(1)- Inheritance of status is from the maternal line. A Jewish male who marries out cannot bequeath status.
(2)- No amount of baptism can eradicate one's Jewish status. Once a Jew, always a Jew. You cannot get out of it. The only
escape route is for a man who out marries. His children cease to be Jewish. For a woman there is no escape route.
Genealogical searches caused me to examine all families with the name Absalom, in all its spelling variants, in the 1881
census. This yielded practically 1000 names, but further analysis managed to group them into family units, and many of the
units appeared to be interrelated. Judging from the number of ancestors we can calculate from but a few generations, it
became possible to suppose that one or two "progenitors" might be responsible.
The Shemot article of 1998 published a family tree, but as yet no connection had been made to an Absalom family, (see
attachment). Subsequently, after protracted study, the link was found fortuitously one generation further back-being the
mother of the Fred Latimer in the published tree. We still had the question of Jewishness to consider. This might have been
pertinent if the Fred Latimer concerned had married a member of his own faith. In any case. We still required evidence
of Jewishness for the Absaloms.
The name Absalom is of Hebrew origin. The Tanach tells us that King David's son Absalom "was fair." Israel's telephone
directories abound in families bearing the name (i.e.Avshalom). What about the U.K.? Copious researching failed to yield
any definitive indication of Jewishness. Virtually all the weddings were in Church. and the IGI revealed christenings and
baptisms by the hundreds. All known Jewish records were thoroughly researched. including the published Bevis Marks
records. but there was nothing. My story should, by rights, have ended here!
There were, however, some strange anomalies, which left me with a modicum of uneasiness. This caused a book to fall into
my hands: i.e. that by Rabbi Dr. Abraham Levy and Lucien Gubbav "The Sephardim". It gave a brief overview of Marrano
character and practice and in turn directed me to the more authoritative historical opus by Cecil Roth "History of the
Marranos". It now became obvious that the common yardsticks and rules of thumb of the genealogists were no longer
operable. For the most part, Marranos were halachic Jews.
Marranos usually married within the fold, often there being notices in Churches warning congregants not to get mixed up
with their families. Marranos practised all the outward signs of Christianity without losing their Jewish faith. Frequently they
were baptised, underwent Church weddings and Christian burials. Roth describes the manner in which Jews were dragged by
the hair to the baptismal fonts, wailing and entreating G-d. This physical battering, even torturing, of the Jews continued until
early into the 19th century - when Queen Maria Christina legislated against the Inquisition (July 15th. 1834). . Escape was
not easy, and for those without means virtually impossible. Those without means fled to remote villages where their families
were unknown -but they still retained the substratum of their Jewish existence, often over periods of three and a half
centuries. They passed subsequently as nominal Christians or Catholics, perpetuating their Marranoism through intra-
marriage, (see Roth p 191). When they managed to get out of Spain/Portugal, they frequently reverted to the ancestral faith -
but not always and not always immediately. (see Roth p 344 and note p 397, and also his example of Isaac Orobio de Castro).
Large Marrano settlements sprung up in Amsterdam, Hamburg and London. Venice, Leghorn in Tuscany, the West Indian
Islands became acknowledged Marrano strongholds. Associations with all these places occurred with my Absalom family -
though all appeared to be practising Christianity.
Roth appears to use the term "Marrano" as a blanket coverage for all crypto-Jews, also called New Christians, neophytes, and
"conversos'. Whether there are finer distinctions, perhaps in the degree of coercion used to get them to accept Christianity. is
barely relevant here. It is more relevant to emphasise that a vast number of these are indeed Halachic Jews. in particular
because of the high incidence of in-marriage. (Roth p191). Also it will be of particular interest to enumerate the anomalies
which led to my uneasiness in the first place, viz:-
(1) There are a number of marriages with partners from Germany, Holland and Italy.
(2) There are a few Register Office marriages. which were rarities in that period.
(3) Some of the Absaloms/etc. had strange Germanic fore-names. e.g. Wolfgang Absolom and "Aurnburg" Absolom.
(4) We are able to establish links with Holland and with Tuscany, both being Marrano centres.
(5) A marriage to a Jew from a known Dutch-Jewish family took place in Church.
(6) There are clusters of Absaloms throughout the country in the provinces and suburbs, all with known Jewish contingents.
e.g. Islington, The Borough, Kensington, Portsmouth, Rochford, Haverfordwest. etc.
(7) An ominous christening of Frances Zipporah Absalom took place in Barbados in February 1867. There was a well-known
Marrano stronghold here, and the name combination smacks of Marranoism.To verify the origins of this particular lady
would be a lengthy project in itself, possibly years of work. In fact a tremendous amount of additional study is going to be
required to furnish the necessary proofs, but an overall picture is beginning to emerge.
As yet I confess to neither having succeeded in proving that the Absaloms were a Marrano family, nor in having traced
definitive Jewish links to the family I am researching, (apart from one marriage in a church). Nevertheless there is a lesson to
learn from this exercise: Perfunctory dismissal of claimants must not be based on superficial judgement. We have opened up
a new avenue. It could take years to penetrate the strongholds of information, particularly in the cases of individuals of
meagre means and from little known and insignificant families - where records and written allusions are at a minimum. In
the meantime every case stands or falls by its own particular merits.
Dear Bella What do you make of this? Try the Sephardim.com. site, and you are on your way to new areas. AJ. Subject: Re: [saudades-sefarad] Absolom
The name Absalom is found on Sephardim.com. The reference for the name is a census conducted by the Catholic Church of
Spain. The Catholic Church has identified the name as Sephardic. No mention was made of an original Jewish name or a
converso name. Sephardic Genealogv at Sephardim.com
Harry Stein