LEALS and Jewish Origins
I have read about the Sephardic Jewish origins of the LEALS on:
www.separdim.com/
There is also a site that lists the members of the Sephardic Jewish Leals as victims of the Spanish/Portuguese Inquisition of the late 1400s and there are historic archives in which to prove this.A Benjamin Bnahman states that he can provide data as to the fate that befell the Leal victims of the inquisition from the inquisition archives of Portugal.Check this site out for further info:
http://www.saudades.org/Inquisition_archives.htmhttp://www.saudades.org/Inquisition_archives.htm
Members of my Leal branch apparently came from Great Britain but I believe that Britain was a "host" country of which they lived after a migration off of continental Europe.I am wondering if anyone has any info regarding the Leals on the Isle of Wight or anywhere else in England.I suspect that they may have been Conversos - Sephardic Jews that either converted willingly or by force to Christianity.I suspect that when they migrated to Britain they no longer honoured their Jewish roots. However II have no tangible proof.Write me at [email protected]