforts to reconnect with the wider Sephardi world, and these efforts had serious symbolic and strategic value. But the Portuguese Jews’ rootedness in the Converso experience meant that their core sense of collective self remained distinct. Contributing factors to their enduring sense of distinctness were these aspects of Converso experience: the absorption of Catholic notions of piety; the “de-rabbinization” of crypto-Jewish belief; and the difficulty for many Conversos of maintaining any stable set of traditional beliefs. The outward image their leaders sought to cultivate may have been one of Sephardi traditionalism, but, at an emotional level, members of these communities continued to regard themselves as members of the “nação”—a term that evoked the Converso past.
A Life of Menasseh Ben Israel,by Cecil Roth.
This book contains names from the Sephardic community of greater Amsterdam. Amsterdam was a major haven and transfer point for Sephardim and Crypto-Jews leaving Iberia.
Sangre Judia (Jewish Blood) by Pere Bonnin. Flor de Viento, Barcelona, 2006. A list of 3,500 names used by Jews, or assigned to Jews by the Holy Office (la Santo Oficio) of Spain. The list is a result of a census of Jewish communities of Spain by the Catholic Church and as found in Inquisition records.
Pere Bonnin, a philosopher, journalist and writer from Sa Pobla (Mallorca), a descendant of converted Jews, settles with this work a debt "owed to his ancestors", in his own words. The book, written in a personal and accessible style and based on numerous sources, includes a review of basic Jewish concepts, Jewish history in Spain, and Christian Anti-Semitism. There is also a section that focuses on the reconciliation between the Church and Monarchy and the Jews, which took place in the 20th Century. In this study, Bonnin deals in depth with the issue of surnames of Jewish origin. In the prologue, the author explains the rules he followed in the phonetic transcription of surnames of Hebrew origin that are mentioned in the book. The researcher cites the Jewish origin, sometimes recognized and other times controversial, of historically prominent figures (like Cristobal Colon, Hernan Cortes, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra and many others) and links between surnames of Jewish origin with some concepts in Judaism.. The book also includes an appendix with more than three thousands surnames "suspected" of being Jewish, because they appear in censuses of the Jewish communities and on the Inquisitorial lists of suspected practitioners of Judaism, as well as in other sources. In the chapter "Una historia de desencuentro", the author elaborates on surnames of Jewish origin of the royalty, nobility, artistocracy, clergy, and also of writers, educators and university teachers during the Inquisition. Special attention is given to the "Chuetas" of Mallorca, the birthplace of the author.
Raizes Judaicas No Brasil,(Jewish Roots in Brazil) by Flavio Mendes de Carvalho.
This book contains names of New Christians or Brazilians living in Brazil condemned by the Inquisition in the 17th and 18th centuries, as taken from the archives of Torre do Tombo in Lisbon. Many times details including date of birth, occupation, name of parents, age, and location of domicile are also included. The list also includes the names of the relatives of the victims. There are several cases in which many members of the same family were tortured and sentenced so some family lines may end here.
Sephardic names from the magazine "ETSI". Most of the names are from (but not limited to) France and North Africa. Published by Laurence Abensur-Hazan and Philip Abensur.
ETSI (a Paris-based, bilingual French-English periodical) is devoted exclusively to Sephardic genealogy and is published by the Sephardi Genealogical and Historical Society (SGHS). It was founded by Dr. Philip Abensur, and his professional genealogist wife, Laurence Abensur-Hazan. ETSI's worldwide base of authors publish articles identifying a broad spectrum of archival material of importance to the Sephardic genealogist. A useful feature of ETSI is the listing, on the back cover, of all Sephardic family names, and places of origin, cited in the articles contained in each issue
History of the Jews in Venice, by Cecil Roth
In this work, Cecil Roth covers the long course of Italian-Jewish history extending from pre-Christian times, comprising in a degree every facet of the evolution of Jewish life in Europe. Contains a huge store of facts tracing regional variations over a period of 2000 years.
The Jews of New Spain, by Seymour B. Liebman
Professor Liebman endeavors to discover why, beginning in 1521, Jews migrated from Old Spain to New Spain. He then proceeds to document the persistence of Jewish life in the face of a new Spanish Inquisition and formalized suppression including forced conversion and exclusion from citizenship. The author concludes it was the religious, cultural and personal vitality of Jews that caused their cherished and proud identity to persist, even though most of the earliest Jewish migrants eventually did assimilate into Mexican society.
A Origem Judaica dos Brasileiros (The Origin of The Brazilian Jews), by Jose Geraldo Rodrigues de Alckmin Filho
This publication contains a list of 517 Sephardic families punished by the inquisition in Portugal and Brazil.
The Circumcision Register of Isaac and Abraham De Paiba (1715-1775) from the Archives of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews' Congregation of Bevis Marks (London. England).
This register is from the manuscript record preserved in the Archives of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews' Congregation of London named "Sahar Asamaim" transcribed, translated and edited by the late R.D. Barnett, with the assistance of Alan Rose, I.D. Duque and others; There is also a supplement with a record of circumcisions 1679-1699, marriages 1679-1689 and some female births 1679-1699, compiled by Miriam Rodrigues-Pereira. The register includes surnames of those circumsized as well as the names of their Godfathers & Godmothers.
Dicionario Sefaradi De Sobrenomes (Dictionary of Sephardic Surnames), G. Faiguenboim, P. Valadares, A.R. Campagnano, Rio de Janeiro, 2004
A bilingual (Portugese/English)reference book of Sephardic surnames. Includes New Christians, Conversos, Crypto-Jews (Marranos), Italians, Berbers and their history in Spain, Portugal and Italy. Contains over 16,000 surnames presented under 12000 entries, with hundreds of rare photographs, family shields and illustrations.It also contains a 72-page summary of Sephardic history, before and after the expulsion from Spain and Portugal, as well as a 40-page linguistic essay about Sephardic names, including an interesting list of the 250 most frequent Sephardic surnames. The period covered by the dictionary is of 600 years, from the 14th to the 20th century, and the area covered includes Spain and Portugal, France, Italy, Holland, England, Germany, Balkans, Central and Eastern Europe, the former Ottoman Empire, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, North America, Central America and the Caribbean, South America and more.
Finding Our Fathers: A Guidebook to Jewish Genealogy, by Dan Rottenberg
In this work Dan Rottenberg shows how to do a successful search for probing the memories of living relatives, by examining marriage licenses, gravestones, ship passenger lists, naturalization records, birth and death certificates, and other public documents, and by looking for clues in family traditions and customs. Supplementing the "how to" instructions is a guide to some 8,000 Jewish family names, giving the origins of the names, sources of information about each family, and the names of related families whose histories have been recorded. Other features included a country-by-country guide to tracing Jewish ancestors abroad, a list of Jewish family history books, and a guide to researching genealogy.
A History of the Jews in Christian Spain,Volume 2, by Yitzhak Baer.
Traces the economic, social, legal and political life of the Spanish Jewish community from the 11th century re-conquest of Iberia from Muslim rule to the expulsion of 1492. Based on many years of study in the Spanish archives by a Professor from The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel.
Sangre Judia (Jewish Blood) by Pere Bonnin. Flor de Viento, Barcelona, 2006. A list of 3,500 names used by Jews, or assigned to Jews by the Holy Office (la Santo Oficio) of Spain. The list is a result of a census of Jewish communities of Spain by the Catholic Church and as found in Inquisition records.
Pere Bonnin, a philosopher, journalist and writer from Sa Pobla (Mallorca), a descendant of converted Jews, settles with this work a debt "owed to his ancestors", in his own words. The book, written in a personal and accessible style and based on numerous sources, includes a review of basic Jewish concepts, Jewish history in Spain, and Christian Anti-Semitism. There is also a section that focuses on the reconciliation between the Church and Monarchy and the Jews, which took place in the 20th Century. In this study, Bonnin deals in depth with the issue of surnames of Jewish origin. In the prologue, the author explains the rules he followed in the phonetic transcription of surnames of Hebrew origin that are mentioned in the book. The researcher cites the Jewish origin, sometimes recognized and other times controversial, of historically prominent figures (like Cristobal Colon, Hernan Cortes, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra and many others) and links between surnames of Jewish origin with some concepts in Judaism.. The book also includes an appendix with more than three thousands surnames "suspected" of being Jewish, because they appear in censuses of the Jewish communities and on the Inquisitorial lists of suspected practitioners of Judaism, as well as in other sources. In the chapter "Una historia de desencuentro", the author elaborates on surnames of Jewish origin of the royalty, nobility, artistocracy, clergy, and also of writers, educators and university teachers during the Inquisition. Special attention is given to the "Chuetas" of Mallorca, the birthplace of the author.
Apellidos de Judios Sefardies (Surnames of the Sephardic Jews) from the site Comunidad Judia Del Principado de Asturias
The Principality of Asturias (Spanish: Principado de Asturias - Asturian: Principáu d'Asturies) is an autonomous community within the kingdom of Spain, former Kingdom of Asturias in the Middle Ages. It is situated on the Spanish North coast facing the Cantabrian Sea (Mar Cantábrico, the Spanish name for the Bay of Biscay). The most important cities are the provincial capital, Oviedo, the seaport and largest city Gijón, and the industrial town of Avilés. No one knows the exact date at which Jews arrived in Asturias. Based solely on the documentation found so far in Asturias, there are clear references to the mid-eleventh century Council of Coyanza held in the Diocese of Oviedo in 1050 which states in Chapter VI: "... no Christian shall live in the same house with Jews or eat with them; if anyone infringes our constitution, they shall do penance for seven days, and if not willing to do it, being a noble person, they shall be deprived of communion for a full year, and if an inferior person they will receive a hundred lashes." But it is in the twelfth century when the rise and importance of the Jewish people is more noticeable in this region. Jewish witness signatures begin to appear more often on donation pledge cards from 1133. Asturias names are not very common among the Jewish population in other parts of the peninsula around the same time, perhaps causing confusion.
Dicionario Sefaradi De Sobrenomes (Dictionary of Sephardic Surnames), G. Faiguenboim, P. Valadares, A.R. Campagnano, Rio de Janeiro, 2004
A bilingual (Portugese/English)reference book of Sephardic surnames. Includes New Christians, Conversos, Crypto-Jews (Marranos), Italians, Berbers and their history in Spain, Portugal and Italy. Contains over 16,000 surnames presented under 12000 entries, with hundreds of rare photographs, family shields and illustrations.It also contains a 72-page summary of Sephardic history, before and after the expulsion from Spain and Portugal, as well as a 40-page linguistic essay about Sephardic names, including an interesting list of the 250 most frequent Sephardic surnames. The period covered by the dictionary is of 600 years, from the 14th to the 20th century, and the area covered includes Spain and Portugal, France, Italy, Holland, England, Germany, Balkans, Central and Eastern Europe, the former Ottoman Empire, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, North America, Central America and the Caribbean, South America and more.
Antonio Borges Coelho, Inquisicao de Evora. Dos primordios a 1668 (Inquisition of Evora: From the beginning to 1668) - vol. 1, Lisbon, 1987
The Portuguese Inquisition was born legally in Evora in the year 1536, legitimized by the Pope, sponsored by King John III, Cardinal Alfonso and future cardinal and Inquisitor General D. Henry.
Robert Attal and Joseph Avivi. "Registres Matrimoniaux de la Comminaute Juive Portugaise de Tunis. XVIII-XIX Siecles" (Matrimonial records of the Tunisian Portuguese Jewsih Community 18th-19th Centuries), Oriens Judaicus, Ben Zvi Institute, Israel 1989
Listing of marriages that occurred in the Portuguese Jewish Community of Tunis which kept itself separate from the local Tunisian Jews and kept careful records. French and Hebrew editions are available.
Anita Novinsky. Inquisicao: Prisioneiros do Brasil. Seculos XVI-XIX, (Inquisition : Prisoners in Brazil 16th-19th Centuries) Rio de Janeiro, 2002.
The author, Anita Novinsky, holds degrees in philosophy and history from the Univeristy of Sao Paulo and is also affiliated with several foreign institutions and institutions in Europe and the U.S. She published several books that have greatly contributed to a renewed vision of the Inquisition in Brazil and Portugal. According to a survey completed in 1994 by Professor Francisco Bethencourt (New University of Lisbon), the total number of accused put on trial by the Inquisition amounted to 44,817. Of these, 9,726 were charged by the Inquisition of Lisbon (the other courts were located in Evora, Coimbra and Goa). About half of these prisoners, approximately five thousand, were in Brazil. In this work, which was a meticulous and patient work of years, the author has identified 1,076 prisoners from Brazil, including a wide range of details (place of birth, address, ethnic backgrounds, occupations, crimes and sentences), giving this study high importance.
J. Lucio de Azevedo. Historia dos Cristaos-Novos Portugueses (History of the Portuguese New-Christians), Lisbon, 1989.
The author is considered an expert on the study of this subject. After the Portuguese Inquisition, the remaining Jewish population in Portugal became officially Christian. These new Christians were always under suspicion of apostasy.
Francisco Manuel Alves (Abade de Baçal). Memorias Arquelogico-Historicas do Distrito de Bragança (Memoirs of the Archaeological Historical District of Bragança in Portugal),Bragança, 1925.
Francisco Manuel Alves, better known as Abbot of Baçal (1865-1947 ) was a Portuguese archaeologist , historian and genealogist. His principal work is the archaeological-historical memories of the district of Bragança (1909-1947), in eleven volumes. The fifth volume of his masterpiece is dedicated to the Jews.
Claudie Blamont (president). Revue du Cercle de Genealogie Juive (The Circle of Jewish Genealogy), Paris, 1998.
The Cercle de Généalogie Juive (CDGJ) located in Paris,France maintains a list of members and the families and areas they are researching.
Paul Armony. "Apellidos sefardies mas frecuentes obtenidos de los cementerios Avellaneda - Lomas de Zamora - Ciudadela (Acis y Asia) - Tablada Sefaradi y Bancalari" (Common sephardic names as taken from the Avellaneda Cemetery). SEFARAires Nº9 / 2003 página 7.
Paul Armony, President of the Jewish Genealogy Association in Argentina, collected and organized 19,060 records from six Jewish Sephardic cemeteries in Argentina. Of the 3682 surnames of deceased found there, 58% were found to have the same 334 surnames.
Giuseppe Celata. Gli Ebrei a Pitigliano (The Jews in Pitigliano), Italy, 1995.
The history of the Jewish community of Pitigliano is extraordinary. Since the middle of the 16th century more and more Jews came to Pitigliano, partly due to the fact that they were forced out of the Papal States (the border to Latio, a former papal territory, is only 5 km away) As time passed a flourishing Jewish community life developed here.
List of people buried in the Middelburg (Netherlands) Cemetery, 1656-1727.
Sephardic burials at Jodengang cemetery in Middelburg (Netherlands) 1656-1727. Four out of the total 93 persons listed are known certainly to have lived in Middelburg itself. Many others came from Antwerp, which did not have a Sephardic cemetery of its own. Among the deceased is Samuel, son of the Rabbi Menasseh Ben Israel, from the jewish Morocco Community.
Dov Cohen. "Fuentes para la Genealogia de los Judios de Izmir (Esmirna)(Sources for the Genealogy of the Jews of Izmir (Smyrna)" Boletin n° 2 p. 18-9 Sociedad Argentina de Genealogia Judaica, Buenos Aires, dec 1996.
Samuel de Paz. Commonaute Portugaise de Tunisie (Portuguese Community of Tunisia), manuscript, Jerusalem, 1932.
Alberto Dines. Vinculos do Fogo-I,(Fire Links - Antônio José da Silva, Jewish and other history of the Inquisition in Portugal and Brazil, Volume I),Sao Paulo, 1992
A biographical novel of the most famous victim of the Brazilian Inquisition, Jose Antonio da Silva, known as the "Jew" (1705 -1739), lawyer and playwright, who was garroted and then burned for "crimes of Judaism." In this book, the author relates the family's genealogy through the biography of all known relations. The objective of this work is to highlight the condition of New Christians in the 18th century. Between the generations of Jose Antonio da Silva and his great-grandfather, a total of 143 family members had problems with the Santo Oficio (the Tribunal of the Inquisition).
List of soldiers killed in both World Wars that were members of Bevis Marks Synagogue, London.
Bevis Marks is a Sephardi synagogue. believed to be the United Kingdom's oldest synagogue opened in 1701. The earliest Jewish settlers in the United Kingdom were Sephardi. They arrived in the 17th Century at the time of Cromwell and were refugees from the Inquisition of The Roman Catholic Church.
Egon and Frieda Wolff. Quantos Judeus Estiveram no Brasil Holandes e Outros Ensaios,(How many Jews were in Dutch Brazil and Other Essays), Rio de Janeiro, 1991.
Intriguing work listing Dutch Jews from Brazil, by the ground-breaking and influential scholars of Brazilian Jewry.
Maurice Eisenbeth. The Jews of North Africa, Demographics & Omnastics, Argelia, 1936.
There are two parts to this study by a rabbi from Algeria: The first is the demography and the occupation of Jewish families in North Africa, including those who settled there after the expulsion. The second part of this work is a study of North African Jewish names. The goal of this research was to record family surnames and the locations where they were found. This work is a good source for onomastical origins.
Babani and Weinfeld. Portugal Jewish Encyclopedia, Castellana, Mexico, 1948.
A Jewish Encyclopedia in 10 volumes: the Jewish people in the past and present - their history, their religion, their customs, their literature, their art, their leaders, and more.
Nissim Elnecave. Los Hijos de Ibero-Franconia. Breviario del Mundo Sefaradí desde los Orígenes hasta nuestros días(The Children of Iberia-Spain: World Sephardic Breviary from the beginning to today), Editorial "La Luz", Buenos Aires, 1981.
In this work on Sephardic history, the author argues his main thesis: Sephardic is a cultural concept, and therefore should not be restricted to descendants of Portuguese and Spanish Jews, but should also extend to France, Italy and the Arab world.
Ellen Sadove Renck. Portuguese Burials in Surinam, 1997.
Jews arrived between 1635 and 1639 in Surinam (formerly Dutch Guiana). Spanish and Portuguese Jews from Amsterdam arrived when the Dutch occupied Suriname in 1668. By the first half of the 1700's, Ashkenazic Jews from Rotterdam raised the Jewish population to 2,000, about 50%. Settling in Jodensavanne, an autonomous town, they owned 115 sugar plantations and named sites with Hebrew names. Great Britain claimed the territory of Surinam in 1665. Rather surprisingly, given their history of colonizing other tropical colonies of the British Empire, British citizens did not seem to want to settle in Surinam. The British government decided to attract Jewish settlers to Surinam by offering them full British citizenship, recognition of their Sabbath, and ten acres of land to build a synagogue. The oldest known Jewish cemetery in Suriname is hidden in the savannah jungle about 5 km south of the Jodensavanne (about 50 km south of Paramaribo along the Suriname River). The site, about 275 by 250 feet. has 216 tombstones out of an estimated 400+ burials that have been discovered and cleared from the jungle. The gravestones date from 1666 to 1873. Inscriptions are in Hebrew, Portuguese, Spanish, Aramaic and Dutch. Almost every gravestone has the letters "S" or "SA" engraved (Portuguese word Sepultura means tombstone or grave) with the full name for a man and for a woman, her given name and then the full name of her husband or father. The date of death (both the Hebrew and Gregorian) follows.Most of the tombstones are marble, limestone, blue and brown stones imported from Italy, engraved in Amsterdam, and shipped to Suriname. The poor Jews had wooden grave markers leaving graves unmarked today.
La Designation d' un Grand Rabbin de Tunisie en 1928 (The appointment of a Chief Rabbi of Tunisia in 1928), in Revue des Etudes Juives, CLI, Paris, jan/jun 1992.
From literary and archaeological sources, evidence has been gathered of a rich Jewish communal life in Tunisia going back some 2300 years. This article discusses the changes that came about with the introduction of the French protectorate in 1881. The French intervened in all areas of Jewish communal life, so far as to decide on the appointment of the chief rabbi of all Tunisia, which was to be a French Jew. This decision aroused a revolt in the community, who strongly opposed it, demanding the appointment of a Chief Rabbi of Tunisian origin. The Conservative Party took the lead in drafting a petition calling on the entire Jewish population of the Regency to support this view and won: Rabbi Youssef Guez, a Tunisian Jewish native, was elected in 1928 to the post of Chief Rabbi of Tunisia, and remained so until his death in 1934.
Luis de Bivar Guerra(Publisher). Um Caderno de Cristãos Novos de Barcelos (a Notebook of New-Christians in Barcelos), Lisbon, 1959.
José Luis León de Bivar Sousa Pimentel Guerra (1904-1979), was a Portuguese genealogist who researched the role of new Christians in Portuguese society and thus in Brazil. This "A Notebook of New Christians in Barcelos" by an anonymous author is a list of converted Jews in that city in 1497, and some of their descendants. It reports the prominent families in Barcelos (Portugal) with Jewish ancestry.
Cap. Artur Carlos de Barros Basto (editor). HaLapid (official organ of the Obra do Resgate), Porto, dec. 20-50.
Magazine edited by the "Kadoorie Mekor Haim Synagogue" congregation, in the city of Porto. This was founded by Crypto-Jews who returned to the Jewish religion during a movement called "the Work of Rescue" which was undertaken by Captain Barros Basto in the 1930's among various communities of Jewish descent.
Albert Montefiore Hyamson. The Sefaradim of England, Methuen, 1951.
This is a history of the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish community in the years 1492-1951 by Albert Montefiore Hyamson (1875-1954),a British zionist and historian who served as chief immigration officer in the British Mandate of Palestine from 1921 to 1934. He argued that Christians should assist the Jews in creating and protecting the new state to atone for their persecution of the Jews in the past.
Joseph Toledano. Une Histoire de familles. Les Noms de Famille Juifs d'Afrique du Nord (A family story. The Family names of Jews from North Africa). Jerusalem, 1998
The author is descended from one of the important Jewish families of North Africa, that settled in Morocco in 1492 after fleeing the Inquisition. The book which has 870 pages and is arranged like an encyclopedia with onomastics entries, brings valuable information on 1250 family groups from North Africa, their family names, and location in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.
Jean Pierre Filippini. Il Porto di Livorno e La Toscana (1676-1814)(The Port of Livorno and Tuscany 1676-1814), Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, Napoli, 1998.
Contains the census of Jews in Livorno in 1809.
Yosef Kaplan (editor). Jews and Conversos, Studies in Society and the Inquisition, in The Hebrew University Magnes Press, Jerusalem, 1985
This collection of articles sheds lights on the social, economic and cultural life of Spanish and Portuguese Jewry in the Middle Ages, while stressing at the same time the unique role of the conversos in the history of the Iberian Peninsula and its Jewish community.
Ketuboth van de Portugees-Israelietische Gemeente te Amsterdam van 1650-1911 (Index of Ketuboth of the Portuguese Jewish Congregation in Amsterdam from 1650 and 1911). D. Verdooner and H.J.W.Snel.
The Portuguese Jewish Community in Amsterdam was formed by Marranos who returned to Judaism after they had been converted to Catholicism in 1492 (Spain) and 1497 (Portugal). Families who lived in Toledo before 1492 reappear in Amsterdam in the 17th century, showing that for five generations (120 years) they succeeded in maintaining some form of Judaism behind the Catholic image. In the Amsterdam Municipality between 1598 and 1811 about 15,000 marriage certificates of Jews were registered. This Index mainly pertains to the richer and influential Sephardic community of Amsterdam. The great merchants, ship owners, rabbis and philosophers (Spinoza, Menasse ben Israel, Isaac Aboab da Fonseca) all appear on it. There are also families from other Sephardic communities from Livorno and Tunis. Many times weddings represented the creation and maintenance of commercial alliances.
Luis Crespo Fabiao. "O caso de David Curiel com o Alemao", in Biblos, Coimbra, 1962.
Lionel Lévy, Itinéraires portugais de Tunis, de Livourne et d'Amsterdam au XIXe siècle, Nations, Communautés, familles, entreprises (Portuguese itineraries from Tunis, Leghorn and Amsterdam in the 19th century: Nations, communities, families, businesses], published under the title "La Nation Juive Portugaise, 1591-1951, Livourne, Amsterdam, Tunis", ed. l'Harmattan, Paris 1999
From seventy-four families of Portuguese merchants Marrano origin mentioned in the seventeenth century in the archives of the consuls of France in Tunis, Lionel Levy reconstructs the channels of commerce and family networks that unite, Amsterdam, Leghorn and a their counters privileged, Tunis, from the late sixteenth century to the early twentieth century, the descendants of New Christians returned to Judaism.
Michele Luzzatti, Liana Borghi (ed.), Ebrei di Livorno tra Due Censimenti (1841-1938) (The Jews of Leghorn Between Two Censuses), Belforte Editore Libraio, Livorno, 1990.
This work tells the story of one upper-class Italian family: The Salmon - Cave Bondi Jews of Leghorn in between two censuses (1841-1938). Family memories and identity.
Jose Antonio Gonsalves de Mello. Gente da Nação (Um Dicionario dos Judeus Residentes no Nordeste, 1630-1654) (People of The Jewish Nation in Dutch Brazil : A Dictionary of Residents in the Northeast 1630-1654), Journal of the Archaeological, Historical and Geographical Institute of Pernambuco, Recife, 1989.
In the sixteenth century, many Jews made their way from the Iberian Peninsula to Brazil to escape the Inquisition. With the arrival of the Dutch in Pernambuco, and in particular the presence of Count Maurice of Nassau ,the Jewish immigrants were able to enjoy great freedom to practice their religion and traditions. Settling in the state, they built schools, synagogues, and cemeteries. No one knows the exact size of the Jewish population that came to the Northeast of the country, but researchers estimate that during the Dutch rule (1630-1654), about three hundred Jews lived in Recife.
Gary Mokotoff. Avotaynu.
Gary Mokotoff is a noted author, lecturer and leader of Jewish genealogy. He has been recognized by three major genealogical groups for his achievements. Avotaynu, The International Review of Jewish Genealogy, was founded in 1985 as a 20-page semiannual; it has grown to 68-page quarterly that is one of the most respected magazines in genealogy. The Avotaynu Consolidated Jewish Surname Index (CJSI) enables search by surname on 42 different databases.
Neusa Fernandes. A Inquisicao em Minas Gerais no sec. XVIII (Inquisition in Minas Gerais in the 18th Century), Rio de Janeiro, 2000.
Anita Novinsky. Inquisicao. Inventario de Bens Confiscados a Cristaos-Novos(Inventory of Goods Confiscated from New Christians), Brazil.
Manuel Ramos de Oliveira. Os Cristaos-novos nos Distritos da Guarda e Castelo Branco,(New Christians in the districts of Guarda and Castelo Branca), em Beira Alta, vol. X, fasc. I-II, Portugal, 1951.
Pedro de Azevedo, "Cristaos-novos de Lisboa que estavam ausentes da cidade em 1614" (Crypto-Jews from Lisbon who were absent from the city in 1614) Lisbon, 1915.
The author worked on the trial records deposited in the Torre do Tombo in Lisbon and published his findings.
Maria Jose Pimenta Ferro Tavares. Os judeus em Portugal no seculo XIV (The Jews in Portugal in the 14th century), Lisboa, 1979.
This study includes a name and place index.
Antonio de Portugal de Faria. A Inquisicao Portuguesa no seculo XVII (The Portuguese Inquisition in the 17th Century), in O Instituto n° XVII, pp. 751-760, Coimbra, 1899.
The Portuguese Inquisition formally started in Portugal in 1536 at the request of the King of Portugal, João III although in many places in Portugal it actually started in 1497 when the authorities expelled many Jews and forcefully converted many others to Catholicism. The Portuguese Inquisition held its first "auto da fé" in Portugal in 1540. It concentrated its efforts on rooting out converts from other faiths (overwhelmingly Judaism) who did not adhere to the strictures of Catholic orthodoxy; the Portuguese inquisitors mostly targeted the Jewish "New Christians," or "Marranos". The 17th Century brought with it a new wave of anti-semitism in Portugal. Between 1612 and 1630 the Inquisition in Lisbon, Coimbra and Evora held no less than 47 large autos-da-fe.
J. Mendes dos Remedios, "Os Judeus Portugueses em Amsterdam" (The Portuguese Jews in Amsterdam), 1911, Coimbra
A compilation of Judeo-Portuguese texts published in Amsterdam can be found in this book and can now be downloaded. http://www.archive.org/details/osjudeusportugue00mend
Jose Olivio Mendes Rocha. Subsídios para o estudo das Gentes de Nação (Cristãos-novos) nos Açores na 1ª metade do seculo XVII,(Grants for the Studies of New Christians in the Azores in the First Half of the Seventeenth Cerntury), published in Boletim do Instituto Historico da Ilha Terceira, Portugal, 1987
Adriano Vasco Rodrigues. Judeus e Inquisição na Guarda,(Jews and The Inquisition in Guard, Portugal),published in the journal "Altitude", Porto, 1980.
Adriano Vasco Rodrigues is himself a historian and ethnographer from the Guard region in Portugal.
Anita Novinsky. Inquisicao. Rol dos Culpados. Fontes para a Historia do Brasil (Sources for the History of Brazil - 18th Century),published in "Expression and Culture", Rio de Janeiro, 1992.
Contains a list of Brazilian and Portuguese New-Christians in Brazil (1819 names - 721 women and 1098 men) who were prosecuted or persecuted by the courts of the Inquisition, during the eighteenth century, as located by the author in deposits from the National Archives of Torre do Tombo in Lisbon. This book is a most important source of New-Christians names (Marrano names), mainly of those who remained in Portugal or throughout the Portuguese empire.
W.S. Samuel. In Jewish Historical Society of England. Transactions. Sessions 1968-1969, vol. XXII & Miscellanies Part. VII, University College, London, 1970.
This collection includes a list of Jewish Persons endenizened and naturalised in England in the period 1609-1799.
Mario Cohen (editor).1992: El Descubrimiento de la Cultura Sefaradi, in Sefardica (Discovery of Sephardic Culture) n. 9, Buenos Aires, August 1992.
Mario Cohen is Director of the Sephardic Culture Research and Dissemination Center in Buenos Aires.
Malcolm H. Stern. First American Jewish Families. 600 Genealogies. 1654-1988, Ottenheimer Editors, Inc., 1991.
When it first appeared in 1960, Malcolm Stern's Americans of Jewish Descent marked a milestone in the study of American Jewish genealogy. Researchers now have access to the complete text of Rabbi Stern's monumental volume that was published in 1991 as the updated and revised 3rd edition entitled: First American Jewish Families: 600 Genealogies, 1654-1988.
Daniel M. Swetschinski. Reluctant Cosmopolitans: The Portuguese Jews of Seventeenth Century Amsterdam, London, 2000.
Several thousand "New Christians" (the descendants of Portuguese Jews who had been forcibly converted some two centuries before) emigrated to Amsterdam in the 17th century. Subsequently the community decided to remanifest themselves as Jews. The author focuses on the social dimension of Jewish economic and religious life, formal and informal, as well as their interactions with the Dutch authorities and populace (an exceptionally cordial relationship for that time). Also explored is the contradictions that arose from Jews that often retained, sometimes without realizing it, Catholic ideas and views.
Renzo Toaff. La Nazione Ebrea a Livorno e a Pisa (1591-1700),(The Jewish Nation in Livorno and Pisa 1591-1700), Leo S. Olschki Editor, Florence, 1990.
The demographic history of Italian Jewry. Includes bibliographical references, with indexes and appendixes in Italian and Portuguese.
Vittore Colorni. Cognomi Ebraici Italiani a Base Toponomastica Straniera (Italian Jewish Surnames of Foreign Toponymy), Italia Judaica, Rome, 1989.
A study on Jewish Italian family names with foreign toponomastic origins. Lists the etymology of about 130 family names from places in Germany, France, Spain, etc.
Efraim Zadoff & Florina F. Goldberg (co-editors.). Enciclopedia de la Historia y la Cultura del Pueblo Judio, Jerusalem, 1998. (Encyclopedia of History and Culture of the Jewish People)
Efraim Zadoff, an independent scholar expert in Jewish history in modern Latin America, is co-editor of the new edition of the Encyclopaedia Judaica. He received an M.A. from the Institute of Contemporary Jewry of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a Ph.D. from Tel Aviv University. He is a member of AMILAT – Research Association of Latin American Jewry and co-editor of Judaica Latinoamericana. The encyclopedia is multidisciplinary and cross-thematic. The works included are the result of the ongoing work of researchers in Israel, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Germany, and a chronological spectrum ranging from colonial times to today, and are grouped in thematic areas and in some cases broad interdisciplinary : community dynamics, economics and politics, Zionist history, literature and culture
Sephardic Family Trees found in Jewish Encyclopedias by Mathilde Tagger
Family trees found in The Jewish Encyclopedia (NY 1901-1904) or Encyclopaedia Judaica (Jerusalem, 1972)
Distinguished Jewish bearers of the Costa name and its variants include : Emanuel Mendez da Costa (1717-1791), English botanist, naturalist, philosopher. He was one of the first Jewish Fellows of the Royal Society of London. Uriel da Costa or Acosta (1585-1640) was a Dutch philosopher,originally from Portugal. Israel Costa (19th century), Tunisian rabbi Sir Michael Costa (Michele Andrea Agniello Costa (1808-1848), Italian maestro Alonso Cota - a wealthy New-Christian and tax-farmer in Toledo who was attacked in 1449.
Around the 12th century, surnames started to become common in Iberia. In Spain, where Arab-Jewish influence was significant, these new names retained their old original structure, so that many of the Jewish surnames were of Hebrew derivation. Others were directly related to geographical locations and were acquired due to the forced wanderings caused by exile and persecution. Other family names were a result of conversion, when the family accepted the name of their Christian sponsor. In many cases, the Portuguese Jews bear surnames of pure Iberian/Christian origin. Many names have been changed in the course of migration from country to country. In yet other cases "aliases", or totally new names, were adopted due to fear of persecution by the Inquisition.
Here are some locations where registries of Sephardic or Christianized Jewish families with this surname have been traced: Aragon, Spain,Cataluna, Spain,Galicia, Spain,Portugal, ,Amsterdam, Netherlands,Argozelo, Portugal,Azores, Portugal,Bahia, Brasil,Barcelos, Portugal,Beja, Portugal,Braganca, Portugal,Buenos Aires, Argentina,Covilha, Portugal,Dutch Brazil, Brasil,Evora, Portugal,Faro, Portugal,Ferrara, Italy,Hamburg, Germany,Ilha Terceira, Portugal,Kingston, Jamaica,Lagos, Portugal,Leiria, Portugal,Lisbon, Portugal,Livorno (Leghorn), Italy,London, England,Marseille, France,Massarelos, Portugal,Middleburg, Netherlands,Minas Gerais, Brasil,Napoli, Italy,Ouro Preto, Brasil,Paraty, Brasil,Penamacor, Portugal,Pernambuco, Brasil,Ponta Delgada, Portugal,Porto, Portugal,Rio de Janeiro, Brasil,Rome, Italy,Rowe's Corner, Jamaica,Sahara, Algeria,Sao Miguel, Portugal,Sao Paulo, Brasil,Smyrna, Netherlands,Sousse, Tunisia,Tavira, Portugal,Tunis, Tunisia,Puerto Rico, USA,
Some interesting facts about the name this name are : COSTA is mentioned 49 times in Book of Guilties.The name appears in the records of the Inquisitions of Lisbon, Evora and Coimbra. The family of Da Costa is probably identical with that of the Mendez da Costa. It has even been suggested that an early Mendes called himself Mendez da Costa ("Mendes of the Coast"). The arms of the two families both in England and in Holland are practically identical (from Jewish Encyclopedia).
Some common variations of Costa are da Costa, Dacosta, Acosta, Cota,
The following websites are relevant to the surname Costa:
http://www.brasilsefarad.com/joomla/images/stories/Biblioteca/mitosobrenomes.pdf
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=809&letter=C&search=Costa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uriel_da_Costa
http://www.hebrewhistory.org/factpapers/40dacostas.html,http://www.familytreedna.com/public/IberianDNA/default.aspx?section=results,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marrano,
