Amsterdam Sephardim: Where did they go?

If you are searching for Sephardic Jewish ancestors, check out Dr. Jeff Malka's frequently updated SephardicGen.com.

Jeff is a pioneer expert Sephardic researcher, and his book, "Sephardic Genealogy," is a must-read for those thinking about beginning a project or who need more information to make progress.

From 1759-1813, nearly 450 poor Sephardic families were provided with funds (tzedekah, Hebrew for charity) to leave Amsterdam for other parts. They promised not to return to the city for 15 years.

Tracing the Tribe has previously written here and here about additional Sephardic records available elsewhere. For more Sephardic posts that may help your quest, use the blog's Google-powered search.

Concerning this list:

This alphabetic list was found in the Sephardic Jewish Registers PA334-978/979 "Registros dos Despachos" (Registers of Dispatched Persons), Amsterdam Municipality Archives. The list covers the period 1759-1813 with all the names of the poor Sephardic Jews who were granted Sedaca (charity) - an amount in Dutch florins- against the promise to leave Amsterdam and not to return within the next 15 years.

The index was prepared by Vibeke Sealtiel Olsen.

Destinations listed (and number of families): Altona (2), Barbados (2), Bayonne (9), Beograd (1), Bordeaux (18), Copenhagen (1), Curacao (71), Cuyden (1), Da Isla (1), Den Haag (1), Emden (3), Frisia (1), Gibraltar (3), Hamburg (31), Isla Demarara(1), Istanbul (3), Izmir (1), Jamaica (16), Livorno (12), London (58), Mantua (1), Marseille (1), Mogador (2), New York (2), Paris(3), Philadelphia (1), Rotterdam (1), St. Eustatius (19), Trieste (2), Tunis (1), Venice (2) and Vienna (1).

Countries listed: America, Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Guyana, Israel (Palestine), Italy, Jamaica, Morocco, Netherlands Antilles, Serbia, Suriname, Tunisia, Turkey, UK, US and the West Indies. See important note below on searching for countries.

You can search by surname, first name, city or country. Searching by country, I found one anomaly. clicking "America" brought the record of Aron LOPES COLACO to America in 1784, via Bordeaux, France.

Clicking "USA" returned three records: Abraham b. Ely AZUBY to 1783 Philadelphia, Sara (nee SASO) COHEN DA SILVA (widow of Ebiatar) to 1759 New York, and Joseph LEVY FLORES, also to 1759 New York via London.

Clicking "Israel" - a misnomer as the country did not exist in the year of the record 1759 - shows Isaac LOPES GONSALES and his wife.

Clicking "UK" brings 59 records. The first 10 are for the families of Aron b. Isay ACOHEN (HACOHEN) 1770 with wife and three children, Aron b. David ALVARES 1802 with wife and two children, Semuel AZOUGE 1766 with wife and six children, Imanuel b. Jacob AZULAY 1765 with wife, Moseh AZULAY 1776, Abraham b. Isaac BARUH 1789 (grandson of Zeharia), Rachel BERNAL 1790 widow of Abraham, Eliau BUZAGLO 1789 with two children, Sara b. Ishac CARTZO 1764 and Isaac COHEN DE AZEDO 1789.

In 1766, Semuel Azouge with his wife and six children received only FL40, while in 1770, Aron ACOHEN, his wife and three children received FL200. Individuals such as widow Bernal received only FL25 in 1770, while other single travelers received from 40-60FL.

Other families to London: CORTISOS, DA COSTA DE ANDRADE, DASILVA SOLIS, DECANEZES, DE LA PENHA, DE LEON, DELGADO, DE LIMA, DE LIMA A BELMONTE, DELMONTE, DE PALACIOS, DE TORES, DIAS SANTILHANA, FERRO, GARCIA, ISRAEL, JESSURUN, JESURUN AL;VARES, LEDESMA, LEVY MENASE, LOPES MELHADO, MASSAHOEL DE CHAVES, MASSIAS BLAAUW, MENDES, MENDES ALVARAS, MENDES CHUMASERO, MENDES QUIROS, MONTEZINOS, MUNIA, NUNES DA COSTA, NUNES DE ANDRADE, NUNES FERO, NUNES PEREIRA, PEREYRA, PIZA, RAMOS,R0DRIGES MENDES, RODRIQUES GARSIA, ROMANEL, SAQUY, TALANO.

The record may include other details as to how and where they traveled to their destination, how much money they received, whether they went with spouses and how many children, if a woman was a widow (and her husband's name), father's name, names of spouses, even grandparents' names in some cases, etc.

Not everyone went far from Amsterdam, some went to other cities in the Netherlands. In 1787, Simon b. Jacob De Leon and his wife, went to Den Haag (The Hague), and was given FL25 to do so. In 1763, Jacob b. Ishac LOPES went to Frisia (possibly Friesland?), and, in 1808, Ishac ALVARES VEGA went to Rotterdam with his wife and two children.

Search anomalies: If you click Netherlands Antilles as a country, there are no hits (because it did not exist when the records were produced). If you click Curacao in the city list with Netherlands Antilles in the country list, there are no hits. If you click Curacao in the city list, with a blank for the country, the database returns 71 results.

Thus, it is better to click the city list as some countries did not exist at the time these people left Amsterdam. If no hits result on one set of parameters, change them.

UPDATE NOTE: On May 15, I received an email from Dr. Jeff Malka of SephardicGen: "I took advantage of your testing and fixed the problems you noticed with the Netherlands Antilles and Israel. I had missed them!"

This database is an excellent source of Sephardic names with many genealogical details.