15 Grandmothers: 80 Names

[Este artículo en Español aqui]

15 Grandmothers: 88 Names
By Genie Milgrom

A few months ago, I shared my personal journey with the readers of esefarad, as I recounted the story of My 15 Grandmothers, ( Mis 15 Abuelas ) . In that article , I traced my Judio Converso Roots back to a small village in Spain named Fermoselle. My roots are firmly planted there and in 520 years my family did not leave the tiny village of Fermoselle that sits on the North West banks of the Duero River, separating Spain and Portugal.

Since the writing of the article, much additional genealogical work has been done on my maternal lineage and I would like to share some of those very important findings with you today.

It is interesting to note that Fermoselle is known as a town of emigrants. So much so, that at the entrance (or exit) of the village is a monument depicting the emigrant. When I stand in front of the statue, I can almost see my grandfather in that young man of bronze as he left the village in 1920 with nothing but a satchel on his back and a well-worn and handed down leather suitcase in his hand.

I always see the glimmer of hope staring at the horizon with the glazed over bronze eyes and I wish I could tell him how many of his descendents still have in their souls a longing and haunting passion for the Village of Fermoselle.

Many e mails and comments on blogs on my original article and findings come to me daily and interestingly enough an overwhelming amount of the writers have roots in this tiny Village. From Argentina, Chile, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, United States and Uruguay I see the comments and most all yearn for more information on this past jew of Fermoselle that I have written about. There is trepidation as well as fascination in the questions and comments and more often than not, I hear about their own now fading stories that were told by the aging grandmother or aunt and they all say “ You know, we come from Jews . Don’t ever forget, we have Jewish Roots.” So many people telling me of their Jewish roots from Fermoselle yet my search has been a difficult one and the vestiges in the town are being found but slowly slowly a bigger picture is emerging.

I would like to share the names that are on my family tree but at the same time I would like to caution and clarify that some of these names are very common in Spain and Portugal and they do not , by themselves, make someone Jewish or indicate a Jewish background. They can be used as a historical indicator to begin a genealogical search in the vicinity of Fermoselle. Due to the fact that in my case, there were historical documents from the Inquistion and other information, on my tree, they were all used as Judio Converso names.

The list is as follows:

Alvarez, Andres, Asensio, Barbero, Bartholome, Barrueco, Bernardo, Carvajal, Castro, Clemente, Conde, Croquete, Cuvillos, De Castro, De Cuvillos, De la Torre, De la Torre Villar, De la Peña, De la Puente, De Velasco, Del Seco, Diez, Diez-Regojo, Fariza, Farizo, Farmoselle, Fernandez, Fernando, Garcia, Garrido, Gonzales, Gonzalez, Gordo, Goveia, Guerra, Juarez, Losado, Maior, Maior-Valero,  Maldonado, Manzana, Manzano, Margarida, Martin, Martin de la Torre, Martin de Ledesma, Martin Peños, Mayor, Montaña, Montaño, Montes, Peños, Perez, Puente, Ramires, Ramirez, Ramos de la Torre, Perez, Puente, Ramos, Ramos-Almendral, Ramos de la Puente, Ramos de la Torre, Ramos Ramos, Regojo, Robledo, Robles, Rodrigues, Rodriguez, Piriz, Santos, Seisdedos, Serrana, Serrano, Velasco, Villar, Villarino.

My findings have been verified by Stan Hordes PH.D., Adjunct Research Professor at the Latin American and Iberian Institute at the University of New Mexico after he meticulously reviewed all the documentation which included birth, death and notarial references as well as Inquisition Documentation. He stated as follows “In view of the above, and of the fact that endogamy was practiced to a great degree among crypto-Jewish families in small towns like Fermoselle, including among the ancestors in the unbroken maternal line of Ms. Milgrom, I can conclude that it is almost certain that the maternal ancestors of Ms. Milgrom were crypto-Jews living along the Spanish-Portuguese border in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, descendants of Iberian Jews who had been forced to convert from Judaism to Catholicism in the fifteenth century.”

There have also been two important additions to the genealogical information about the ongoing search for my 15 grandmothers. I have been able to place the paternal lineage of Luis de Carvajal, the famous Crypto Jew that was killed in an Inquisition prison in Mexico, on my tree at my 13^th grandmother. I have been able to tie in loose ends of that part of the Luis de Carvajal family that lived in Fermoselle in 1492.

I have also done the full DNA test ( mtdna full genomic Sequence known as Mtdna mega ) and found an exact match in a young man from Brazil , whose family descended from the Rabbi Gomes de Mesquita family of London. We believe that we share a common ancestor at our 13 or 14^th grandmother and are still searching for the link.

If we are able to locate this link, it will inextricably tie in the history of the Carvajal family and the Gomez de Mesquita family through my own family tree.

I look forward to sharing much more information with you as it becomes available.

Genie Milgrom
President Tarbut Sefarad ( Fermoselle)

 

NdR: Genie Milgom Genie Milgom will lecture his personal history next June 26, 2012 at 19:30 in the frame of the eSefarad’s RAICES DE SEFARAD (ROOTS FROM SEFARAD) presented in the NCI Emanu El Community Arcos 2319, City of Buenos Aires.

 

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