JEWISH NAMES OF jAMAICA

Richard, please keep me informed of any new additions.

Kwame

It would be nice to have a set of projects around the different immigrants who came to Jamaica, with timelines. Like my friend I told Kwame about whose name is Jadusingh, which Kwame says is West Indian. Correct?

I would be interested in why and when the Jewish immigrants came to Jamaica? The names are Sephardic for the most part.

Hatte, Jadusingh is from India. The Jamaica Gleaner (newspaper) has a list of the immigrants.

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/pages/history/story0057.htm

The Jews came to Jamaica/the Caribbean (and South America) with Christopher Columbus and other explorers fleeing the Inquistion.

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/pages/history/story0054.htm

I remember reading that too Kwame - about there being many Jews sailing with Columbus. And even speculation about his being Jewish.

Great articles!

Interesting articles -- thanks for sharing!

In the Bahamas, where my mother is from, the Jewish community is very tiny (about 150 people out of a population around 320,000) and mostly centered in one outlying town that was heavily resettled by Americans in the 1960s. (The only synagogue in the country can be found here: http://www.grandbahamasynagogue.org/History.htm) I know there were a good number that fled there during the U.S. Civil War, but it doesn't appear that they stayed -- or, if they did, they didn't last. So it's nice to see an ongoing community in another regional island country.

Does anyone know if many Jewish Americans left for Jamaica during the Civil War? I suspect that if enough were leaving the U.S., they might have gone farther south to Jamaica and some of the other islands.

I haven't heard of any Jews leaving U.S. for Jamaica.

The Treasurer of the Confederacy was Jewish, and after the Civil War, he fled to Britain and was given safe haven.

The Marley's way back were supposedly Syrian Jews and the family were some of the early developers of the island, Bob's fathers brother was in charge of building roads. Researching his family was very educational! Wish I could have found more info.

I read something about the Marleys Margaret, I'll see if I can find it.

Hatte, check out Bob Marley's tree above him. I filled it in with as many family members and info that I found doing research from up here in the NW, about as far from Jamaca as one can go in the US not counting Alaska!

Margaret - I assume that you saw this article:

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/m...

Hatte, yes I found that when I was looking for info. Haven't traced his Devon line yet, though I did find a niece of his who was the one that said Marley was a Syrian Jewish name.

I would like to delve into that more Margaret. Too bad I don't have a subscription to the British Ancestry.

Hatte, please do! I have one line going back to the 1600's, but not much on the others. Love to hook Bob into the big tree!

I'm skeptical about the Syrian Jewish connection, just from browsing the Web sources, but it would take some real looking into his British roots. I'll put that on my secondary list of to dos.

@Grace Mears

Grace Mears was born in 1694 in St Catherine Parish Spanish Town
Jamacia. The Jews first came during the Spanish occupation from
1494 to 1655. They came seeking refuge the Spanish Inquisition.
There was a legal loophole that gave them this refuge but still they
called themselves Portuguese and practised their religion in secret.
In 1655 Britain took control and the Jews were granted British
citizenship. This right was conferred by Oliver Cromwell and
confirmed by Charles 11 in 1660. They gained full political rights
in 1831. I don't know when Grace left Jamacia but she married
Raphael Moses Levy in New York in 1718. By the time of her death
in New York in 1740 she had seven children. The current Jewish
population of Jamacia is about 200 but about 424000 Jamacians
have Sefhardi Jewish ancestry.

Does the surname 'Senior' appear among Sephardi or Jewish descended
Jamaicans.

Other popular Jewish names in Jamaica are/were:
Abrahams,
Alexander,
Babb,
Barrett,
Carvalho,
Codner,
Da Silva,
De Cohen,
De Leon,
De Souza,
Delisser,
DeMercado,
Gomes/Gomez
Lyon,
Magnus,
Marish,
Pimentel,
Rodriques,
Sangster.