Re: ORNELLAS,August Fernandes family
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In reply to:
Re: ORNELLAS,August Fernandes family
7/21/00
My maternal grandfather was Jose Ornellas who emigrated from Porto Santo,Madeira, Portugal, to Oakland, CA, via Hawaii.There are a lot of Ornellas' on Porto Santo. The double l was eliminated after my family left Portugal.
A Mexican-American Ornelas doing his genealogytold me that his family emigrated from Portugal to Jalisco, Mexico.
One possible explanation is that the family originally had Jewish roots and when the Jews were expelled from Portugal in 1497 many came to the new world.They were outwardly Catholic, but they practiced their Judaism secretly at home. There is a society dedicated to the study of these crypto-Jews, conversos, marranos.
A resident of Funchal, Madeira, told me to go to Porto Santo and get in a taxi. Probably, the driver would be an Ornelas. If not, get out and try another cab!