Sephardic Jewish Genealogy

I am a professional genealogist working on Sephardic Jewish genealogy. If you have arrived at this page hoping to obtain Portuguese citizenship, there has been a major change to the rules, effectively closing the possibility to people who have not already registered with the Ministry of Justice. Read the report by the Sephardic Genealogical Society. I am no longer helping new applicants for Portuguese citizenship.

Your Sephardic ancestry is a treasure worth recovering and an incredible family history to pass down to future generations. If you want this history researched for you, or want help in creating a Sephardic family tree, please get in touch.

Who are the Sephardic Jews?

Rimonim are bells that decorate a Western Sephardic Torah scroll

Jews lived in the Iberian peninsula since Roman times. Some had arrived from Judea and others had converted. The community survived invasions by Visigoths, Muslims and Catholic Christians. Sometimes Jews were compelled, or chose to, assimilate into the majority community. There was a major wave of murders and forced conversions in 1391.

In 1492, following the final defeat of Islam on the Iberian peninsula, Jews in Castile and Aragon (‘Spain’) were given the options of conversion to Catholicism or exile. Those who chose exile either joined previous waves of refugees in Morocco or else headed into the Mediterranean, often travelling via the Italian peninsula or North Africa to the Ottoman Turkish Empire .

A third group of exiles crossed the land border into Portugal, where they merged with a smaller pre-established community. Jews in Portugal were forcibly converted to Catholicism in 1497 but given a generation to learn the rules. The descendants of these Portuguese Jews are variously called New Christians, conversos (converts), anusim (Hebrew: forced ones), marranos (Spanish: swine). Spain annexed Portugal in 1580, after which many Portuguese New Christians moved to Spain.

The Inquisition

Spanish Inquisition, detail of a painting of the 1680 Madrid auto-da-fe

The Inquisition was introduced into Spain in 1478 and to Portugal in 1536. It was a tribunal established to ensure Catholic orthodoxy. The Inquisition had no authority over unbaptised Jews. It was self-funding, so took a great interest in Portuguese New Christians who had gravitated to the merchant and professional classes. Portugal’s independence war from Spain, which started in 1640, did not help the position of Portuguese New Christians in Spanish territory. 

Portuguese New Christians sometimes reverted to the Judaism of their ancestors, establishing communities in Venice, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Livorno, London, Bordeaux and elsewhere, including New York, Jamaica and – briefly – Brazil. As Jews, this community self-identified as the Nação Portuguesa (Portuguese Nation), and later as (Spanish &) Portuguese Jews. They probably never numbered more than 50,000 souls.

The Three Sephardic Jewish sub-groups

Jews are famously mobile, but for genealogical purposes it is helpful to sub-divide Iberian Sephardim into three groups: 1. the Megorashim of parts of Morocco and Algeria; 2. the Eastern Sephardim of western Turkey, Greece, southern Balkans and other former Ottoman lands; 3. The Western Sephardim of Amsterdam, London, New York, Jamaica etc. Italian Jews, Italkim, were treated as honorary Sephardim while most other Jewish sub-groups were treated less respectfully.

Through genealogy we are learning that there was more traffic between these communities than the history books tell us. Also, new communities were established containing Jews from multiple backgrounds, of which Egypt is a notable example.

The Eastern Sephardim traditionally spoke Ladino/Judeo-Spanish. The Megorashim spoke Haketia (sometimes also called Ladino) and/or Judeo-Arabic. The Western Sephardim traditionally spoke Portuguese, although many also spoke Castilian Spanish.

Communities and families of believed Sephardic ancestry

There are some proven communities of Iberian Jewish ancestry, such as in the town of Belmonte in Portugal, the Chuetas on the Spanish island of Majorca, and the Dönmeh community now in Turkey. Genetic research and archival research into specific lineages can also prove connections.

Also, there are also individuals and communities who believe they have distant Sephardic ancestry, but without solid evidence. These sometimes self-define as crypto-Jews or “bnei anousim” (meaning descendants of forced converts). The situation has been confused by the involvement of an assertive and perhaps ideologically-driven crypto-Jewish movement often led by well-meaning Ashkenazim. Sometimes claims of Sephardic ancestry rest on family traditions or surnames, which alone do not constitute evidence in genealogy. At the lunatic fringe of the bnei anusim movement, it is claimed that millions (more recently, hundreds of millions!) of Latin Americans have Sephardic ancestry.

Even when ancestry is proven, the circumstances under which ancestors left Judaism is often unknowable. Sometimes we may be looking at a single Jewish ancestral line, out of hundreds or thousands of others. I think it is important to respect all ancestors, Catholic as well as Jewish. My view is that everyone is welcome into Sephardic genealogy where they follow the principles of genealogy, including that every genealogical claim must be accompanied by verifiable evidence. If you are researching possible crypto-Jewish ancestry, then I recommend you read the pages on crypto-Jews, Sephardic surnames, my blog, and the Sephardic Genealogical Society’s Code of Conduct.

Some Ashkenazi Jewish families have traditions of Sephardic ancestry from eastern Europe. This has only been proven in a handful of cases. It is hoped that genetic research will provide a conclusive answer.

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