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 <shirl.sere...@frontier.com> To: "azores@googlegroups.com" <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. -- For options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail (vacation) mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my membership." --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Azores Genealogy" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to azores+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to azores@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/azores?hl=en. -- For options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail (vacation) mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my membership." --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Azores Genealogy" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to azores+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to azores@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/azores?hl=en.
