NAMES ANALYSIS REPORT
You searched for:"Mendes",
Here's what we found
The English meaning of Mendes is Son of Mendo.
The name Mendes is of Portuguese origin.
The surname Mendes is aPatronymic 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 Mendes 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 Mendes is cited with respect to Jews & Crypto-Jews in at least 103 bibliographical, documentary, or electronic references:
From the records of Bevis Marks, The Spanish and Portuguese Congregation of London
Bevis Marks is the Sephardic synagogue in London. It is over 300 years old and is the oldest still in use in Britain.The Spanish and Portuguese Jews' Congregation of London has published several volumes of its records: they can be found in libraries such as the Cambridge University Library or the London Metropolitan Archive
From the burial register of Bethahaim Velho Cemetery, Published by the Jewish Historical Society of England and transcribed by R. D. Barnett.
The register gives us dates for the burials in the "Bethahaim Velho" or Old Cemetery. The dates are listed as per the Jewish calendar.
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.
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 Marranos, by Cecil Roth.
The expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 by the infamous decree of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella was the culmination of a series of anti-Jewish persecutions throughout the 14th and 15th centuries in which thousands of Jews were massacred. Thousands of others converted in order to escape death. After the expulsion many more joined the ranks of these "new Christians" as an alternative to exile. A large number of converts, while outwardly professing Christianity, secretly continued to practice Judaism. These Marranos, as they were popularly known, were then mercilessly persecuted by the dreaded Inquisition which through tortures of forced confessions and auto-da-fes sent thousands to the stake. Many others managed to escape to countries outside the reach of the Inquisition where they created a widespread Marrano diaspora. Thousands of Marranos have survived even into our times. This seminal work by the eminent historian traces the tribulation of these secret Judaizers as well as the fate of those who succeeded in escaping to other lands where many of them rose to prominence in various fields of endeavor.
Jews in Colonial Brazil, by Arnold Wiznitzer
Professor Wiznitzer gathered detailed information about individual Jewish settlers in colonial Brazil and about cases where they were brought before the Inquisition at Lisbon, and his study throws new light on some phases of Brazilian colonial history. Many Jews fled to Brazil and others were deported to the colony as convicted heretics after the King of Portugal attemtped to compel all of his Jewish subjects to accept Christianity in 1497.They were active in the establishment of the sugar industry and in trade, and they maintained close relations with another large group of exiles who had taken refuge in Amsterdam.Most of the "new Christians" continued to practice the old religion secretly.
The Jews of the Balkans, The Judeo-Spanish Community , 15th to 20th Centuries, by Esther Benbassa and Aron Rodrigue
This volume is a history of the Sephardi diaspora in the Balkans. The two principal axes of the study are the formation and features of the Judeo-Spanish culture area in South-Eastern Europe and around the Aegean littoral, and the disintegration of this community in the modern period. The great majority of the Jews expelled from Spain in 1492 eventually went to the Ottoman Empire. With their command of Western trades and skills, they represented a new economic force in the Levant. In the Ottoman Balkans, the Jews came to reconstitute the bases of their existence in the semi-autonomous spheres allowed to them by their new rulers. This segment of the Jewish diaspora came to form a certain unity, based on a commonality of the Judeo-Spanish language, culture and communal life. The changing geopolitics of the Balkans and the growth of European influence in the 19th century inaugurated a period of westernization. European influence manifested itself in the realm of education, especially in the French education, dispensed in the schools of the Alliance Israelite Universelle with its headquarters in Paris. Other European cultures and languages came to the scene through similar means. Cultural movements such as the Jewish Enlightenment (haskalah) also came to exert a distinct influence, hence building bridges between the Ashkenazi and Sephardi worlds
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.
The Sephardim of England, by Albert M. Hyamson
A history of the Spanish & Portugese Jewish Community, 1492-1951.
Crisis and Creativity in the Sephardic World: 1391-1648,edited by Gampel.
This book explores antecedents,causes, mechanics and aftermath of the 1492 expulsion from Spain and lists Sephardic movers and shakers during the period.
Secrecy and Deceit: The Religion of the Crypto-Jews, by David Gitlitz
Despite the increased attention given to Hispano-Jewish topics, and the "conversos" or Crypto-Jews in particular, this is the first thorough compilation of their customs and practices. The author has culled from Inquisition documents and other sources to paint a portrait of the richness and diversity of Crypto-Jewish practices in Spain, Portugal, and the New World. The history of Spanish Jews, or Sephardim, stretches back to biblical times. The Jews of Spain and Portugal made formative contributions to all Hispanic cultures, the impact of which is first being measured and recognized today. The Sephardim experienced a Golden Age in Iberia between 900-1100, during which they acted as the intermediaries between the rival political and cultural worlds of Islam and Christianity. This Golden Age ended with the Reconquest of Spain by Catholic overlords, though for another 300 years the Jews continued to contribute to Iberian life. In 1391 and again in 1492, intense and violent social pressures were put upon the Jews to join the larger Christian community. Many Jews converted, often unwillingly. In 1492 the remaining Jews were exiled from Spain. The converted Jews (Conversos) became an underclass in Spanish society. Many of them clung tenaciously to Jewish practices in the face of torture and death at the hands of the Inquisition. Having lost contact with other Jews, these people developed a religion which was an admixture of Catholic and Jewish rituals. David Gitlitz examines these practices in detail and attempts to answer the question of whether the Conversos were in fact Jewish. Gitlitz's research is exhaustive. He has combed through thousands of Inquistion records, showing that a sense of "Jewishness" if not Jewish practice remained a core value of many Spaniards' lives well into the 1700s. Gitlitz is convincing in showing that the Inquisition unwittingly aided crypto-Jews in perpetuating themselves by publishing Edicts of Faith. Essentially checklists for informers, they described the behavior of "Judaizers" (sometimes the practices listed were absurd or simply erroneous). These, ironically, were used by Judaizers as guides to religious behavior. It is revealing that as the Inquisition faded, crypto-Judaism waned, though never totally vanished. Gitlitz's knowledge and research on the subject is encyclopedic. The book is written in a "textbook" style which makes it somewhat technical and dry, though it is enlivened by excerpts from Inquisition records, which Gitlitz has apparently chosen for their interest, irony, unintended comedy, or spiritedness. It is difficult to imagine that human beings would face the tortures of the rack for not eating pork. That these same tortured people could summon the will to laugh at their executioners is something wondrous. The book includes the names of the Sephardim (and sometimes their residences too).
The Jews of Jamaica, by Richard D. Barnett and Philip Wright.Oron Yoffe, Ben-Zvi Institute, Jerusalem, 1997.
The product of many years of painstaking research by two late scholars, Richard D. Barnett and Philip Wright, this volume presents the texts or summaries of 1456 tombstone inscriptions of Jews who lived in Jamaica between 1663, when the British ousted the Spanish, and 1880, when systematic registration of deaths was introduced. Jewish families who had fled the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal settled in Jamaica in increasing numbers during that time. Ashkenazic Jews also settled there in the eighteenth century. The Jews played a significant part in developing the island's natural resources and its international trade. Featuring detailed indexes by name, date and language, The Jews of Jamaica is a valuable tool for the study of immigration to the Americas, the surnames, given names and genealogy of Sephardi Jews. The texts of the inscriptions, many of them in three languages (Hebrew, English and Portuguese or Spanish), are of cultural interest and sometimes refer to dramatic events in the lives of the Jewish residents of Jamaica during a turbulent period.
Die Sefarden in Hamburg (The Sephardim in Hamburg) by Michael Studemund-Halevy.
The Sephardic community of Hamburg was founded by Portuguese conversos who had settled in the Hamburg area during the three decades prior to 1611.
Judios Conversos (Jewish Converts) by Mario Javier Saban. Distal, Buenos Aires, 1990. The ancestors of the Argentinian Jewish families.
This best-selling work traces the immigration of Conversos from Portugal to Argentina and Brazil. It contains many Sephardic names and family trees within its 3 volumes. Many of the individuals listed appeared before the Inquisition and were secret Jews. Some later converted and intermarried. Many of the names listed here represent the famous names of Jewish/Sephardic Argentina. Over 100 pages of genealogies, well detailed, are provided.
Judios Conversos(Jewish Converts) by Mario Javier Saban. Distal, Buenos Aires, 1990. The ancestors of Argentinian Jewish families. List of Portuguese Jews expelled from Buenos Aires, 1603.
This best-selling work traces the immigration of Conversos from Portugal to Argentina and Brazil. It contains many Sephardic names and family trees within its 3 volumes. Many of the individuals listed appeared before the Inquisition and were secret Jews. Some later converted and intermarried. Many of the names listed here represent the famous names of Jewish/Sephardic Argentina. Over 100 pages of genealogies, well detailed, are provided.
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
From the civil records of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
The Amsterdam Municipal Archives possess a complete set of registers of intended marriages from 1578 to 1811, the year when the present Civil Registry was started. Between 1598 and 1811, 15238 Jewish couples were entered in these books. Both the number of records and the volume of data that may be extracted from them are unprecedented.
Noble Families Among The Sephardic Jews, by Isaac Da Costa, Bertram Brewster, and Cecil Roth.
This book provides genealogy information about many of the more famous Sephardic families of Iberia, England and Amsterdam. It documents the assimilation, name changes and conversion of many Sephardic families in Spain, England and The Netherlands. There is a large section dealing with the genealogy of the members of Capadose and Silva families in Spain and Portugal. This reference includes genealogical tables and a translation of Da Costa’s 1850 work "Israel and the Gentiles", with chapters by Bertram Brewster on the Capadose conversion to Christianity and by Cecil Roth on their Jewish history.
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.
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).
The circumcision register of Isaac and Abraham de Paiba (1715-1775): 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.
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).
The circumcision register of Isaac and Abraham de Paiba (1715-1775): 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.
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).
The circumcision register of Isaac and Abraham de Paiba (1715-1775): 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.
ETSI, Volume 4, No.12 dated March 2001, "Aliases in Amsterdam", by Viberke Sealtiel-Olsen, a list of alias names used by Sephardim in Amsterdam. True Sephardic Name=Alias Name
When the Conversos fled Portugal to settle in Amsterdam they returned openly to Judaism. Because they often still had relatives in Portugal, they tried to protect them by using aliases in their transactions. However, it wasn’t only the Portuguese who wound up in Amsterdam. Even a century after 1492, conversos were finding their way from Spain to Amsterdam. Listing a person as a Portuguese merchant generally meant he was Jewish. Their family contacts worldwide, along with their language skills, were great commercial assets in their farflung business ventures. And in their contacts with family back home, they had to be discreet as to not bring suspicion on relatives left behind This work is a wonderful research tool for Sephardic research in Amsterdam.
ETSI, Volume 4, No.12 dated March 2001, "Aliases in Amsterdam", by Viberke Sealtiel-Olsen, a list of alias names used by Sephardim in Amsterdam. Alias Name=True Sephardic Name
When the Conversos fled Portugal to settle in Amsterdam they returned openly to Judaism. Because they often still had relatives in Portugal, they tried to protect them by using aliases in their transactions. However, it wasn’t only the Portuguese who wound up in Amsterdam. Even a century after 1492, conversos were finding their way from Spain to Amsterdam. Listing a person as a Portuguese merchant generally meant he was Jewish. Their family contacts worldwide, along with their language skills, were great commercial assets in their farflung business ventures. And in their contacts with family back home, they had to be discreet as to not bring suspicion on relatives left behind This work is a wonderful research tool for Sephardic research in Amsterdam.
From the records of Bevis Marks, The Spanish and Portuguese Congregation of London
Bevis Marks is the Sephardic synagogue in London. It is over 300 years old and is the oldest still in use in Britain.The Spanish and Portuguese Jews' Congregation of London has published several volumes of its records: they can be found in libraries such as the Cambridge University Library or the London Metropolitan Archive
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.
The Inquisitors and the Jews in the New World, by Seymour B. Liebman. Reports the names of people who appeared before the inquisition in the New Spain
Except for a brief introduction, the entire book is a listing of Inquisition Records in the New World. This is a source for converso names in the New World.
The Inquisitors and the Jews in the New World, by Seymour B. Liebman.Reports the names of people who appeared before the inquisition in New Granada
Except for a brief introduction, the entire book is a listing of Inquisition Records in the New World. This is a source for converso names in the New World.
The Inquisitors and the Jews in the New World, by Seymour B. Liebman. Reports the names of people who appeared before the inquisition in El Peru.
Except for a brief introduction, the entire book is a listing of Inquisition Records in the New World. This is a source for converso names in the New World.
A History of the Marranos, by Cecil Roth.
The expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 by the infamous decree of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella was the culmination of a series of anti-Jewish persecutions throughout the 14th and 15th centuries in which thousands of Jews were massacred. Thousands of others converted in order to escape death. After the expulsion many more joined the ranks of these "new Christians" as an alternative to exile. A large number of converts, while outwardly professing Christianity, secretly continued to practice Judaism. These Marranos, as they were popularly known, were then mercilessly persecuted by the dreaded Inquisition which through tortures of forced confessions and auto-da-fes sent thousands to the stake. Many others managed to escape to countries outside the reach of the Inquisition where they created a widespread Marrano diaspora. Thousands of Marranos have survived even into our times. This seminal work by the eminent historian traces the tribulation of these secret Judaizers as well as the fate of those who succeeded in escaping to other lands where many of them rose to prominence in various fields of endeavor.
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.
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.
Secrecy and Deceit: The Religion of the Crypto-Jews, by David Gitlitz
Despite the increased attention given to Hispano-Jewish topics, and the "conversos" or Crypto-Jews in particular, this is the first thorough compilation of their customs and practices. The author has culled from Inquisition documents and other sources to paint a portrait of the richness and diversity of Crypto-Jewish practices in Spain, Portugal, and the New World. The history of Spanish Jews, or Sephardim, stretches back to biblical times. The Jews of Spain and Portugal made formative contributions to all Hispanic cultures, the impact of which is first being measured and recognized today. The Sephardim experienced a Golden Age in Iberia between 900-1100, during which they acted as the intermediaries between the rival political and cultural worlds of Islam and Christianity. This Golden Age ended with the Reconquest of Spain by Catholic overlords, though for another 300 years the Jews continued to contribute to Iberian life. In 1391 and again in 1492, intense and violent social pressures were put upon the Jews to join the larger Christian community. Many Jews converted, often unwillingly. In 1492 the remaining Jews were exiled from Spain. The converted Jews (Conversos) became an underclass in Spanish society. Many of them clung tenaciously to Jewish practices in the face of torture and death at the hands of the Inquisition. Having lost contact with other Jews, these people developed a religion which was an admixture of Catholic and Jewish rituals. David Gitlitz examines these practices in detail and attempts to answer the question of whether the Conversos were in fact Jewish. Gitlitz's research is exhaustive. He has combed through thousands of Inquistion records, showing that a sense of "Jewishness" if not Jewish practice remained a core value of many Spaniards' lives well into the 1700s. Gitlitz is convincing in showing that the Inquisition unwittingly aided crypto-Jews in perpetuating themselves by publishing Edicts of Faith. Essentially checklists for informers, they described the behavior of "Judaizers" (sometimes the practices listed were absurd or simply erroneous). These, ironically, were used by Judaizers as guides to religious behavior. It is revealing that as the Inquisition faded, crypto-Judaism waned, though never totally vanished. Gitlitz's knowledge and research on the subject is encyclopedic. The book is written in a "textbook" style which makes it somewhat technical and dry, though it is enlivened by excerpts from Inquisition records, which Gitlitz has apparently chosen for their interest, irony, unintended comedy, or spiritedness. It is difficult to imagine that human beings would face the tortures of the rack for not eating pork. That these same tortured people could summon the will to laugh at their executioners is something wondrous. The book includes the names of the Sephardim (and sometimes their residences too).
From the PhD Dissertation of Michelle M. Terrill, "The Historical Archaeology of the 17th and 18th-Century Jewish Community of Nevis, British West Indies", Boston University, 2000
This is an historical archaeological examination of a 17th- and 18th-century Jewish community on the island of Nevis in the British West Indies. Unlike earlier archaeological studies of the Jewish Caribbean Diaspora that focused on single sites, the focus of this investigation was on increasing the understanding of the roles and lives of the Sephardim in the colonial Caribbean. The study of the Neevis community indicates that the Jews of the Caribbean were not fully integrated socially or politically into British colonial society.
The Jews of Jamaica, by Richard D. Barnett and Philip Wright.Oron Yoffe, Ben-Zvi Institute, Jerusalem, 1997.
The product of many years of painstaking research by two late scholars, Richard D. Barnett and Philip Wright, this volume presents the texts or summaries of 1456 tombstone inscriptions of Jews who lived in Jamaica between 1663, when the British ousted the Spanish, and 1880, when systematic registration of deaths was introduced. Jewish families who had fled the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal settled in Jamaica in increasing numbers during that time. Ashkenazic Jews also settled there in the eighteenth century. The Jews played a significant part in developing the island's natural resources and its international trade. Featuring detailed indexes by name, date and language, The Jews of Jamaica is a valuable tool for the study of immigration to the Americas, the surnames, given names and genealogy of Sephardi Jews. The texts of the inscriptions, many of them in three languages (Hebrew, English and Portuguese or Spanish), are of cultural interest and sometimes refer to dramatic events in the lives of the Jewish residents of Jamaica during a turbulent period.
History of the Sephardic Israelite Community in Chile by Moshe Nes-El. Editorial Nascimiento, Chile, 1984.
Most Jews arrived in Chile between 1934–1946, half being from Eastern Europe, 40 percent from Germany, and 10 percent were Sephardic Jews. Many Chilean Jews fled Chile in 1970 after the election of socialist Salvador Allende Gossens as president.
Judios Conversos (Jewish Converts) by Mario Javier Saban. Distal, Buenos Aires, 1990. The ancestors of the Argentinian Jewish families.
This best-selling work traces the immigration of Conversos from Portugal to Argentina and Brazil. It contains many Sephardic names and family trees within its 3 volumes. Many of the individuals listed appeared before the Inquisition and were secret Jews. Some later converted and intermarried. Many of the names listed here represent the famous names of Jewish/Sephardic Argentina. Over 100 pages of genealogies, well detailed, are provided.
Judios Conversos (Jewish Converts) by Mario Javier Saban. Distal, Buenos Aires, 1990. The ancestors of the Argentinian Jewish families. "Portuguese"(Jews) of Santiago del Estero.
This best-selling work traces the immigration of Conversos from Portugal to Argentina and Brazil. It contains many Sephardic names and family trees within its 3 volumes. Many of the individuals listed appeared before the Inquisition and were secret Jews. Some later converted and intermarried. Many of the names listed here represent the famous names of Jewish/Sephardic Argentina. Over 100 pages of genealogies, well detailed, are provided.
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.
Noble Families Among The Sephardic Jews, by Isaac Da Costa, Bertram Brewster, and Cecil Roth.
This book provides genealogy information about many of the more famous Sephardic families of Iberia, England and Amsterdam. It documents the assimilation, name changes and conversion of many Sephardic families in Spain, England and The Netherlands. There is a large section dealing with the genealogy of the members of Capadose and Silva families in Spain and Portugal. This reference includes genealogical tables and a translation of Da Costa’s 1850 work "Israel and the Gentiles", with chapters by Bertram Brewster on the Capadose conversion to Christianity and by Cecil Roth on their Jewish history.
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).
The circumcision register of Isaac and Abraham de Paiba (1715-1775): 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.
The Abarbanel Foundation Website, "Reintegrating the Lost Jews of Spain & Portugal"
List of names of forcibly converted Jews who were tried by the Spanish Inquisition for practicing Judaism in Mexico in the years 1528 - 1815
Ruth Reyes, "Sephardic Family Names from Puerto Rico", The Casa Shalom Journal, Volume 10, Published by The Institute for Marrano-Anusim Studies, Gan Yavneh, Israel 2008
This list is compiled from a catalogue the author found on a visit to Puerto Rico in the Museum of San Juan.
Ruth Reyes, "Sephardic Family Names from Puerto Rico", The Casa Shalom Journal, Volume 10, Published by The Institute for Marrano-Anusim Studies, Gan Yavneh, Israel 2008
This list is compiled from a catalogue the author found on a visit to Puerto Rico in the Museum of San Juan.
Studies on Turkish-Jewish History: Political and Social Relations, Literature and Linguistics, by David Altabe, Erhan Atay and Israel J. KatzSepher Hermon Press, Brooklyn,New York, 1996
In the decade following the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, and during the generation following the forced baptism of the Jews in Portugal in 1498 (many of them Spanish refugees), Sephardim migrated eastward to the Ottoman Empire and were encouraged to settle in those areas devoid of Jews. A vibrant renaissance of Jewish creativity was intimately linked with the fate and fortune of the Ottoman realm that welcomed them.
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.
Ishack and Mathatia de Ishack Aboab, "Livro e Notas de Ydades Reduzido por my Ishack Aboab e Copiado por my Mathatia do Senhor Ishak Aboab" (Books and Notes by Yitzhak Aboab), in Boletim Internacional de Bibliografia Luso-Brasileira 2o, Lisbon, 1961
This article,published by I.S. Revah, is based on the Aboab family genealogy in Amsterdam. The author writes about the relation between the Jewish family and their relatives that stayed Christians.
Laurence Abensur-Hazan. Genealogical Review & Sephardic History, Paris, 1997.
The author is a founder and current President of Etsi ("my tree" in Hebrew), the Sephardi Historical and Genealogical Society based in Paris. A graduate notary and lawyer, she is currently a professional genealogist in Paris. She works on the French naturalization of Jews from the Ottoman Empire and on the Alliance Israelite Universelle Archives.
Antonio Alberto Banha de Andrade. Judeus em Montemor-o-Novo,(Jews in Montemor-o-Novo) Portugal, Academia Portuguesa de História, 1977.
Jewish settlement in the area began prior to Portugal's emergence as a nation. A tradition among the Sephardi Jews ascribes their arrival in Iberia to Roman times, in the wake of the destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E. and subsequent dispersion toward Europe. The existence of a significant Jewish settlement on the peninsula by 300 C.E. is apparent from the edicts of Elvira which proscribe "taking food with the Jews" and single out the Jewish group in a number of dicta. James Finn endeavored to make a case for dating the initial Jewish involvement in the area as early as 900 B.C.E., based on reports of two ancient Hebrew inscriptions, one mentioning Amaziah, King of Judah, and a second marking the grave of King Solomon's treasurer, Adoniram. When Portugal emerged as a distinct national entity under Affonso (Henriques) I ( 1139-85), a number of Jewish centers existed, including a commu nity in Montemor-o-Novo. The author of this work, Antonio Alberto Banha de Andrade, was born in 1915 in Montemor-o-Novo and was a renowned Portuguese historian and teacher who did important work in the fields of religious history, education and culture.
Antonio Pimenta de Castro. The Marranos of Vilarinho dos Galegos, Portugal, Apr/Jun 1996.
Historian Antonio Pimenta de Castro explores the subject of the Crypto-Jews in the riverside village of Vilarinho dos Gallegos (Portugal), which is well known for once having a strong Jewish presence. The marks of Judaism are still very much preserved in the village, even though the Jewish religion was practiced secretly throughout the years.
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.
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.
Samuel Isaac Benchimol."Eretz Amazonia. Os Judeus na Amazonia" (The Jews of the Amazons), Manaus, 1998.
Samuel Isaac Benchimol was born on July 13, 1923 in Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil. He was a writer (with 110 published works), member of the Academia Amazonense de Letras), professor (Emeritus at the Universidade do Amazonas, where he taught for over 50 years), community leader (served as president of the Amazonas Jewish Community from 1975-1985) and businessman. His vast body of intellectual work includes books and articles. His dedication to his community culminated with the publication of this work, “Eretz Amazônia”. Professor Benchimol took it upon himself to visit every Jewish cemetery in the Amazon, listing all the surnames. Later, tracking these surnames, he was able to determine which were the Amazonian families of Jewish origin, extrapolating as in the case of the surname Assayag, nowadays used by thousands of families, many of them assimilated and converted to Christianity.
Pierre Pluchon. "Bordeaux, 1730: List of Families and Taxes paid by them" in Negres et Juifs au XVIII Siecle (Blacks & Jews in the 18th Century), Paris, 1984.
Pierre Pluchon held a diplomatic post in Haiti, which he used for his research. In this work, the Portuguese Jews of Bordeaux are described by their distinct social and political circles.
Ugo Caffaz. Discrimination & Persecution of the Jews in Fascist Italy, Florence, 1988.
Written by a Jewish sociologist in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the promulgation of Mussolini's anti-semitic measures. These began with a manifesto on the race prepared by Italian "scientists" on 14 July 1938 and continued with successive, ever more draconian, edicts throughout the year. This work collects much of this legislation, which expelled foreign Jews from Italian soil and deprived Italian Jews of their civil rights, stripped them of party membership, expelled them from the armed forces, removed them from their positions in government service (and, thus, from educational institutions), barred students from the universities and the public schools, banned marriages between Christians and Jews, forbade Christians from domestic employment in Jewish homes and Jews from the ownership and management of large corporations, among other punitive measures. One of the most valuable features of this book is its listing of every Jew expelled from the education system, specifying university affiliation and discipline.
Rio de Janeiro's Chevra Kadisha (Jewish Burial Society) lists, Rio de Janeiro, august 1998.
Sao Paulo Chevra Kadisha, List of people buried, Sao Paulo 1997.
The Chevra Kadisha (Jewish Burial Society) of Sao Paulo is a Society founded in February 25, 1923, to care for the burial of the Jews of Sao Paulo (city and state). The Society currently runs 4 Jewish cemeteries in Sao Paulo. The research was conducted in three ways: reading the tombstones, a consulting the list of deaths until 24 September 1997, and from the society's records and books. The list of deaths, organized by Prof. Solomon, has the name of the deceased, the grave location and the date of his burial. The books are more detailed, with biographical data, which includes the city of origin, thus enabling it to be confirmed as Sephardic. This is a formal record of one of the most important Jewish communities in Latin America, showing how the country was very attractive for Jews from different and distant locations.
Samuel de Paz. Commonaute Portugaise de Tunisie (Portuguese Community of Tunisia), manuscript, Jerusalem, 1932.
Antonio Cravo. Judeus Portugueses no Espaço Frances (Portuguese Jews in France, in 18th century), in Brigantia, vol XIIl, pp. 211-261, Portugal, jan/jun 1993.
Story of the Portuguese New Christians from Bordeaux at the end of the 18th century. The story focuses on the Pereira family who originated in Braganca and then moved to France. Some of the notable descendants of this family were Jacob Rodrigues Pereira, the inventor of the language for deaf-mutes, the Pereira bankers, and others.
Egon and Frieda Wolff. Biographical Dictionary (II).Jews in Brazil. Century XIX, Rio de Janeiro, 1987.
Egon (1910-1981) and Frieda Wolff (1911-2009). The couple came off a ship in Santos, on February, 12, 1936. They were newly-married and managed to arrive in Brazil after escaping the Nazis, after both having graduated from the University of Berlin. They settled in San Paulo, where they worked as merchants and achieved prosperity as opticians. Later, they moved to Rio de Janeiro, still working in the same field and becoming very active in the local Jewish Community. Mr. Egon became President of the Jewish Hospital. In the 1960's, Mrs. Frieda Wolff said that "curiosity about Jewish immigration to Brazil and the lack of satisfactory answers" required that something be done. The couple then abandoned their other activities to dedicate themselves to their research. Tireless travelers, they started at the National Library, went on to the National Archive, traveled all over cemeteries, Jewish and gentile, throughout the country. They wrote down names, data and genealogy. The couple interviewed hundreds of people, compared thousands of pages; and discovered a number of precious items, like the Jewish tombstones in the city of Vassouras, which became a Historical Monument of the XIX Century and is now a must for tourists visiting the city. The quality of their work led the Brazilian Historical and Geographical Institute to invite them to become members of that prestigious Institute. Their books have undeniable historical value, especially their Seven Biographical Dictionaries. Their "Jews in Brazil in the Nineteenth Century" is the second part of the seven.
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.
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.
Luis Crespo Fabiao. Subsídios para a História dos chamados "judeus-portugueses" na Indústria dos Diamantes em Amsterdão nos séculos XVII e XVIII,(Subsidies for the History of the so-called "Portuguese-Jewish" in the Diamond Industry in Amsterdam in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries),Lisbon, 1973.
The book focuses on the economic activities of the Jews of Amsterdam in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
Liliana Picciotto Fargion.Il Libro Della Memoria, Gli ebrei deportati dall'Italia 1943-1945 (The Book of Memory:Jews Deported from Italy 1943-1945), Mursia, 1991.
This meticulously and painstakingly researched work reconstructs the deportation of Italian Jewry to the German death camps. Out of a Jewish population that by 1943 had been reduced by emigration to slightly over 40,000 (of whom 6,500 were foreigners), 6,746 were deported from Italy proper, and another 1,820 from the Dodecanese, Italian possessions in the Aegean. An additional 303 Jews were killed on Italian soil. Identities of at least 900-1,100 other victims have not been established. This work lists in precise demographic detail the names of the known deceased together with the date and place of each arrest, initial place of incarceration, date of departure for Auschwitz, convoy number (forty-four trains set out from Italy), date of debarkation at the camp (the journey took about five days), and date of execution. For most, this was the same day as arrival. The cover photo of this book shows two-year-old Fiorella Anticoli, seized with her entire family in the infamous roundup of almost 1,300 Roman Jews on 16 October 1943. The arrests were carried out by units of the S.S. specially trained for such "actions" and sent to the Italian capital for the purpose. Working under the very walls of the Vatican, the operation had to be carried out as efficiently and with as little tumult and commotion as possible.
Vibeke Sealtiel Olsen. List of poor Jews who were removed from Amsterdam and received financial assistance to go live in other countries (1757- 1813), Website, Amsterdam, 1999.
This list organized by Olsen relates the names of Jews who received assistance from the Dutch community to emigrate to other countries. The list covers the period 1759-1813 with all the names of the poor Sephardic Jews who were granted Tzedaka(charity) - an amount in Dutch florins- against the promise to leave Amsterdam and not to return within the next 15 years. Despite the image of wealth in this community, this was not the reality. The author Crespo Fabiao, describes the local social pyramid: "On one occasion, during a wedding celebration in the community, the combined wealth of 40 of the guests exceeded 40 million guilders ... By the late eighteenth century, more than half of 2,800 members of the Sephardic-Jewish from the main Synagogue of Amsterdam received financial assistance, and around 17,500 of the Ashkenazim Jews (from a total of 20,304) of that city, were classified as homeless."
Gustavo Barroso. Historia Secreta do Brasil,(The Secret History of Brazil), Rio de Janeiro
There are four volumes written by the lawyer, short story writer, essayist,novelist and politician Forteza Gustavo Barroso (1888-1923). The author was a recognized Anti-Semite.
Lina Gorenstein Ferreira da Silva. Hereticos e Impuros. A Inquisicao e os Cristaos-Novos no Rio de Janeiro Seculo XVIII (Heretics and Impure: The Inquisition and the New Christians in Rio de Janeiro, the eighteenth century), Secretaria Municipal de Cultura, Rio de Janeiro, 1995.
The author graduated in journalism from the University of São Paulo (1973) degree in History from the University of São Paulo (1974), Master of Social History at the University of São Paulo (1993) and PhD in Social History from the University of São Paulo (1999) . and is currently a researcher and coordinator of documentation- LEI: Laboratory for the Study of Intolerance, University of São Paulo.
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.
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.
List of Members and Rabbis of the Congregation "Kahal Kadosh Neveh Shalom", founded in 1704, Website, Jamaica.
Neveh Shalom - Dwelling Place of Peace - was one of the first synagogues built in Spanish Town, Jamaica during the 17th century. The Neveh Shalom Institute is chartered to promote projects to preserve the history, culture, and artifacts of the Jewish existence in, and contribution to Jamaica, from the 17th century.
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.
Luiz de Bivar Guerra. Inventory of the proceedings of the Inquisition of Coimbra(1541-1820), Lisbon, 1972.
Coimbra was the seat of an inquisitional tribunal, one of the four operating in Portuguese territory, besides Lisbon, Évora, and Goa. The tribunal in Coimbra, which tried many distinguished Conversos, disposed of more than 11,000 cases between 1541 and 1820. The trials sometimes lasted for months or even years, during which the accused were held in prison. The accused came in great numbers from Bragança, Braga, Porto, Viseu, Aveiro, Guarda, and Coimbra. From the sermons preached at the auto-da-fé we learn that mothers and grandmothers were held responsible for maintaining Jewish practices and beliefs among the Conversos. Thus, during the first century of its existence, more women than men were tried by the Inquisition of Coimbra. The hardest hit were those who lived in distant and mountainous areas. As late as June 17, 1718, over 60 secret Jews appeared at an auto-da-fé there, some for a fifth or sixth time. Two were burned at the stake and the rest penanced.
Diva Masur. Jewish Cemetery of Recife, Recife, Portugal.
The first Jewish cemetery in Recife, "Cemiterio Israelita do Barro", was inaugurated in June 1926. Prior to that, the Jews of Recife were buried in a non-Jewish cemetery. Their remains were later transferred to the Jewish cemetery.
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.
Michael Molho. Marrano Graves in Salonica.
A diverse Jewish presence in the city preceded the arrival of refugees fleeing Spain and Portugal in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. A native Jewish community (the Romaniots) had lived there since early Roman rule, when Salonica was the pre-eminent metropolis between the Adriatic and Black Sea. Under Byzantine rule, the city absorbed Jews from Hungary and Provence, with each individual creating his or her own community and maintaining an individual language, liturgy and culture. Thousands of Sicilian and Venetian Jews settled in the city when it was sold to Venice in the early 15th century, just before it came — for the second and final time — under the rule of the expanding and increasingly powerful Ottoman Empire. It was under this rule that the ethnic composition of Salonican Jewry came to assume the form it would take for the next five centuries, since roughly 20,000 Jews of Spanish and Portuguese descent flooded the port city between 1493 and 1536.
Mathilde Tagger. Familles sefarades: histoires et genealogies (Sephardic families: History and Genealogy), published in Etsi No 7, Paris, dec 1999.
List of books located in The Jewish National University Library and the Library of the Ben-Zvi Institute in Jerusalem, by Mathilde Tagger that are a source for researching Sephardic families, history and genealogy.
Neusa Fernandes. A Inquisicao em Minas Gerais no sec. XVIII (Inquisition in Minas Gerais in the 18th Century), Rio de Janeiro, 2000.
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.
Mario Javier Saban, "Judios Conversos: Los Antepasados Judios de las Familias Tradicionales Argentinas ",(Jewish Converts: Jewish Ancestors of the Traditional Argentinian Families), I,II-Nuestros Hermanos Mayores, Buenos Aires, 1991/1992.
Portuguese of Jewish descent entered Argentina as early as 1580. Non-Catholics endured religious persecution until about 1813, when the Inquisition was officially abolished. This book traces the immigration of converted Jews from Portugal to Argentina and Brazil. It contains over one hundred pages of genealogies.
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.
Samuel Benchimol. Judeus no Ciclo da Borracha,(Jews in the Rubber Age), Manaus, 1994.
Professor Samuel Benchimol estimates that between 1810 and 1850, before the rubber boom, about 300 Sephardic Jewish families emigrated to the Amazons, and between 1851 and 1910, another 700 arrived. At first, these immigrants found their way to the small towns of the interior of Pará and Amazonas, as Cameta, Almeirim, Obidos, Santarem, Itaituba, Itacoatiara, Tefé, Humaita, Porto Velho, and Belém where they found employment in offices and shops,or trading activities. Later, in the heyday of the boom, they began to advance economically as tenants and owners of rubber plantations in the interior, or as buyers of local products, in the streets of Bethlehem and Manaus. This Jewish immigration of the 19th century did not have the privelege of an organized Jewish community in Manaus and other cities. Only after the rubber boom receded was a strong Jewish Community established in the state capital.
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.
Dr. Albert de Vidas (editor). Erensia Sefardi, Fairfield, CT, USA.
This newsletter which is now online reports on a variety of topics related to the Sephardic world.
Isabel Monteiro. Os judeus na regiao de Viseu (The Jews in the region of Viseu), Viseu, 1997.
Rufina Bernardetti Silva Mausenbaum has extracted names of Jewish women, Jewish family names and names of New Christians in the 16th century in Viseu from this work by Isabel Monteiro.
Victims of the Holocaust (CD); The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- Day Saints, 1997.
Contains the records of victims of the Holocaust, 1939-1945.
Yeshivah Rosh Pinah do Porto, in "Marranos in Portugal by the Portuguese Marrano Committee, 1926 to 1938", London, 1938.
Between 1925 and 1938 an attempt was made to assist the Anusim or secret Jews of Portugal to return to Judaism after Samuel Schwarz, the Polish Jewish mining engineer who had discovered the secret Jewish community in Belmonte, published a book on this subject.In 1929 a boys' boarding school named Rosh Pinah was founded in Oporto to teach Judaism to youngsters from crypto-Jewish families.
The Ghost of Hannah Mendes
When Catherine da Costa, a wealthy Manhattan matron, learns she has only a short time to live, she realizes that her family tree will die unless she passes on its legacy and traditions to her granddaughters. But Suzanne and Francesca, beautiful young women caught up in trendy causes and ambitious careers, have no interest in the past. Catherine almost despairs until one night she is visited by the ghost of her family's anscestor, an indomitable Renaissance businesswoman named Hannah Mandes. The ghost of Hannah Mendes encourages Catherine to use every trick in the book to coerce the granddaughters to journey across Europe and acquaint themselves with their roots. While the sisters honor their grandmother's request out of loyalty, they believe their quest is futile--until it starts to uncover ancient pages from Hannah Mendes's fascinating memoir, and brings new loves into their lives.
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 Mendes name and its variants include : Mendes (or Méndez or Mendezia or Nasi), Gracia (alias Beatriz de Luna) (1510-1568). She was known also as Gracia Nasí. She was a very rich and powerful woman, descended from a family who fled from Spain to Portugal persecuted by the Inquisition. Henry (Haim) Pereira Mendes,rabbi (1852-1937), England-USA. Fernando Mendes (d.1724), Crypt-Jewish physician in English Court. Abraham Pereira Mendes, English rabbi and educationist; born in Kingston, Jamaica, Feb. 9, 1825; died in New York April 18, 1893
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: Bayonne, France,Bordeaux, France,Portugal, ,Recife, Brasil,Sao Paulo, Brasil,Algarve, Portugal,Alter do Chao, Portugal,Amazonas, Brazil,Amsterdam, Netherlands,Angra do Heroismo, Portugal,Azores, Portugal,Bahia, Brasil,Belem, portugal,Braganca, Portugal,Buenos Aires, Argentina,Castelo Branco, Portugal,Cedovim, Portugal,Coimbra, Portugal,Covilha, Portugal,Curralinho, Brasil,Dutch Brazil, Brasil,Elvas, Portugal,Evora, Portugal,Faial, Portugal,Faro, Portugal,Ferrara, Italy,Fozcoa, Portugal,Freixo de Espada-a-Cinta, Portugal,Funchal, Portugal,Fundao, Portugal,Hamburg, Germany,Horta, Portugal,Idanha-a-Nova, Portugal,Ilha Terceira, Portugal,Istanbul, Turkey,Kingston, Jamaica,Lisbon, Portugal,Livorno (Leghorn), Italy,London, England,Loule, Portugal,Mariana, Brasil,Minas Gerais, Brasil,Monforte, Portugal,Montemor-o-Novo, Portugal,Moura, Portugal,Oliveira dos Azemeis, Portugal,Ouro Preto, Brasil,Parintins, Brasil,Penamacor, Portugal,Pinhel, Portugal,Pisa, Italy,Porto, Portugal,Porto Alegre, Brasil,Redondo, Portugal,Ribeira Grande, Portugal,Ribeirao do Carmo, Brasil,Rio das Mortes, Brasil,Rio de Janeiro, Brasil,Rome, Italy,Sahara, Algeria,Saloniki, Greece,Sao Miguel, Portugal,Serpa, Portugal,Serro Frio, Brasil,Sousel, Portugal,Spanishtown, Jamaica,Tomar, Portugal,Torino, Italy,Vila Franca, Portugal,Vila Real, Portugal,Vilarinho dos Galegos, Portugal,Vinhais, Portugal,Viseu, Portugal,
Some interesting facts about the name this name are : MENDES is mentioned 66 times in the Book of Guilties. The name Mendes has various origins and also comes from the patronymic name Mendo. Mendes is one of the oldest Sephardic families. It continued in Spain and in Spanish possessions long after 1492, the year of the general expulsion.The name Mendes appears in the records of the Inquisitions of Lisbon, Evora and Coimbra.Mendes is a very common name among New Christians.The name Mendes has various origins and also comes from the patronymic name Mendo. By the mid-1500s the Mendes family of Antwerp (former conversos from Portugal) controlled the major portion of the pepper and spice trade in northern Europe.The earliest Mendes tombstone now in existence in Bayonne is that of Rodrigues Mendes (1637).
Some common variations of Mendes are Mendez, Mendix,
The following websites are relevant to the surname Mendes:
http://www.brasilsefarad.com/joomla/images/stories/Biblioteca/mitosobrenomes.pdf
http://www.saudades.org/Woman_influence.htm
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=455&letter=M
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=448&letter=M&search=Mendes
http://www.sephardicstudies.org/pdf/m1.pdf
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10667-mendes
http://www.houseofnames.com/mendes-family-crest
