I have found the above mentioned surnames in various Sephardic forums or websites and it is clearly stated that those names were found in many documents as being Jewish. The names I listed above belong to: Cavazos, Saenz, Reyna (me), Velazquez, Acosta (my wife)

My questions is, where Sephardic Jews spaniards but practicing Judaism or were they Jewish and settled in Spain. Also, when Jewish people converted to Christianity during the Spanish Inquisition were the names given unique or were they of Spanish origin. For instance, the name Velazquez, was it already a spanish name or was it unique to the Jewish people.

I appologize if my questions offend anyone, but I'm only looking for answers.

Thank you.

Jose

Hello

I have the exact same questions and am hoping to get the same answers. I have recently started researching my husbands surname --Medina-- and am finding out all sorts of conflicting information. Some sources point to Sephardic Jew, some to Spanish Christian, and yet the name seems to originate from Arabia! It is very confusing to say the least. Anything you may hear and can pass on would be appreciated.

Thank you!!

Jose,

The Disphora(sp) spread Jews to Europe, North Africa, the rest of Arabia, and even to India. There are various groups of Sephardic Jews. Some migrated to Turkey and still reside in that area. Many that arrived in Spain went through Cyprus and across North Africa to Spain. Still others went through Greece, and Italy to Spain.

One of my surnames is Ancira. They took their surname from the city of Ankara, Turkey where they once resided. Many Sephardic Jews tried to blend in with the native population to avoid confrontations. Many of the Jews were meet with hostility such as in England where sometime after helping to pay the ransom of King Richard the Lionheart they were ejected from the country.

Esther,

Thanks for the info.

Are the surnames of Carbajal and Montemayor from the same lineage as the founders of Monterrey, Luis de Carbajal and Diego de Montemayor.

My maternal and paternal surnames are Almaguer, Cavazos, Saenz, Pena, Barbosa.

I see that you also have Cavazos and Saenz. Are you familiar with the Santiago, Nuevo Leon region. My family comes from El Cercado, Santiago, Nuevo Leon.

Jose

Jose,

Your answer is yes. I descend from Diego Montemayor and his first wife, Inez Rodriguez Carbajal a multitude of times.
Their daughter Inez married Baltasar Castano de Sosa who was a cousin to Luis Carbajal.I am descended from their daughter Maria who married Juan Navarro a multitude of times plus from her brother Lucas Garcia and their brother Diego Rodriguez. The core families intermarried many times as there was not really anyone to marry but a cousin. These core families were mainly of sephardic origin. There were some basque families that arrived in to the area with Francisco Urdinola also.

I am familiar with Santiago where the descendants of Diego Rodriguez lived. I am still trying to link my Saenz back to Miguel Sanchez Saenz who married Ana Trevino.

My ancestors are from all over the region with a concentration in Saltillo, Coahuila; Monterrey, Nuevo Leon; Salinas Victoria, Nuevo Leon, Cadereyta, NL; Santa Catarina, NL; Vallecillio, NL; Allende, Coahuila; Parras del la Fuente, Coahuila; Nava, Coahuila; Guerrero, Coahuila; Los patos(General Cepeda), Coahuila; Labradores(Galeana), NL; Lampazos, NL; El Topo de los Ayalas(General Escobedo), NL; San Rafaelde Tierra Dura, NL.

Esther

Dear Esther,

Are you aware that Rivas (sometimes spelled as Ribas) is also recognized as a Sephardic and converso surname? If so, is there anything you can me tell about this name?

Best wishes,

Titus Rivas

Titus,

Yes, I was aware there was an alternative spelling for Ribas.
Yes I was aware that Rivas is a also a Sephardic surname.
Unfortunately I do not know a swhole lot about the surname.
I suspect that my Rivas ancestors were Sephardic. I know
my ancestors came to Coahuila from Galeana (Los Labradores), Nuevo Leon. I suspect they came to Nuevo Leon from San Pedro de Gallo, Durango about 1740s.
That is about all I know now.

Esther

Esther,

Thanks for your information! You might be aware that Rivas is specifically known also as a Mexican Sephardic and converso name.

Best wishes,

Titus

PLEASE ENTER THE WEB AND TYPE IN THE FOLLOWING
RIVAS + EL CID + SPAIN + BATTLES YOU WILL FIND THE RIVAS KNIGHT WITH HIS ARMY THAT ARRIVED TO FIGHT AND DEFEND THE CITY OF TOLEDO. LATER THE KNIGHT RIVAS REBUILT THE CASTLE TO WITHSTAND THE MOORS BATTLE AFTER BATTLE. YEAR 1048.

IF YOU TYPE IN THE WEB AND ENTER RIVAS + PERU
OR RIVAS + ARGENTINA, OR RIVAS + RIVAS + NICARAGUA.....ETC...ETC THE REST OF OF THE WORLD, YOU WILL FIND US THEIR IN THEIR EARLY HISTORY AND AS OF TODAY...TRY CUBA, PUERTO RICO, ETC.
RIVAS ARE PART JEWS......BUT MOSTLY IBERIAN-ROMAN EMPIRE-WESTERN VISIGOTH (who brought the strict Catholic orthdox standars into Spain.(not the Romans)
THE RIVAS FAMILY HAS THREE CODE OF ARMS AND HAS BEEN KNIGHTED AT LEAST 7 TIMES. THE RIVAS FAMILY GOES BACK IN MY SEACH TO THE YEAR 600.
BY THE WAY THEY FOUGHT IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY WAR, LOT'S OF RIVAS FOUGHT IN THE CIVIL FOUGHT UNDER THE SOUTHERN FLAG, THEY WERE CAPTAINS IN THE TENNEESSE SOUTHERN ARMY AND FOUGHT LIKE HECK IN THE LOUISIANA MILITIA. AND ALABAMA MILITIA AND TEXAN MILITIA.(BRAVE FIGHTERS)
WORLD WAR 2 TWO OF MY SECOND COUSINS THAT THERE PARENT CAME TO NEW YORK IN VERY EARLY 1900 DIED AS FIGHTER PILOTS OVER THE PACIFIC, AND MANY MORE RIVAS FOUGHT FROM ALL OVER THE COUNTRY.

WE ALL COME FROM ONE FAMILY, REGARDLES OF WHAT. THE NAME FOLLWED OUR FOREFATHERS AND HANDED DOWN TO US. ONEWAY OR THE OTHER WE ARE RELATED.

SORRY FOR MY SPELLING ON MY LAST POST MESSAGE
I HAD TWO STROKES BUT HOLDING PRETTY WELL.
MAY OUR LORD FATHER GOD JEHOVA BLESS ALL YOU RIVAS FAMILY FOREVER.

NO I'AM NOT AFFILIATED WITH ANY CHUCH BUT, I LOOK AT THING THAT IF EVERY BODY HAS A NAME, AND IS CALLED BY THAT NAME, OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN OUR CREATOR HAS A NAME....HE IS CALLED JEHOVAH

Thanks for the good wishes, William. By the way, where did you get the information about Yehovah?

Best wishes,

Titus

Hi William,

Thanks for your extensive reply.

I did know the story of a knight affilliated to El Cid.

However, I find it hard to believe that all the Rivas/Ribas families would be related. As far as I know, one or more families are Christian, non-Jewish families of possible Basque ancestry. Other, Castillian, Gallician and Aragonese probably are of Jewish descent, the families either being Jews (for example in countries such as Mexico, Colombia or Morocco) or converts (conversos), especially in Spain, the Canaries and the Spanish Americas. For example, it has been established that in Mexico there are converso families named Rivas. One of the conquistadores who accompanied Columbus on his second trip to the Americas, one Inigo de Rivas, was known to be a converso.

Best wishes,

Titus Rivas

Esther, is there verified proof that Diego Montemayor (1) ever had a first wife, that (2) her name was Ines Rodriguez Carbajal, and that (3) Baltazar Castaño de Sosa was a cousion of Luis de Carbajal?

Can you please list your sources?

JRC

I did see a photocopy of the baptism of his daughter for this first marriage. The baptism was recorded in Mexico City. She was actually born in Tampico but the baptism was recorded in Mexico City. I forget what year 154? or 155?
That is part of database where the baptisms and marriages for Mexico City were recorded and indexed. This work was not done by the LDS. I have been waiting for the CD rom to be made available to the public. The researchers spoke only spainish. I saw a demo of the database at a genealogical conference in Corpus Christi. That was one of the records displayed for the conference. They flipped the record up for display. You could see tht the parents were Diego Montemayor and Inez Rodriguez.

As to to the Castano de Sosas being cousins of Luis Carabjal. I don't know. I know of a researcher Art? Bloomer that has done a lot of research on the these lines. His genealogy on www.rootsweb.com show this relationship. I know there are alot ot repeative names between the Carbajals and the Castano de Sosa decendants. Israel Cavazos Garza, historian of Monterrey, has written histories that claimed Diego Rodriguez was the grandson of Diego Montemayor and the son of Baltasar Castano de Sosa and the daughter of Diego Montemayor. That the families came to the new world together can be signifant. Family groups often traveled together. The passenger lists for the voyage to the new world shows these families together. The University of Texas has a copy of the passenger list of the Carbajal voyage that landed at Tampico.

I hope this helps.

Esther

By now maybe you don't need answers, anyway I just saw your post. At sephardim.com they have MEDINA and similar names, along with the data base references. When you do go to sephardim, or avotaynu sites, you need to scroll way down for their actual names search engine. The search engines at the top is ancestry.com
Medina de(7)(13)(15)(18)(23)(31/4/12) MEDINA Rico de(13)
Medina y Merida(6a) MEDINA(*)(2)(3)(6a)(11)(14)(23)(27)(29)(30)(37) Medina-Aluf(31/2/5)

I am not sure about the other Surnames you have mentioned, but I have done research on the last name Saenz as that is my last name.

It originated in the La Rioja region of Spain. This region meets the Way of St. Peter or the Route of St. Peter, which is a traditional route many religious persons have traveled when going into Spain. Back then a group of Semitic families settled in the La Rioja region after traveling on this route and took the name Sanchez (meaning Son of Sancho) and one of their own names (most likely Hienz) and made them into the hybrid name Saenz. This was used to better assimilate with the native Spaniards. After the 1478 Alhambra Decree, a lot of the Jewish/Muslim practicing Saenz families were forced to leave Spain and they traveled to various lands such as Turkey, Germany and North Africa. Eventually some of the Saenz families traveled to New Spain, which is now parts of Mexico and the U.S.

My own branch of the Saenz family tree live throughout the San Diego and Kingsville sections of Texas. I do know that before settling in these areas that the families were part of northern Mexico, but alas I do not have any record of where in Mexico they came from. Myself, I live in Los Angeles, but my father (Pedro J. Saenz) was born in Corpus Christi, Texas and my grandfather (Pedro F. Saenz) was born in Kingsville, Texas. His father was a native of Mexico (Liandro Saenz) but I have no record of where.

- Peter

It isn't the Way of St. Peter or the Route of St. Peter, but actually the Way of St. James or the Route of St. James. I got my saints confused. LOL

- Peter

Hello,

Just wondering if you were ever able to obtain the birth record of Inez Rodriguez for yourself.

A Sephardic Jew is not Jew by religion - you are Jew by blood. Semite, Hebrew, Jew can be found as part of who you are by blood. You can test a Jew in Israel and a Sephardi and they will both test positive for Semetic DNA. That's why you're confused. You're looking for the wrong origin.

My great grandfather is a saenz - my great grandmother is a velazguez. That's a Sephardi-Jew double feature!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sephardi_Jews