White Anglo Saxon Crypto Jews

One of the really cool things about ancestry DNA testing is people are discovering all kinds of things about themselves they did not know. 

I have dealt with so many hardcore white Anglo-Saxon Protestant Americans, I mean card carrying members of the Daughters of the American Revolution,  who are shocked to discover they have Hidden Jewish Identity. I mean really shocked. Not that they are upset by discovering they have a Jewish ancestry, they are just surprised. 

Part of my family are very much Daughters of the American Revolution members. Indeed, one ancestor was actually born on the Mayflower in the Boston Harbor, Peregrine White. These relatives really perceive themselves as colonial American Protestants. And they have been really surprised to discover there is a bit more to their history than they knew. 

All I can say is the colonies were a great place for Jewish Ancestry to become hidden. People came, they became whatever they wanted to become, and left their past in the past. It stayed a hidden past until ancestry DNA testing become cheap and readily available. 

This topic deserves a lot of attention. Which in due course, I will give it. But, for now, I am just providing the story of one branch of my colonial families. Which involves a lot of Hidden Jewish Ancestry, and a lot of family with a 100% Protestant American self-perception! The following article shows how Jewish ancestry disappeared in Colonial America. 

Religious Identity Swapping in the 17th and 18th Century

Dr.Douglas Schar 

In the process of studying the Crypto-Jews of Switzerland and the Sephardic and German Jews in the Huguenot Diaspora (see papers on this website), something became clear to me. The period between the 16thand 18th centuries was filled with a tremendous amount of identity swapping. More specifically, many persons of Jewish ancestry changed their religious identity. In some cases, not once but twice or three times.  For those of us with Hidden Jewish Ancestry, this period is of great interest. It may be the time in which your Jewish ancestry became hidden.  

Between the16th and18th century, people of Jewish descent were moving around Europe and moving around the English colonies. As they moved from place to place, many changed up their religious identity. 

What was going on that led to all this moving around and subsequent identity swapping? The answer is a lot of things were happening. Here are a few examples. 

After Bordeaux was returned to French ownership (1453), it was largely depopulated. The French king Louis XI issued edicts in 1472 and 1474 inviting foreigners to come to Bordeaux. The crown and the nobility were especially interested in businesspeople repopulating the region. These edicts, welcoming foreigners, remained in place for 250 years. In 1492, the Spanish gave Jews the option of leaving Spain or becoming Catholic. Some Jews made their way to Bordeaux. Later, when the Spanish began persecuting the Conversos (1550), once again the Bordelais opened their doors to fleeing Spanish Conversos. As a result, Bordeaux became a magnet and a haven for Spanish Jews and Spanish Conversos. Once safely in Bordeaux, some returned to Judaism, some remained Catholic, and some joined the French Protestant Church (Huguenots). 

Portuguese Conversos had a trade network that spanned Goa, India, to Lisbon, and then Antwerp. They used this network to move diamonds.  Conversos in Goa purchased raw diamonds, and they then sent them to relatives in Lisbon, and from there they were sent to relatives in Antwerp to be cut and sold. It was a happy story for a time. Until the Portuguese launched the Inquisition in Lisbon in 1536 and in Goa(1560). Converso merchants in Lisbon were tried as were Converso raw diamond buyers in Goa. 

To make matters worse, the Spanish King sent the Duke of Alba to the Spanish Netherlands, and in particular, Antwerp to stamp out Converso and Protestant activity (1567). He set up the “Counsel of Troubles” or “The Counsel of Blood” as it was known. Lots of Conversos and Protestant ended up on the business end of a rope.  

What was the end result? Portuguese Conversos moved from Goa to English controlled India. Lisbon Converso merchants moved to London and Amsterdam. Converso diamond cutters moved from Antwerp to London and Amsterdam. The Portuguese lost control of the diamond trade. And a lot of people had to move from here to there. When they landed some place new, these Portuguese Conversos tended to change their religious identity to conform with their new location.  

Following the end of the 30 Years’ War (1648), much of Germany was depopulated. The regional nobility encouraged foreign immigration. They needed bodies to inhabit the empty villages. Conveniently, at about the same time, Louis the XVI evicted the Huguenots (1685). Germany needed people; France wanted rid of people. And the Huguenots went to Germany. And some of those Huguenots came from Sephardic Jewish ancestry. For reasons I have not figured out, the French Church, in Germany, became a magnate for German Jews. Some German Jews “became” French Protestant in Germany. 

A little later, the Swiss undertook an ethnic and religious purge of “non-conformers (1720-1780). This resulted in a stream of refugees running for their lives. Germany still wanted “immigrants” and they welcomed the Swiss refugees. Some of the Swiss refugees were of Jewish ancestry. 

And then there was North America. In the 17th century, the North American colonies were hungry for colonists. There English crown granted land for 13 colonies.  Colonies which included Massachusetts(1607), NewHampshire(1629), Virginia(1624), Maryland(1632), Connecticut(1635), Rhode Island(1636), Delaware(1664), New York(1664), New Jersey(1674), Pennsylvania(1681), South Carolina(1712), North Carolina(1729), and Georgia(1732). 

“Colonies” were essentially corporations managed from London. Once a corporation was granted land, the corporation had to populate the colony with people. They had to induce people to move from Europe to the new colony. Indeed, the colonies sent recruitment agents to places with people willing or likely to make a move. As a result, the Swiss refugees, the Huguenots refugees, and a real mix of other people made their way to North America. Remember, some of the Huguenot and Swiss colonials had Jewish ancestry. Once they landed in Germany, England, or the English colonies, many of these refugees swapped their old identity for a new one. 

I cannot leave the Colony section without mentioning Georgia. The last colony formed; Georgia really struggled to get people to populate the new territory. Suffice it to say, this colony was a lot more relaxed about who they let in. The motley crew that filled Georgia is really worth examining. I will just mention one interesting character.  

I was reading Armstrong’s “Notable Southern Families” and a real winner appeared out of nowhere. Ferdinand Phinizy(1760-1818). Armstrong says, “Ferdinand Phinizy, firs of the name, first at least in America, was an Italian gentleman who emigrated to America in the 18th century. It is believed that he first went to from Italy to France, where he spent some time before embarking for America. He married Margaret Condow and raised a family of fie sons and daughters. He established a home in Georgia and acquired great wealth and made a reputation for honesty and integrity of character which was also a legacy to his family, one of the most powerful in Geogia”. 

An Italian gentlemen? Maybe. Let’s fact check this one. Phinizy is an Italian Jewish surname. Finzi, Finezi, Fenzi, Phinzy, Finizi, Finessy, Phenecie are all the same name, and belong to Italian Jews. Finzi and its variants are a known Jewish name in Italy. Ferdinand’s biography suggests he was from Parma, Italy, which had a stable Jewish population. Other Italian Jewish Finzi/Phinizy’s can be found in London, at the very same time(1775), marrying into Cohen D’Azevedo family at the Bevis Marks Spanish synagogue. The Italian Jewish Finzi’s married into Spanish Jewish families in London and Amsterdam. 

Our immigrant Phinizy carried the first name Ferdinand. That would be a Spanish name. This member of the Finzi family was buried at the St.Pauls Episcopal Cemetery, in Augusta, Georgia. So whatever he was, in Georgia, he became an Anglican.  There are other Italian Jewish families that ended up in colonial Georgia, Joseph Ottolenghe being one worth researching. An Italian Jewish silk producer, he became a Christian just before immigrating to Georgia. 

Those are just a few examples events leading to people of Jewish ancestry moving around the world between the 16th and 18 centuries. There are many more. 

While places needed people, places also had rules as to who could come and who could not come.

Example?  Between 1292 and 1666, Jews were not permitted to reside in England. And when the Portuguese merchants were on the move, England had become a protestant country.  What was the work around for Portuguese Converso diamond merchants escaping the Inquisition in Lisbon or Antwerp? When they got to London, they joined the French Church, the Dutch Church, or the Italian Church.  Some bold Conversos registered themselves “of no religion”. Here we see Portuguese Conversos “becoming” Reform Christians of various description. 

Peter Stuyvesant, governor of New Amsterdam was a real antisemite. (Though his portrait suggests he might have had some semitic ancestry).  He really did not like Jews and did not want them coming to New York. He said this of Jews, “the deceitful race, such hateful enemies and blasphemers of the name of Christ, be not allowed to further infect and trouble this new colony”. Harsh. He had a no Jew policy. The directors of the Dutch West India Company, his bosses, did not agree and reversed his position. He was told to correct himself and allow Jews to enter New Amsterdam. But his preference was for all immigrants to join the Dutch reform church, and that included Jews, Catholics, Lutherans, and Quakers. Even though Jews were allowed in New Amsterdam, the management was less than friendly towards them. As such, it was best to conceal a Jewish identity in New Amsterdam if you could.  And people did. Some joined the Dutch church. 

The Georgia colony, previously mentioned, was set up to give down and out English people a place to improve themselves. It had some unusual restrictions. The two most notable was that no rum makers or lawyers would be allowed to make it home. The no lawyer thing was never relaxed by the early trustees of the state. However, James Edward Ogelthorpe, the founder, did allow persons of Jewish descent to immigrate to Georgia. His primary focus was on a home for English prisoners, but Jews were ok too. 

Thus, in some cases, necessity required people to change their identities; to make themselves more acceptable to their new host country. 

And then there is this. Marriage. When people moved around, the often ended up in places with people from other places. Where immigrants mixed, immigrants married. Sometimes a Portuguese Converso became a French Protestant or an Anglican because they married a French Protestant or an Anglican. 

There were official reasons to change your identity and personal reasons. 

Let’s move from theory to history. Below you will read how some people of Jewish ancestry disappeared their ancestry or how their ancestry was disappeared. 

If you troll around genealogical and historical society publications covering this period, stories of the fluid religious identity of pop out all over the place. 

In the article, “Review of The Jewish Colonists in Barbados in the Year 1680”, written by Wilfred Samuels (1932-1935, Jewish Historical Society of England) one such story emerges. The article catalogues the Jews living all over Barbados, this particular quotes discusses Speightstown, in the St.Peters Parish.  

“A very interesting character, too, was Mijnheer Paul Jansen de Vreda who had moved from St. Michaels Parish at the commencement of 1680. In that very year, 1678, which saw the godly Christaen de Breda appointed Deacon of the Dutch Church in Austin Friars, London, this other scion of that well known Flemish family was to be found living in Barbados amongst the Jews and as a Jew! In the congregation he was naturally known as Abraham DeVreda. It is not difficult to picture the angry mutterings and the looks of shocked surprise with which Mijnheer Francis Vanderwarfe and the other Hollanders of St. Peter’s must have greeted “Mr. Paul Dawrade’s” daily passages through the streets of Speights. On the 27th September, 1662, he had become an English subject-jointly with David Namias and one of the Gideon-Abudientes, and doubtless Gideon Dovrede who flourished on the island of Nevis about 1753 was his son. Paul Devreda kept four negros and one white servant at Speights. He also owned a horse, a convenient possession for any resident of St. Peters Parish who desired to keep in touch with Bridgetown.”

In one family, we can see people moving around the world and adopting different religious identities. Let’s unpack this quote.In 1678, one member of the Converso De Vreda family, Christaen, moved from Antwerp to London and became deacon of the Dutch church.  Another member of the De Vreda family, Paul moved from Antwerp to Barbados where he became a practicing Jew. Same family, two members ended up living in different place with different religious identities. One adopted a protestant Christian identity and the other adopted a Jewish identity. 

One of the big questions amongst people who discover they have Hidden Jewish Ancestry is this. Who in the family knew they had Jewish ancestry? How did the ancestry get “disappeared”. When did it get disappeared? Often, this question cannot be answered.  Most of the players are long dead. But, in this quote we read of a in time in which people did know. 

The writer comments that members of the Dutch community in Barbados would have been in communication with the Dutch community in London. They would have known that Christaen De Vreda was a deacon of the London Dutch church.  And would have been aware that Christaens relative, Paul, was living as a practicing Jew in Barbados. At that time, people knew. Christaen De Vreda knew he came from a Jewish family. The question is, did his children know? Did his great grandchildren know? Christaen disappears from the historical record, so its hard to know.  

Here is yet another example. Aranda is a uniquely Sephardic Jewish name. The Aranda’s in Spain were wealthy Jews and held high positions. When forced to convert, they became bishops and high court officials. When the Spanish began persecuting Conversos, many got out. Some of the family members made it to France and became French Reform.  And from there, they moved around, changing identities as they went. The Reverend Elie D’Arande(1619-1683) pops up as a minister in the Walloon Church in Flanders. That would be the Reform church of southern Holland/Belgium.  He was married to Elizabeth Bonhomme. The surnames indicate both were of Sephardic Jewish origin. When the Duke of Alba arrived in southern Holland, to rid it of Conversos and Protestants (1567), the couple, being double winners, both Converso and Protestant, fled to London. 

Their son, Reverend Elie Paul D’Arande(1625-1669), was born in London and would attend Oxford and become a minister in the French Reform church. Elie D’Arande’s son and grandson became Turkery Merchants in London. This was a company that traded with Turkey, and any other place in the “east”. The Turkey Merchant company had a No JEW policy. So, apparently by this generation, the Aranda family had “disappeared” their Jewish ancestry. Easily enough done. The grandfather and great grandfather were Christian ministers. At the same time, Converso Aranda’s living in Peru were tried by the Inquisition for being secret Jews. The ones that survived became card carrying members of the Catholic Church. 

The Belloc family is another decidedly a Spanish Jewish family. This name is unusual and not easily confused with other names. The family appear in Spain in Mallorca when Daniel Belloc, a converted Jew, was tried by the inquisition, in 1488 and in 1491. In both cases he was granted a reconciliation or Edict of Grace. He somehow managed to avoid being put to death. The name Belloc is listed in Pere Bonnin’s whose who of Spanish Jews, Sangre Judia, and in the “Dictionario Sefardi de Sobrenomes”.  Some family members left at the time of the Edict of Expulsion for Tunisia, Algeria, and Italy under the name Belhaiche. Others left Spain as Conversos for the New World under the name Belicha, Bellicha, Belich, and Belloc. 

As has been stated, many Spanish Jews and Conversos ended up in Bordeaux and that included the Belloc family. Some members returned to Judaism. This is evidenced by the name appearing in the civil marriage documents of the Sephardic Jewish bride, Marie Bellocq(b 1839)  to Benjamin Leon(1841-1881) on August 3, 1880. Benjamin’s parents were Abraham Leon and Lea Peryre. Abraham Leon’s parents were Jacob Leon and Rachel Lopes Dias. Practicing Spanish Jewish Belloc’s lived in France at least through the 19th century!  

Others became French Protestants.

 One such family lived in Nantes and their genealogy reveals a list of Sephardic Jewish names. The first recorded French Protestant member of this family is Moise Belloc (1650-1719). Moise was Procurator Protestant de la Chambre et Edit or the Protestant Prosecutor of the Chamber. This means he oversaw the court that heard cases or disputes that arose in the French Protestant community. 

In short, Moise Belloc was a very important Huguenot in Bordeaux. He, and his wife, Jeanne SeRe were both from Bordeaux merchants’ families of Sephardic origin.  SeRe was another Sephardic name(Cera, Cerez, Sera, Serez). 

This particular Huguenot family was made famous by Moise’s great great-great grandson, the painter Jeanne Hillaire Belloc(1786-1866).  Jeanne Hillaire married and English woman and relocated to London. Jeanne Hillaire’s grandson, Hillaire Belloc (1870-1953) would become a famous writer. 

Hillaire Belloc’s story involves a real odd twist. Firstly, he wrote both children’s books and political essays. His children’s books often involved bad children being eaten by wild animals. As for his political writing, well, this is not a good story. He became a staunch Catholic and a fervent anti-semite. In his 1922 book, “The Jews”, he wrote the following, 

"the continued presence of the Jewish nation intermixed with other nations alien to it presents a permanent problem of the gravest character," and that the "Catholic Church is the conservator of an age-long European tradition, and that tradition will never compromise with the fiction that a Jew can be other than a Jew. Wherever the Catholic Church has power, and in proportion to its power, the Jewish problem will be recognized to the full."

So, at the very moment Jewish Belloc’s in France were getting married in a Jewish ceremony, their “Catholic” anti-semitic relative was born in London. 

Religious fluidity in my family tree

My 11th great-grandfather, Laurent Massa, a Spanish Converso, probably born in Antwerp, became a “French Protestant” or Huguenot in Otterberg, Germany. The French Church book of Otterberg offers evidence of his “becoming” Christian. 

1669 

A la cene de Pentecoste, le 30 May, Lorent Massa a fait profession de la religion et promis d’y vivre chrestiennement, a renounce et abjure les abus ausquels il a este esleve en l’Eglise Romaine. 

At the Pentecostal Last Supper, on May 30, Lorent Massa made a profession of religion and promised to live in Christianity, renounced and abjured the abuses to which he was raised in the Roman Church. 

In Otterberg, Lorent Massa married Esther Baugeo(Baugez). It appears Esther was also Huguenot with roots in Jewish Spain. They and their children remained in Otterberg, living as French Protestants, for two generations. Their grand-daughter, Christina Marguerite Massa (1710-1783) married Johan Nickel Gebhardt (1713-1792) in the French Church.  This is an interesting marriage. Just like some Spanish Conversos became French Reform in Germany, some German Jews became French Reform in Germany. Gebhardt is recorded German Jewish surname. So, it is possible this Sephardic Jewish girl/Huguenot married a German Jewish Huguenot. The couple then immigrated to Pennsylvania and once there, became Lutheran! 

Christina and Johann’s daughter, Anna Gebhardt(1740-1825) married Johannes Stein(1731-1810) and they baptized their children at the Altalaha Lutheran Church, in Bethel, Pennsylvania. Anna’s choice of husband is interesting. Johannes Stein bore another traditionally German Jewish surname. Their children and grandchildren disappeared into various low key protestant denominations, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, and Lutheran. Their Jewish ancestry was disappeared. They entered into white Anglo-Saxon American life.  

In prior papers that can be found on this website, I have shown that during the moving about 

time of the 17thand 18th century, both Sephardic Jews and German Jews joined the French Protestant Church and then spread through the Huguenot diaspora. In my paper, Swiss Crypto-Jews, I established that many of my Swiss ancestors who came to America as religious refugees, had Jewish ancestry.  

In a collision of Hidden Jewish Ancestry worlds, and papers, I have come to discover in this period of chopping and changing, some Huguenots, having made their way to America, married Swiss Mennonites.  This happened generally and it happened in my family tree. Huguenots, some with Jewish ancestry, married the Mennonites, some of whom had Jewish ancestry, and some of these blended families ended up living as Mennonites. This shows how layers upon layers of hidden Jewish ancestry ended up in America and in Americans.  And in a population, one would not suspect! 

How Huguenots ended up in my Mennonite family tree and in the family trees of many other Mennonites tells the story of fluid religious affiliation of persons with Hidden Jewish Ancestry. 

My family’s Huguenot ancestry starts with four Huguenot families fleeing France and finding refuge in Germany. Several made Frankenthal their home. These families included the Keims, the De la Planches, the Bertolets, and the DeTurks. They spent some years in Germany, but, ultimately, made their way to the Oley Township in Pennsylvania. They intermarried in Germany, and this may explain why they all ended up in the same township in colonial Pennsylvania. 

The first Huguenot on this list, Johannes Keim, came to Pennsylvania to scout out a new home for his family and his community back in Germany. On his 1698 tour, he identified what would become Oley Township as good option.  He then went back to Germany and retrieved his family and the other, probably related families. While he was back in Germany, he took a wife. There is some question as to whether the wife was Bertha Katerina DeTurk or Maria Bollerin. It seems he was married to both at some point in time. The best evidence suggests Bertha De Turk was his first wife and she made the passage to America with him. 

Keim made it to America somewhere around 1706 with his wife, and other related families(Bertolets, DeTurks, Levans). 

Keim was associated with the French reform church in Germany, and was considered a Huguenot immigrant. But, once in Pennsylvania, he became a Quaker. As is obvious, Keim is not a French name. The other Keim’s living in Germany at that time (1700) were German Jews (Keim = chaim or life in Hebrew). Johannes Keim may be one of the German Jews that became French Reform in Germany. Either way, he had six children with his first wife and 10 children with his second wife populating Oley Township with lots of little Quaker Keim’s. 

His daughter Anna Maria Keim 1734-1803), probably born of his second wife, married Jacob Yoder(1735-1803). Jacob Yoder was from an established Swiss Mennonite family. They and their children moved into the Swiss Mennonite world. This is the first evidence in my family tree a Huguenot marrying a Swiss Mennonite in colonial America. 

The Yoder family dominates the early colonial part of my Swiss Mennonite family. While researching these early arrivals to Pennsylvania, I was surprised to discover Yoder relatives also married into the DeTurk, Bertolet, De la Planche(Plank), and Levan families in and around Oley Township, Pennsylvania. Some of the children of those marriages remained in the Mennonite community from the 1740’s until present day. Some of them passed into other protestant denominations. 

Here are a few more examples of Huguenot families joining the Swiss Mennonite community in the Oley Township. 

Esther De Turk(1713-1798) was the daughter of Isaac De Turk and Maria De Harcourt. Her parents immigrated from Frankenthal, Germany to New York city.  She was born in New York and was baptized in the French Church there. Her baptism records still exist.  

Bateme, anjouidhuy dimance 29 D’Avril 1712, Monseiur Rou, Ministere batise Esthe le Turque, nee le 30 d’Aoust dernier, fille de Isaac le Turque et Maria sa feme, presente au Bateme par Francois Lucas et la mere du cette enfant Parietin et Matienne. 

Esther de Turk married Abraham Bertolet in 1735.  Abraham was born in Minfield, Germany and immigrated to Oley Township when he was 14 years of age. Esther and Abraham were first cousins, he the son of Jean Bertolet and Esther’s aunt, Susanna de Harcourt. They made their home in the Oley Valley, of Pennsylvania, on a piece of land deeded to Esther by her father when she was quite young. 

T

heir son, Daniel De Turk Bertolet(1741-1797) married the Swiss Mennonite Maria Yoder(1749-1827) and thus the Huguenot families De Turk, Bertolet, and de Harcourts made their way into the Mennonite community. And the Swiss Mennonites made their way into Huguenot genealogies. 

However, Daniel and Marias wedding certificate is interesting. It indicates they were neither married in the Mennonite church nor the French Church. 

“These presents certify that Daniel Bertolet and Maria Yoder, of Oley Township, in the County of Berks, and province of Pennsylvania, in North America, were joined together in Holy Bonds of Matrimony, and pronounced man and wife,  according to the form established by law, in the CHURCH OF ENGLAND, this sixth day of December, in the year of our lord, one thousand seven hundred and sixty eight, by me, Alex Murray, Minister”

The marriage produced quite a few children and that would include Daniel Yoder Bertolet. Daniel Yoder Bertolet (1781-1868), son of Daniel Bertolet and Maria Yoder Daniel represented the sum total of his ancestry. At a point, he fell into the company of the Quakers and believed in their practice of listening. He had the Mennonite influence of his mother and disavowed infant baptism and war. For a time, he was active in the Evangelical Association. The Evangelicals were non-denomination and drew from Huguenot, Mennonite, Brethren, Hutterite, and other denominations. They generally met in homes. Daniel decided to build a church and a cemetery for his community, at his own expense. However, the central organization of the Evangelicals, The Evangelical Association, demanded he deed the church and the cemetery to the central organization.  To say that did not work for him would be an understatement. 

In the “Genealogical History of the Bertolett Family”, compiled by Daniel H. Bertolet, we read the following, 

“The idea of control over a house of worship intended for his friends and neighbors, vesting in a distant body of comparative strangers, was exceedingly repugnant to the donor. In the dispute which followed the disposition of this property Daniel Bertolet became so offended that he withdrew his offer, left the church, and never rejoined it, remaining until the end of his life independent of all church ties”. 

This Crypto-Jew became of “No Church”. As a result of his “dispute”, Daniel built a non-sectarian meetinghouse in 1842. He also established a cemetery for those that attended his non-sectarian meeting house. Many of the Bertolet’s are buried in the Bertolet Union Cemetery. The Mennonite Heritage Center cemetery record list over 75 Bartelots and Bertolets buried at the “Bertolet Meeting House”. Indeed, the same source indicates it became a burial ground for members of the DeTurk family.  

Interestingly Daniel Yoder Bertolet’s children and grandchildren married back into the four Huguenot families from Frankenthal.

His son, Abraham Bertolet (1803-1835) married Catharine Levan DeTurk (1812-1874) and they had three children. Abraham and Catharine only son, Horace DeTurk Bertolet (1831-1865) married Adeline B. Miller (1832-1925) and had five children. Their daughter Ida Eugenie (1855-1913) married Dr. D. Heber Plank. (de la Planche). 

Before moving onto another example of Huguenots becoming Mennonite, it would pay to take a sidetrack regarding this branch of the family tree. 

Maria Yoder(1749-1827) who married Daniel de Turk Bertolet, is a direct descendent of the Nicolas Yoder and Anna Trachsel. You can read about the Trachsels in my paper of Swiss Crypto-Jews. In short, this family is thought to be of Sephardic Jewish origin, having made their way from Spain to Turkey, and from Turkey to Switzerland, and Switzerland to Pennsylvania. Oley township to be specific. 

The elephant sitting in the living room would be Daniels mothers’ family name, DE TURK. Not only is this not a French name, the surname states in no uncertain terms, FROM TURKEY.  At a minimum, the De Turks were of eastern origin. Turk could be a generic name for people from the east. Who were the most common people from the east who made their way to northern Europe? The answer would be Jews. There is a great likelihood the “Turks” were of Jewish descent. What is absolutely fact is that many Jews, in both southern and northern Europe, used some variation of the name Turk; De Turk, deTourge, La Turk, De la Turkie, etc. Turk, Turkie, and Turquie are recorded Sephardic Jews surnames. 

Thus, it is possible the De Turk family followed a similar path to that of the Trachsel family,  from Jewish Spain to Turkey to France to Germany to Oley Township, Pennsylvania. 

In the late 19th century, many American people wrote books about their family. I have a book on the De Turks, a book on the Bertolets, and so on. Which is great because you can extract some information from the meticulously crafted genealogies. However, you will also find recurrent nonsense.

 In the “History and Genealogy of the DeTurk, DeTurck Family”, compiled by Eugene Peter DeTurk, we find a predictable/ typical family origin story. Part fact, part fiction. 

“The DeTurk family is of oriental origin. The progenitor of the family was brought to France by Count Kaimund of Toulouse from Palestine, where he was taken prisoner in the year 1105 A.D. He was a Turkish Emir, that is a prince, and his name was Hayraddin Silodin. In France, however, he assumed the name of Arnulph Le Turk, that is Arnulph the Turk. He was knighted and admitted into the nobility.” 

Maybe. Maybe the original De Turk was a Turkish Emir. But, in general, beware any and all family origin stories that give an American an family aristocratic origin. When people were writing these tomes on their family’s genealogy, it was super popular to trace your family back to a king, a prince or a countess. The number of people in America that think their family traces back to Charlemagne is astonishing. 

Statistically speaking, the greatest number of De Turks in Europe were Jews. As such, it is more than likely the De Turk family descended from a Jewish merchant. Is it possible he was a lost Turkish Emir? Yes, it is possible. Is it probable? No. 

That aside, it’s interesting that two people, with remote pasts in Turkey, like Jewish roots in Turkey, would meet up in Olney Township, Pennsylvania! And produce a son who opened his own house of worship with NO RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION.  

Back to the Huguenots in the Mennonite community! 

Dr.Jacques de la Planche, was born 1684 in Voussac, Allier, Avergne, France to a French Protestant family. When trouble broke out for the Huguenots in France, his family escaped to Basel, Switzerland through the Alpes. He studied medicine in Basel.  The famous Pastor Kocherthal organized a flotilla of 11 ships of Swiss and Palatines bound for the colonies, Jacques and his father caught a ride to the Americas. The ships landed in New York and after a short stay in New York, the De la Planche’s moved to Olney Township, Pennsylvania. 

The De la Planches made their way to Oley in 1720 along with the Bertolet, DeTurk, and Levan(Levin)/Levant families. The Levan family included brothers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Not only did these families arrive to Oley Township together, but they would also intermarry repeatedly. 

Dr. Jacques de la Planch married Catherine Houghton (1691-1773). The couple had 8 children Sarah, Frederick, Jacob, Mary Catherine Eymann, Mary Marguerite Magdalena Shaffer, Anna Marie Keim, Johanna Maria Sophia, and Susana Rothermal. Please note one of their children, Anna Marie, married into the Keim family. 

Their son Frederick (1728-1786) married a woman named Elizabeth, no last name available (1729-1788), and they had a son, Peter(1748-1831). Peter changed his name from de la Planche to Plank and became a Mennonite. He married a Mennonite girl, Veronica Francis Kauffman (1762-1837). Whether he became a Mennonite and then married a Mennonite, or married a Mennonite and then became a Mennonite, is not clear. What is clear is he was really into being Mennonite: he became a Bishop in the Mennonite Church.  

My next example of the Huguenot/Swiss Mennonite mixing deals with the Levan/Levant family. The name is spelled in various ways, all point to an “eastern” origin. Levan and LeVan could have been Levin, a common northern European Jewish surname. But it could have also be Le Vin, the wine. Wine making was a Northern European Jewish occupation. Then there is Levant. The Levant is the area of the eastern Mediterranean and Western Asia, basically Syria, Isreal, and Jordan. It will come as no surprise, Levant, was a European Jewish surname(Levante, Levantino, etc). 

There is a branch of my family tree that brings the whole Huguenot/Swiss Mennonite/Oley Township story together in one branch. 

Jean Antoine Levent (Huguenot)

Born: 1650 Picardie

Died: 1694 Amsterdam, Holland

Marries 

Sara de Semery (Huguenot)

Born: 1655 Picardie

Died: 1697 Amsterdam

They have a son. 

Daniel Levan/Levant (Huguenot)

Born: 1672 Picardie, France 

Died:1768 Amsterdam, Holland

Marries: 

Marie Le Beau (Huguenot)

Born: 1676 Picardie, France 

Died: 1735 Amsterdam, Holland  

Le Beau= LeBon= Sephardic Jewish surname

They have a son.

Jacob Le Beau Levan/Levant (Huguenot) 

Born: 1702 Amsterdam Huguenot

Died: 1766 Oley Township, Pennsylvania

Marries:  

Anna Maria Graff (?)  

Born: 1705 Germany 

Dies: 1766 Berks, Pennsylvania

Graf is a German Jewish surname. 

They have a daughter.

Eva Levan/Levant (Huguenot)

Born: 1742 Berks, Pennsylvania  

Died: 1819 Oley, Pennsylvania 

Marries: 

Peter Yoder (Mennonite) 

Born: 1740 Oley, Pennsylvania 

Died: 1809 Oley, Pennsylvania

Marriage took place at the First Reformed Church of Philadelphia. The first German Reform church in America. Pastor George Michael Weiss. (If I had the time, I would investigate this pastor Weiss. Weiss would be a common German Jewish surname!) 

Peter Yoder was the son of 

Hans Yoder (Mennonite)

Born: 1701 Steffisburg, Switzerland

Died: 1779 Oley, Pennsylvania 

Yoder is one of the Swiss Crypto-Jewish families in my family tree. 

And 

Elizabeth Keim (Huguenot)

Born: 1706 Germany

Died: 1779 Oley Township, Pennsylvania

Daughter of 

Elizabeth was the daughter of: 

Johanns Keim  (Huguenot) 

Born: 1675 Germany 

Died: 1753 Oley, Pennsylvania

Keim is a German Jewish Surname. 

And 

Katherine de Turk (Huguenot)

1706 Germany 

1731 Oley, Pennsylvania 

De Turk is a German and Sephardic Jewish surname. 

Conclusion

This would be just a small sampling of the religious identity hopping that occurred in the 17th and 18th century in Europe and in America amongst people of Jewish ancestry. 

This story line demonstrates that when people moved to a new country, they could become whatever they wanted to become or whatever they needed to become. And they did. Perhaps for those that had suffered greatly because of their Jewish identity, moving was an opportunity to become something that carried less baggage. 

The same could be said of the Huguenots. Having lost everything because of their faith, including material wealth and family, and we are talking about life and limb, maybe something less dangerous was appealing. Hard to know. But the Huguenots disappeared into all kinds of Protestant faiths. In America, in Germany, and in England. Out of curiosity, I googled French Protestant Churches in America, and found one. It’s in South Carolina. The Huguenots identity hopped to such an extent; the denomination no longer exists in America!  

In colonial Pennsylvania, Huguenots of Jewish descent and Mennonites of Jewish descent blended into the Mennonite community or became Quakers, Dutch Protestants, German protestants, Evangelicals, Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, Church of the Brethren, and more. They disappeared. 7 generations later, their descendants are now Protestants of many different descriptions. Completely clueless of their origins.

But DNA does not lie! A lot of people from non-descript Protestant families get a surprise when they get their ancestry report back. Sephardic Jewish? Ashkenazi Jewish? Where did I get that DNA? 

I will end this paper where I started. Some people who discover they have Hidden Jewish Ancestry when they get an ancestry test done, may have gotten it between the 16th and the 18th century, when people were moving and changing religious identities. This was a period of fluid religious identity and many people disappeared a Jewish past.