Hello Shirley!
Thank you for reminding me that when talking about Azorean-Jewish roots it is
important to remember that there was a very busy and well established Jewish
presence in the Azores beginning in the 19th century when Jews from Morocco
came to the islands. That wave is fairly well documented and tracing back to
that group can be done. There is also a Jewish Cemetery outside Ponta Delgada,
and the synagogue there (which I have visited) is under restoration. Some of
the descendants of those settlers moved away to Lisbon and many others were
assimilated into Azorean society which I suppose is a euphamism for marrying
out of the faith and converting to Christianity. The Jewish presence in the
Azores from that group is much reduced in the Azores today.
But in the beginning phase (let us say from 1444 to 1598) of the settlement of
the islands, there were Jews that settled in the Azores, a place so raw and
undeveloped that the struggle for survival would make them stand out less, and
the struggle of their gentile neighbors would give those neighbors less time to
pay attention to other people's business. However, once the Inquisition began
its work, life became much more precarious for the Jews in the Azores. It was
probably then that many "converted" or practiced their faith clandestinely.
There are records from the Inquisition documenting the arrest, trial and
punishments of Jews from the Azores who were sent to Lisbon.
There would not have been any vital records kept by the government. After all,
vital records were those baptismal, marriage and death records kept by the
Catholic Church and Jews would not be baptizing their children, marrying in the
church, nor getting the last rites when they were dying.
I add all this to the conversation to help people understand why tracing
Azorean ancestry back to the early settlers is very, very difficult. Of course,
in your case, you descend from the Jews who came from Morocco and you have good
documentation.
I hope you will continue to contribute to the discussion.
John
From: Shirl Sereque
To: "azores@googlegroups.com"
Sent: Tuesday, April 23, 2013 1:59 AM
Subject: Re: [AZORES-Genealogy] (Jews?)
There is a Jewish cemetery on Terceira that lists all the Jewish people who are
buried there. Some are still Jewish. My brother's DNA had a match with a man
in Puerto Rico. The man said his cousin was sure that they were Jewish at one
time (he was Christian). I was able to tell him that way-back-then "we" were
Jewish. His cousin was happy to know that his hunch was true, for what it
matters.
- Shirl -
This subject continues to pluck on very sensitive strings. The historical
documentation does not support a significant number of avowed (openly
practicing, suspected of practicing, or known) Jews in the settlement or
subsequent population of the Azores. You can look at all the historical
research all you want, and you will not find evidence for much of a presence of
Jews in any significant number in the Azores. That being said, that does not
mean that there were not Jews who were cryptic, i.e. secret Jews, who did not
avow or practice their faith openly. We'll never know how many of those there
might have been.
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