Dear KLou:
To know the origin of your surnames (
Barros,
Faria,
Fraga), you will have to trace them back to Portugal and then use (post-1911) Civil Registration and (pre-1911) Church records to follow your surnames into the past for as long as you can. The Church records will give you the names of your ancestors, sometimes their jobs, but they won't tell you if those people are New
Christians or not.
Some Church records are kept in regional archives while others are at the Portuguese National Archives - Torre do Tombo - in Lisbon.
The fact that you found your surnames on a Sephardic site has little significance by itself. (See my explanation below).
The documents that REALLY tell if a person is a "New Christian" (Jewish descendant) or not are:
- The Inquisition's Trials - data for some 40,000 trials, most of which are of New
Christians accused of being
Jews. Usually have the defendant's name, if they are Old Christian, New Christian of something in between (yes, "1/2 New Christian", "1/4 New Christian", "3/8 New Christian"), parents and grandparents. The Portuguese Inquisition started in the 1500's and lasted until the early 19th century. Most trials are from 16th and 17th centuries.
"Familiares" - research on the family of those who wanted to become "Familiares do Santo OfÃcio" (literally, the Holy Office's relatives), the Inquisition's local agents, which couldn't be New
Christians. Research usually includes the candidate, parents, grandparents, candidate's wife, her parents and grandparents (if married), sometimes it reaches great-grandparents or even more. I don't know how many of these documents there are, I'd guess some 10,000. Most are from 17th and 18th centuries.
"Leitura de Bacharéis" - research on the family of those who wanted to become a lawyer or a judge. Usually includes the candidate, parents, grandparents and sometimes wife (if married). Most are from 17th and 18th centuries.
Military
Orders - becoming a Knight of one of the three Military
Orders ("Ordem de Cristo", "Ordem de
Avis", "Ordem de
Santiago") was an honour given by the King. This honour would only become effective, however, after a research on his family up to his grandparents was made at the result was 1) no New
Christians and 2) no "inapropriate" jobs (no tailors, no shoemakers, no blacksmiths, no millers, and so on, and so on). Documents for these researches are usually incomplete. Most are from 17th and 18th centuries.
Priests - when a man was to become a Priest, a research was made on his family. Usually includes the candidate, parents and grandparents. Most are from 17th and 18th centuries.
All these documents are kept at the
Torre do Tombo with the exception of documents for Priests, which are in a number of different locations throughout the country including the
Torre do Tombo.
Notice the dates for the "documents that will tell...". In the late 18th century, the distinction between Old and New
Christians was officially suppressed. Only older documents give information on that subject.
But why do your surnames appear on the page you visited?
When all Portuguese
Jews were forced to abandon their religion and become
Christians (circa 1500) they adopted new Christian names and surnames replacing their Hebrew names. There were many
Jews in Portugal at the time, they accounted for some 10 percent of the population, perhaps more (I have seen different estimates).
As you probably know, in the following centuries the Inquisition tried to ensure the former
Jews and their descendants didn't revert to their old belief. The New
Christians - even those who were sincerely Catholic - were treated as inferior people, e. g., you couldn't be a judge if you were a New Christian (see above), there were special taxes only New
Christians had to pay, and so on. Being accused of being a New Christian was terrible for anyone (either if it was true or not).
This state of affairs encouraged New
Christians to merge into society as well as they could. This also applied to surnames. Many people believe you can see if you have Jewish ancestry by looking for "Jewish" surnames. According to some legend, all surnames that are names of trees - Nogueira,
Oliveira,
Pereira, and so on - are Jewish. Others say "
Santos" (saints) and "
Cruz" (cross) are Jewish surnames because
Jews wanted to show they were true
Christians and adopted these religious words as their names. I think this is nonsense. Yes, some
Jews adopted these surnames - I even have New Christian ancestors named
Pereira - but that is because they adopted virtually all pre-existent Portuguese surnames. You found your surnames - Barros,
Faria,
Fraga - listed just like you would find any frequent Portuguese surnames there (from the three surnames you mentioned, two - Barros and
Faria - are frequent, and the other - Fraga - is not very frequent but it is not that unusual either).
While I was writing this post, I did a small test. I tried to remember 20 frequent Portuguese surnames. I would like to have the actual list of the top 20 Portuguese surnames but I have never seen one such list. So, my list was:
Silva (usually regarded as #1),
Santos,
Pereira,
Oliveira, Rodrigues, Martins,
Fernandes, Gonçalves, Pinto, Lopes, Mendes,
Ferreira, Dias,
Nogueira, Alves,
Pires,
Neves, Carvalho, Almeida, Antunes.
Then I went to Sephardim.com to check how many of those were there. Well, I found 20 out of 20. I swear I didn't cheat (after completing the list I noticed I had forgotten at least one of the most frequent surnames,
Sousa, which, of course, was also there), but I also swear that I was almost sure that would be the result.
So, my advice is, start with Civil Registration and Church
Records. Then, if you find ancestors' names from the 17th and 18th centuries, try to know those names show up in the available databases and indexes. Of course, a matching name might not be enough. I am sure there are many people named, say, "Manuel
Fernandes" in those documents. Additional data such as the place of birth are very important for this kind of research.
Feel free to ask further questions on this subject.
Good luck!
Rui
Pereira