After the expulsions and departures from Spain and Portugal, Sephardic Jews settled in ports and cities across Europe, the Mediterranean, North Africa, the Caribbean, the Americas and Asia. These communities were not isolated: they formed a single network of family, trade and religion, and a family found in one place can almost always be traced to another. The guides below cover each community’s history, surviving records and archives — choose the place your family passed through.
New to this research? Start with Getting started in Sephardic genealogy and our guide to Sephardic records.
Europe
- Albania
- Belgium
- Bosnia-Herzegovina
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Denmark
- England
- France: Bordeaux and Bayonne · other French towns
- Germany: Hamburg and Altona
- Gibraltar
- Greece: Salonica, Rhodes and Corfu · the Dönmeh
- Ireland
- Italy: Ancona, Ferrara, Rome and the North · Livorno · Venice · minor Italian states
- Kosovo
- The Netherlands
- North Macedonia: Bitola (Monastir)
- Portugal and the Portuguese Inquisition
- Romania
- Russia
- Serbia
- Spain
The Americas
- Argentina
- Barbados
- Bonaire
- Brazil
- Canada
- Curaçao
- Dominican Republic
- Jamaica
- Martinique
- Mexico
- Peru
- St Eustatius (Statia)
- St Kitts and Nevis
- Suriname
- United States · New York · Newport · Charleston · Philadelphia
- US Virgin Islands: St Thomas
- Venezuela
Africa, the Middle East and Asia
- Algeria
- Egypt
- India
- Iran
- Israel
- Lebanon
- Libya
- Macau (China)
- Morocco
- The Philippines
- South Africa
- Syria: Damascus and Aleppo
- Tunisia: the Grana
- Turkey and the Ottoman Empire
Related research
- Ashkenazim with Sephardic ancestry
- Crypto-Jews and Bnei Anusim
- Crypto-Jews in the Americas · New Mexico
If the community you are looking for is not listed, it may appear within a neighbouring guide — many smaller settlements are covered inside the country pages. And if your research stalls, you can hire a Sephardic genealogist.