Wow! Though the headings such as "research," "archives," or "search" are in English, English speakers will need Google Translator to go further. As part of an effort to share culture and European and Jewish history, the National Archives of Amsterdam has plentiful resources in which you may find family history and genealogy even if you are not "Dutch."
In particular, Portuguese Sephardic Jews who were expelled or left Portugal and settled in Amsterdam, Holland, where people were more tolerant of religious differences, are recorded here. And - this is wonderful - I'm told there are entries in which the person's Jewish surname in Netherlands is listed as is the surname they used in Portugal. On the marriage records there can be information such as a previous spouse, a divorce, the names of these persons, and where they came from.
I'll give more details later as I explore the site myself.
A word about European Jews.
In the United States we easily identify surnames that are or "sound" Jewish, as we are used to "German Jewish" surnames. As a result Colonial American Jews (of which there were some) with surnames that are not clearly German Jewish are not so easily identified. Some time ago I posted on a book called "When Scotland was Jewish" which is quite interesting - the surnames of some Jews are Scottish. In the Southern United States, pre-civil war, some of the slave owners were Sephardic Jewish.
Then there are Italian Jews; reading around DNA it's said that about 40% of Italians - particularly in the South of Italy - have some Jewish ancestry though they may have been practicing Catholics for generations. The Italian Jews are usually from Sephardic origins. Some of them came from Salonika, Greece, where they first went after the expulsions.
When we think Polish Jews, we think of German Jews because some German Jews were living in Poland and visa versa, but Polish Jews had surnames that were Polish; surnames were not used, needed, or the law until rather late in Jewish history. If you live in a small community where everyone knows everyone, why a surname? Surname requirements get tied into registrations for civil reasons. Besides the expelling of Jews (or forced conversions) from Spain and Portugal (and other countries) Jewish people could chose a surname (while also having their Jewish name). Then there are a variety of spellings used by the same family to consider. And that to this day some Jews have the name the world knows them by as well as a more secret name known to their fellow Jews.
Last but not least, some Jews in Poland and other areas effected by the Holocaust made their way to Holland - such as the famous Anne Frank - hoping they would be safe there - but eventually they were not.
So you realize that the NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF AMSTERDAM can be useful for Jewish genealogy. You may be able to cross reference your research with Vad Yasham and other Jewish Genealogy and Holocaust oriented sites.
More later!
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