Cardinal Errors in Sephardic Genealogy: Examples and Solutions
Julian Land explores cardinal errors in Sephardic genealogy with instructive examples from his Baruch Lousada ancestry. Learn about misreadings and transcription errors, impacting age determination and family connections.
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5 Cardinal Errors in Sephardic Genealogy Julian Land gives a range of instructive examples arising from exploration of his Baruch Lousada ancestry Source: www.barrow-lousada.org Velho London Barbados
What are the elementary errors? 1. Bad transcriptions of gravestones and other original sources 2. Taking death date = will date or probate date 3. Assuming nephew = nephew or brother = brother-in-law 4. Ignoring Ashkenasi and Sephardi difference in naming rules 5. Ignoring coincidences in naming
A Transcription Error My 5*GGF Aaron Baruch Lousada #376 died in 1695 7 children born 1677-88 How can he be aged 25 at death (see Shilstone p10)? SOLUTION: Burial register in Barbados compiled from unknown and unverified sources Gravestone does not show age at death Based on family history birth date was around 1620 in Madrid? A person unknown mistranscribed 7 as 2, so age at death was probably 75 not 25!
Another large mistranscription A M Hyamson gives birth of Isaac Lamego my 6*GGF as 1685 But Bevis Marks Records 6 Appendix C shows death 1767 and birth 1710 based on age at death 57 Isaac Lamego fathered my 5*GGM Abigail on 12 Nov 1723 and Sarah Lopes Torres in 1715! SOLUTION: Age of 57 was taken from eroded gravestone just before relocation of Nuovo to Brentwood, Essex in the 1970s Edgar Samuel in 2013 checked for me a much earlier gravestone photographic record in Bevis Marks Archives and confirmed age at death was over 80 Here we have 2 transcription errors 8 read as 5 and 2 read as 7 so age at death was probably 82 not 57!
2. Surrogates for death date Basic biology teaches that burial date is usually close to death date, reinterments aside! But be careful of will date Abraham de Peza of Speightstown, Barbados pessimistically wrote his will in 1716 but lived until 1736! Also be careful of probate date Emanuel Baruch Lousada of Jamaica died in 1797, but UK probate was not granted until 1807 These examples show massive errors can be made
Resolving a death date Aaron Baruch Lousada of Barbados my 7*GGF made his will in 1693 He died on 10 October 1695 (Shilstone) But probate is given as 3 October 1695 (Wilfred Samuel) A very disconcerting turn of events if true! SOLUTION: Gravestone death date 17 Tisri 5456 = 16 Sep 1695 (Hebcal) Must apply 10 day correction for Julian to Gregorian calendar conversion (occurred in 1752 in England) Gives death date 26 Sep 1695, consistent with probate date (PHEW!) Some person unknown incorrectly converted the Jewish gravestone date NOTE: When I first did the conversion Hebcal did not do the correction and thus gave a warning to this effect (now it automatically applies the correction)
3. nephews and brothers It may be an error to suppose that a brother is a plain brother-in-law and that a nephew is a son of a sibling We consider 2 Barbados examples where these errors are made clear
Emanuel Baruch Lousada was a nephew and executor of Simon Massiah
Simons sister Esther de Sarah Massiah married Aaron Baruch Lousada #714 but they had no children
Aaron #714 had 2 brothers Jeremiah was one of them
Jeremiah had a son Emanuel Jeremiah had a son Emanuel
SOLUTION Simon Massiah was the brother-in-law of uncle Aaron of Emanuel Baruch Lousada Now for something more complicated
Isaac Lindo had 2 Baruch Lousada nieces and 1 Baruch Lousada nephew
Claire Myers brought this puzzle to my attention She is an expert on the Massiah, Lindo, de Peza and Burgos families of Barbados
First we look at the will of David Baruch Lousada #1263 1711-1759
Wives of 2 brothers can be proven not to have been Baruch Lousadas
Simplifying to show the central links Isaac Lindo was a brother-in-law of a brother-in-law of an aunt
SOLUTION We have solved the puzzle Rebecca Baruch Lousada #2111 links the Lindos via the Massiahs Without the need for 2 more Baruch Lousada wives! Rebecca was not the 1st born and would have had an older sister Rachel I believe the indicated existence of Rachel solves a major problem in Baruch Lousada generalogy That is, she was the wife of Isaac Lamego who was in Jamaica at the time Like her husband, she was a key ancestor of the English Mocattas, and all the English Montefiores having Mocatta ancestors
4. A difference between Ashkenasi and Sephardi naming Ashkenasi naming precludes the living, but Sephardi naming allows it Among my Barrow ancestors we find Simon Barrow of Bath 1787-1862 my 3*GGF is named after his grandfather Simon Barrow of Barbados 1709-1801 Simon Barrow of Barbados is named after his probable grandfather Simon Michael Pressburg 1656-1719 approx. We know that Simon Barrow of Bath has a Sephardic mother, but we can now be sure that Simon Barrow of Barbados did as well It would be an error to ignore these breaches of Ashkenasi naming!
5. Same name coincidences Father-son Sibling-sibling
Father-son Not impossible, because for example if wife s father has same name as husband, 2nd son will have the same name as the father However, statistics show that the incidence is so unlikely (2%) that it is probably an error not to challenge this coincidence When I started my research, everywhere I looked showed Aaron Baruch Lousada #125 of Jamaica 1706-68 was the son of Aaron Baruch Lousada #714 1703-68 of Barbados This was odd for several reasons
SOLUTION: Aaron #714 married an Esther, while Aaron #125 had a mother Esther A person very high at Bevis Marks equated the 2 Esthers! We now know that: the wife of Aaron #714 was Esther de Sarah Massiah of Barbados; the mother of Aaron #125 was Esther Lamego of Jamaica; the 2 Aarons were cousins germain; and the 2 Esthers were not the same person We also now have a much better idea of how the Barbados/Jamaica transition of the Baruch Lousadas took place!
Comment Sometimes an author feels acute pressure to make a connection In the last slide, the connection between Barbados and Jamaica was not very evident in the data Equating the 2 Esthers seemed to make the connection but was incorrect My work has shown how and when the Baruch Lousadas moved from Barbados to Jamaica BUT: I have a confession I have made a similar error myself in another context; and It took several years to develop a much better alternative
Siblings Isaac Baruch Lousada #42 1585-1667 had: 2 sons named Moses; and 2 sons named Abraham Abraham Israel Pereira #1628 had: 2 daughters named Rebecca
Isaac #42 We have established that: Abraham #45 ~1645-1714 of Livorno, Barbados, London and Amsterdam; and Moses #1585 ~1650-1724 of Livorno, Amsterdam, Surinam and Curacao were sons of Isaac s 2nd marriage; while: Moses #46 ~1629-1699 of Madrid, Rouen?, and London was a nephew; and that Abraham #1875 ~1622-1676 of Madrid and Amsterdam was a stepson of Isaac s 1st marriage
Abraham Israel Pereira #1628 Rebecca #1799 married Jacob de Pinto in 1649 and was a natural daughter of Abraham s 1st marriage Rebecca #1182 ~1640-1693 married Isaac Henriques Faro #1635 and became Abraham s step-daughter upon his 2nd marriage
COMMENT It is very advantageous to explore the ancestry of people with coincident names they will have separate ancestry (except when parents are replacing an early death) this will facilitate unravelling complex family history eg: the Barbados/Jamaica transition of the Baruch Lousadas the Baruch Lousada linkage with the Israel Pereiras via the Henriques Faros
CONCLUSION AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Navigating around the 5 types of errors discussed above will facilitate genealogical endeavours Thanks to Ton Tielen, Michael Waas, Claire Myers and Edgar Samuel for assistance over many years
