Euro-African Jews of Note
Famous people with Hidden Jewish Ancestry
Euro-African Jews of Note
Robert Purvis, Jr. (1810-1898)
Robert Purvis was the son of William Purvis, a British immigrant and Harriet Judah. Harriet was the daughter of Baron Judah and a woman named Badarakka. History states Badarakka was a North African Moor, abducted and sold into slavery at the age of 12. She was given her freedom at age 19 and then married Baron Judah. Baron Judah was the son of a German Jewish immigrant and a Spanish Jewish immigrant. Baron's mother was Abigail Seixas, the daughter of one of the more famous early American Spanish Jewish families. Though Robert Purvis and his brothers were 3/4 European, they chose to live in the African-American world. Robert had 9 children... the descendants of whom may or may not know of their connection to these famous early American Jewish families.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Purvis
Eston Jefferson (1808-1856)
Eston Hemmings or Jefferson, as the son of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, married a woman of Jewish descent, Julia Ann Isaacs(1814-1889). Julia Ann Isaacs was the daughter of a wealthy German Jewish merchant, David Isaacs, and his common law wife, Nancy West. Law prohibited Isaacs and West from marrying so they maintained separate residences to avoid legal scrutiny. That did not stop them from producing 7 children together and managing as many business. Late in life they lived together. Easton Jefferson and Julia Ann Isaacs had three children. They family moved to Ohio and it is likely they disappeared into the white community.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eston_Hemings
Richard Gustavus Forester and Narcissa Touro
The Forrestor family of Richmond, Virginia descends from two of the earliest and most famous Sephardic and Ashkenazic Jewish families in North America. Richard Gustavus Forrestor(1823-1891) was the son of Gustavus Adolphus Myers(1801-1869) and Nelly Forrestor(1800-1873). Myers was from the famed early American Jewish Myers family. Nelly Forrestor was a free woman of color.
Richard Gustavus Forrestor married Narcisse Touro(1822-1883). Narcisse was the only daughter of Juda Touro(1775-1854). Judah Touro was the son of the first Rabbi of the first synagogue in America, the Touro Synagogue. Her mother was Ellen Wilson(1800-?) a free woman of color from New Orleans.
Gustavus Adolph Myers and Juda Touro were first cousins. Their children, Richard and Narcisse, were raise together in Richmond by various Jewish maiden aunts. In keeping with Jewish tradition, Richard and Narcisse no doubt had an arranged marriage. They went on to have 23 children. Most of the children disappear from the historical record..... producing many descendants with hidden Jewish ancestry.
https://richmond.com/richard-gustavus-forrester/article_62144000-3217-56ee-81ff-a44ef6cda978.html
These are just three examples of Afro-European Jews. They are many more to be found. Due to the race laws of the United States, most of these folks ended up either living within the African-American world, or "passing" as white and into the white world. They rarely remained in the Jewish faith. In some cases, their descendants can be tracked easily. In some cases, retrieving lost siblings would be a research project. But, it is do-able.
Robert Purvis
AMericans of Jewish descent: Malcom Stern
A Resource for people of Afro-European Jewish Descent
Malcom Stern must have been one incredible human being. He spent some significant amount of his life compiling the family trees of the early American Jewish families. The earliest American Jews were Sephardic Jews making their way to America from Amsterdam, London, and the Caribbean in the 18th century. Not long after that, early in the 19th century, German Jews began arriving to America. This amazing man tracked their families from those times until after the Second World War. In the case of the Sephardic Jews, that was a 300 year span of time. And when he was working, there was no internet. He compiled these family trees going from record to record, and typing up family trees. Long out of print, the book is available, and its worth the price. It is a genealogical wonder. Seriously, I do not know how this man tracked down all these families.
The first edition of the book was called Americans of Jewish Descent, Eventually it was renamed First American Jewish Families. The reason it was called Americans of Jewish descent is because so many of the early American Jews assimilated and joined the white and the African American Christian communities.
In many instances, when a Sephardic Jewish man or German Jewish man, had children with a woman of color, Stern indicates such. In some cases, he does not. But, if you have Afro-European ancestors, you will find your family trees here.
It's just an astonishing book and one that is of endless use if your ancestors were Jewish and arrived during the colonial times.
Another Resource
www.JewishGen.com
If you have a list of last names you have collected from your family tree, and you suspect they are Jewish last names, or were once Jewish surnames, the place to look is www.jewishgen.com Once you are in that site, you can enter a last name into the general search, search bar, and all the records for people with that last name will come up.
The results will tend to be sorted by country. Using my family as an example, if you enter Winkler into the general search bar, the result was records for Winklers living in Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Hungary, etc. Birth records, death records, marriage records, and sadly holocaust records. As I knew my Winklers lived in Germany, I clicked on the German file, and up came a list of Winklers that lived in Germany. I was able to find some Winklers on my family tree that were listed in records for Jews named Winkler who lived in Germany.
Looking at the results from a general search will immediately give you an idea where Jewish people with that last name lived. If you know your family came from Poland, the general search has a listing for say, Winklers in Poland, that file or files would be a good place to have a look. You may find an ancestor. Or you may find that there were quite a few Winklers in Poland, and you Winkler may very well have been a Jew named Winkler who lived in Poland. The general search is a great place to do fast name checking. Whatever you find, will begin to fill in some gaps in your story.
