Mordechay de Jeudah Senior y Pimentel

GEDCOM Note

Mordechai and his brother Jacob spent their young manhood in Recife,Pernambuco, in service to Johan Maurits van Nassau, Governor General of Dutch Brazil, until its recapture by the Portuguese in 1654. He along with Jacob Senior signed the Minute Book (dated 1648-1653) of Congregations Zur Israel of Recife and Magen Abraham of Mauricia,Brazil. ("Studia Rosenthaliana Vol. 12 July 1978, page 95"). A dowry of 9,000 fls. was paid, Married 28 Feb 1658, Amsterdam to: Sara Lopez, birth 1639 Hamburg, Germany, Source "Trouwen In Mokum-Jewish Marriages in Amsterdam 1598-1811". Authors Dave, Source Monis Family, Source The Monis Family ("Studia Rosenthaliana Vol. 12 July 1978, page 95"). Daughter of Mozes Lopez & Rachel Mendes Del Sotto ("History Of The Jews Of The Netherlands Antilles"). His brother, Jacob Senior Henriquez and Rachel Lopes, mother of the bride. Witness for Marriage Notice, 1658 Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands. Seguramente se fueron a Brazil con su Tio David (Duarte Saraiva). Member No. 396 of the Dotar.

GEDCOM Note

Stones of Memory: Revelations from a Cemetery in Curacao Rochelle Weinstein

Mosseh's father, Mordechay Senior, and his uncle, Jacob Senior, spent their young manhood in Brazil. Mordechay Senior and Jaacob Senior signed the Minute Book (dated 1648-1653) of Congregations Zur Israel of Recife and Magen Abraham of Mauricia, Brazil. Egon and Frieda Wolff made a detailed examination of signatures and paraphs of the names, among others, of Jacob and Mordechay Senior. Paraphs are signature flourishes which are as personal as fingerprints and also at times help guard against forgery. They firmly matched the Minute Book signature of Mordechay Senior with that among those added to the complimentary letter written to Sabbatai Zevi in 1666 by the members of the Amsterdam charitable society Yeshuot Mashiho Stones of Memo y 109 ("Nobility of the Anointed). The letter was never sent, as it coincided with delivery of the news of the apostasy of the false messiah. The letter was reproduced in J. S. da Silva Rosa's 1925 history of the Amsterdam Portuguese Jews; in Moses Gans's sumptuous 1971 atlas of Netherlands Jewry, Memorboek; and most recently in the 1980 Jerusalem catalogue of the loan exhibition of a selection of manuscripts in the Amsterdam Ets Haim Library. We have matched the signature of Mordechay Senior (1620-1680) on the letter with the one he used in 1674, signing in as Mordechaj de Jeudah Senior, member no. 396 of the Dotar. Mordechaj's Dotar paraph, especially the "j" descender, is identical with that of 1666, except that in 1674, he added the patronymic "de Jeuda." In 1682, Jacob de Judah Senyor signed into the Dotar as no. 409. In public and private papers Jacob de Judah Senior and his offspring regularly used the double surname Senior Henriques. We assume this was Mordechay's brother Jacob (1631-1705) and the uncle of Mosseh and his siblings. On the basis of surname consistency, signature paraphs, and Dotar, we have been able to develop a fairly reliable genealogy of the Senior-Senior Henriques family.