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Archiver > CARIBBEAN > 2002-04 > 1018190143


From: "Jan Bousse" <>
Subject: Re: Jamaica Nunez/Levy/Morris group
Date: Sun, 7 Apr 2002 16:38:50 +0200
References: <3CAE7FE0.E2E6BB38@aol.com>, <005901c1dd3a$b05cd4c0$0d1b77d5@pandora.be> <3CAF7424.3BD449A1@aol.com>


Dear Edith,
I thank you for your answer to my previous message. Like other people on the
list, I have tried to help you along on your search for your ancestors or
relatives. You will have noticed that these correspondents are very helpful
and react quickly to your request, I can tell you that this is not true of
all lists. But you have to realise that you must have an open mind towards
what you may find. If you start your search with the idea I don't want to
find anything "dreadful" in my heritage, you better not start at all. When
these people you mention have been in Jamaica in the very early period of
the 1500s, you can bet that you will find connections with Jews and blacks.
By the way, I don't know why putting the time frame "very early" is being
"evidently" in the 1500s. In fact, do you have any data about these people
proving that they were there that early? They must have come right after
Columbus!
Remember what I wrote : "it seems to me that these three names are Jewish,
Morris possibly but not sure". Other people have confirmed that for you,
Morris is a name that has been adopted by Jews who were called Moses. It can
of course also very well be a Welsh name. I was not saying that they are
Jewish for sure, but I believe they more likely were.
Some people on the List will remember a search that started about two years
ago for descendants of Henry Cerf. That search still goes on among a smaller
group of people. Henry Cerf was a Jew who came to Jamaica just before 1800
and had a Jamaican wife, a free quadroon, which means that her ancestors
were black. Well, we found their descendants, living in the UK, Canada, US,
they are all white, as white as snow, all Protestant, and still they now
know that they descend from Jew and Negro! They had no idea before, but they
are in no way disturbed by finding that.
Jan Bousse, Oostende, Belgium


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