Michael Waas

Crowdsourcing: Can anyone tell me which parish residents of "Calle de Los Jardines" in Madrid belonged to? Looking at the 1620s and 1630s for reference.Thanks!

We recently had a wonderful thread about a city very dear to me and my research, Salonika. Leon Saltiel, very strongly, has written a commemorative piece on the anniversary of the beginning of the destruction of the cemetery, the ancient necropolis of Jewish Salonika, by the Greeks and their Nazi collaborators.

Mystery of the day for you. What do you make of someone both denying and stating they are a New Christian? There are no other corresponding Inquisition files. Another day, another random fun discovery in the Inquisition archives. Caderno do Promotor 24, folio 314.

Good morning, today, I share a very rare book I found during my research. It is a book detailing the history of Livorno's version of Dotar, from the year 1727. It includes the history, a roster of members, and other details, from its founding in 1644 until the year of publication. It's entitled: Capitulacoems e ordenanças do modo que se deve governar a Hebra' de cazar orfas e conzelas, fundada ne...

Hi, does anyone know where I can locate a PDF copy of "Los conversos y la Inquisición sevillana" by Juan Gil? It's a 7 volume encyclopedia set and I'm willing to pay for an ebook but I am not sure it exists. Thanks for any help! The only place with it near me is the National Library of Israel and their catalog leads me to believe that they don't have the full set....

Ignore the clickbait headline. A traveling exhibition from the Israel Museum on Jewish fashion in the 19th century among Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews. It still bothers me that this isn't a larger part of Jewish consciousness and still relegated to less valued scholarship. In any case, I highly recommend coming to check it out either on its traveling exhibition or seeing it in the Israel Museum in Jer...

An excellent article by Yaron ben-Naeh on Urban Sephardic Culture in the Ottoman Empire:

And another article in which one of our members is quoted. Iosif Vaena this is excellent, we really need to meet when I finally make it to Salonika :)

René David Levy Maduro, nicely done in your interview in this article!

I have a couple of questions related to baptisms/marriages/deaths in 16th-17th century Portugal, specifically Viseu. I have a couple who on their marriage record, the husband is named Francisco Vaz and the wife is named Maria da Veiga. I have found two baptisms subsequently in the following couple years which give the father's name as Henrique Vaz instead. Finally, there is a few years after that,...

As I am in the University today, I just happened across this article while looking for something else. I am surprised this has been missed in the literature, the author found the name of the father of the famous Don Abraham Senior in the Spanish National Archives. Unlike the ridiculous genealogies that have proliferated, this article is sound, takes a critical look at the genealogies (in Spanish) ...

I will be presenting my paper "El Muzeo Djidio: Re-imagining Jewish Identity through Heritage in Salonica during the Transition from Ottoman Selanik to Greek Thessaloniki" in Jerusalem on Tuesday as a part of this conference in Jerusalem. Unfortunately, it's not open to the public, only participants and scholars.

Here is a mystery for you: What is the birthplace of Dr. Diego Mendez from this marriage bann? As best as we can tell, it is "Credi" but we have no idea what that name refers to. Anyone have an idea?

Important and exciting news: The Historical Jewish Press has scanned in and OCR'd one of the most important Judeo-Spanish newspapers, La Epoka and is now available online. There will be an event celebrating the upload of the newspaper this Friday in Tel Aviv. If you want details, contact me.Ignore the "Ladino" part, as an intrepid researcher will see, the language is never referred to as that in t...

Those of you who know Viseu well: what is the extent of any parish registers still in existence? Tombo.pt has not been much help in this regard. thanks!

Talk about a quiet release. The National Library of Israel finally made available their Hebrew Manuscripts digitization project website. Some collections (mainly Yad Ben Zvi) are only available to be viewed on the National Library's campus, but this is a really nice catalog and is well put together. Enjoy the research!

I just came across this database. It adds no new information but actually makes it quite simple to search for documents related to the Portuguese Inquisition. As the digital archive of Torre do Tombo can be finicky, this is a nice secondary resource that is presented nicely.

For Jamie Pfaff LaRocque, we consider the evidence of her ancestor Martin Pire Henne (Ane)'s marriage in Quebec in 1674. On a related Notarial document registry, he's simply known as Martin Pire. I will also post that image in this thread. Who wants to help solve a mystery if this Martin Pire is an Old Christian or New Christian from Braga?

Happy New Year everyone, the Amsterdam archives are available for free!

A nice calendar from the Ottoman Period, at the bottom you can see Spanyol's contribution!

This is a darker history concerning what happened to Sephardim, Mizrahim, and poor Ashkenazim during the early State of Israel. They are putting a call out for anyone who suspects that they or a loved one may have been one of the stolen children (particularly from the Yemeni families) and providing DNA testing kits. This is the translation to English courtesy of the Israel Genealogy Research Assoc...

I have a riddle for you: where does a couple go between 1648 and 1655 to get married from the Amsterdam Portuguese community? Hint: they don't show up in the Ondertrouw register for that period in the city, the dowry was provided by the de Pinto family, and wife's family was now conclusively known by at least 4 separate aliases. Oh, and both families were definitely in Amsterdam during this period...

Another question. Is anyone familiar with the Spanish surname Loctarello? This is another family but this time from Lugo, Galicia, that appears to potentially have New Christian roots. I can't find any other information other than connected to the family mentioned (Varela, Pardo).

General question for the group: Does anyone here have any particular experience in the Mexican archives in Nuevo Leon, Monterrey, and the region surrounding Distrito Federal? It concerns some families that show a good-to-high likelihood of being members of the New Christian community who came to Mexico.

My great-grandfather Isaac Reby didn't make Raki but he was reputed to down at least 6-7 glasses of it for dinner!