SephardicGen: 'Jews of Aragon' indexed

SephardicGen.com has posted the index to a book on the Jews of Aragon. Readers with Sephardic backgrounds or oral history of Sephardic origins should take a look at this index of 3,800 documents providing 1,070 surnames found in 88 localities.

Access the index here.

Archivist and paleographer Jean Régné (1883-1954) published several historical works. His book on the Aragonnese Jews is based on registers and documents found in the Crown of Aragon Archives (Barcelona).

His book - History of the Jews in Aragon: regesta and documents, 1213-1327 - is in the Hispania Judaica series, volume 1. Posthumously edited and annotated by Prof. Yom Tov Assis, and published by Magnes Press of the Hebrew University, in 1978.

Fields include surname, given name, year of document, geographical location and document number, with occasional notes (such as "widow" or that a mentioned town is in Algeria).

What can readers find in this database?

For Barcelona, 84 surnames are listed, including:

ABENAMIES, ABENMUCA, ABENXAR, ABNUBA, ADRET, ALBALA, ALBANET, ALCOF, ALGEYNI, ALMUZUINO, AMIEL, ASTRUCH, AVENCAOGA, AVINFA, BELLCAIRE, BISBE, BONDAVIN, BONSENIOR, BULAIX, CAP, CARAVIDA, CAROYAL, CASTELLAN, CLARAMUNT,
CORAYEF, CRATER, CRESCHES, DARAY, DARGOT, DE LA TORRE, DE PALAFOLLS, DE PORTA, DE REGAL, DE TOLOSA, DE TOLRRANO, DEFORN, DESFORN, DEZ CASTLARS, ESCANDARAM, FAQUIN, FERRER, FUSEL, FUSSELL, GAYET, GENAHA, GRACIANI, GRACIAS, GRACION,GRAMER, GRANER, GUERRA, JACOB, JAFFIA, LEPEL, LEVI, LLOP, MACANA, MALAQUI, MALET / MALLET, MANGANER, MAYMON, OBRADOR, PEBRET, PERFET, REVAYA, ROSELL/ROSSELL, ROVEN, RUBIN, SABARTA, SACHAR, SALAMO, SALTEL / SALTELL, SAPORTA,SOLLAM, TAHUEL, THOROS GRACIAN, VIVES AND XAHON.

Lerida figures in our family's background, so I next checked for Lerida, and found 92 names, although none like our Talalay. However, I did find some interesting names indicating that Jews in Lerida came from other places, as illustrated in such surnames as DE BELAGUER, DE GERONA, DE LIMOX, DE LIMOZ, DE TUDELA.

Most of the localities have only a few names, but those with the largest number of records include:

Barcelona (84), Besalu (17), Calatayud (99), Cervera (13), Daroca (21),Egea (12), Girona (37), Huesca (62), Jaca (16), Hativa (19), Lerida (92),Mallorca (20), Monzon (14), Murviedro (11), Tarazona (11), Taragona (15),Teruel (28), Tortosa (22), Valencia (163), Villafranca del Pinades (13) and Zaragoza (149).

Check out the database. A good method to see the surnames is to enter only the first letter of the alphabet and go on from there. Choose "starts with."

Again, thanks to SephardicGen.com for making this available.