GEN-MEDIEVAL-L Archives

Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 2001-09 > 0999729561


From: "Ford Mommaerts-Meulemans-Browne" <>
Subject: Re: fraudulant genealogies
Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2001 17:51:15 -0500
References: <3B9103DB.D6DFDD5F@swbell.net> <a9b2ce02.0109050711.29645397@posting.google.com>



----- Original Message -----
From: "Bryant Smith" <>
To: <>
Sent: Wednesday, 05 September, 2001 1011
Subject: Re: fraudulant genealogies in the 14-16th centuries


> Less interesting than total fabrications may be small lies
> buried in large genealogies. During the heyday of the Spanish
> Inquisition (Isabella fwd)it was a requirement for admission to un
> iversities, government posts etc., that the applicants demonstrate
> "racial purity" by showing 8- (? I forget how many) -generation
> ancestries free of Jewish (or (Moorish?) blood.


I have mentioned this before. Others, (e.g.: Chico Doria), may have also.
It is a principal/phenomenon known as _limpieza_, pur Christian
blood/lineage, and it pertained to ALL lines of ancestry. (It is probably
from the Spanish connections of the founder that the Order of the Golden
Fleece required proof of Catholic ancestry for 10 generations as a qualifier
for membership.) A Cardinal, whose name I don't immediately recall, wrote a
book negating such lines for the high nobility, (and therefore, by
extension, royalty) of Spain & Portugal. The libretto was titled _La Tinza
de Nobildad_.
An article, 'A Suggested Moslem Descent for Eleanor of Provence and Eleanor
of Castile', by Prof. Charles J. Jacobs, _Spanish Genealogical Helper_, #19,
pp. 343-346, (The Augustan Society, 1974), maybe of interest. It deals with
the very problematical banu Qasi, but does illustrate how documents &
records were doctored to further this desire. There is a peripheral lesson
here as to documentation being the be-all & end-all of genealogical
research, (NOT that it should be thrown out with the bath-water).


> I would be interested
> in conofirmation and elucidation of this, and beyond that, whether
> and to what extent this sort of document has been preserved, and
> the use (if any) that could be (has been) made of it. Although
> they would require careful scrutiny, such documents might be largely
> accurate at least back through great-grandparents, and could be
> a valuable (and overlooked?) resource.
> Bryant Smith
> Playa Palo Seco
> Puntarenas, Costa Rica
> www.grupomakai.com

This thread: