Nunes Henriques Jews in Jamaica 1600-1700!

Question

Hi I wanted to introduce myself -- I'm Bill Henriques and I'm researching the Nunes Henriques line for Sephardic citizenship in Portugal.  It's been a tedious at first but now that I have found Wikitree I feel like I have found my niche.

If anyone has any information on Basheba Nunes Henriques (1790-1823) or her relatives, I would be most appreciative. I'm sure there is a genealogical nerd term for someone that has children 20 years before their birth well into their 70s, but I'm afraid I must be missing a generation or two.

All the best and thanks ahead for your help.

Answer 1

I do not know if these people might know but the synagogue  should have records of some kind.  

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/forgotten-jewish-pirates-jamaica-180959252/

Their headstone maybe in here or perhaps more information?

https://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00001365/00001/2j

Would you know who she was married to?

Answer 2

Have you seen a copy of R.D. Barnett and P. Wright, The Jews of Jamaica: Tombstone Inscriptions, 1663-1680?  You can do some limited searches in it online at https://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00001365/00001. I found one reference to "Bathsheba Nunez Henriques."

It looks like a very interesting family.

Comments

Thanks Roger! I'll look into it further. I appreciate the lead.

Bill

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Wow that is an amazing collection. Thanks for your help!

Bill

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Bill:

I was amazed at the effort that someone obviously put into the book.

                                   Roger

Answer 3

I have an interest in the Montefiore family in Jamaica and England. They are a Jewish family with links to the Caribbean (Jamaica and Barbados in particular). There are unproven connects with the Carvajal family in Mexico with Spanish/ Portuguese origins. I have DNA connections but have no idea how! I would love to find out more.

Answer 4

This interesting Sephardic Genealogy talk and book may help:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF4IycmH-RE The Jews of Eighteenth Century Jamaica]
"Many of the records of the Jamaican-Jewish community were lost in a fire in 1882. Using the last wills and testaments composed by Jamaican Jews between 1673 and 1815, Stanley Mirvis has recovered much of this history. Jews were seen as white by enslaved people but as 'other' by the Christian elite. In his talk he will explore the social and familial experiences of Jamaican Jewry."

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Book:

Mirvis, Stanley. The Jews of eighteenth-century Jamaica : a testamentary history of a diaspora in transition. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2020.

https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300238815/jews-eighteenth-century-jamaica#book-description

"An in-depth look at the [[Portuguese]] Jews of Jamaica and their connections to broader European and Atlantic trade networks"
s.n

Answer 5

Besides WikiTree, I would research on Familysearch.com. A lot of my ancestors were related to Kingston Jewish families through marriage such as the DeLeon’s. I have found most of them already on Familysearch. They were strictly Jewish up until the 19th and 20th centuries when some of them married Jamaicans of African and other European descent (Scottish, Irish, English). I hope this can help you!