This is My Story.
Now It's Time to Find Yours.

My name is Genie Milgrom and I would like to share with you the details of my journey back in time as I crossed the globe in search of my Crypto-Jewish ancestors.

Initially, I was able to find 15 grandmothers in an unbroken maternal lineage going back to the early 1500s and it was also possible to successfully prove that my family had been Converso Jews from before the Spanish Inquisition. After this initial research was completed, I continued the research and was able to go back 22 generations to Pre- Inquisition Portugal and identify 30 or so relatives that were judged or burned in the Inquisition. Some from the Tribunal in Lisbon, others in Coimbra in Portugal. Many were brought before the Inquisitors for simple infractions such as wearing a clean shirt on Shabbat or cleaning their homes on Friday.

I was able to compile all the birth, marriage, death and Inquisition documents for my family proving to important Beit dins ( Jewish Courts) that the family was always Jewish via my maternal lineage.

This Jewish lineage was traced back to a small village named Fermoselle in the province of Zamora, Spain right on The Duero River, across from Mogadouro in Portugal. My family moved across the borders easily from Fermoselle, to Miranda Do Douro, Alcañices, and Braganza in Portugal. They lived as Crypto Jews until the late 1600s and then as Roman Catholics until today. Many Jewish customs were kept in the family as Spanish traditions. I am the only one that has returned to the religion of the ancestors.

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Our Archives

Given the difficulty that I personally had in accessing information in the Spanish archives as I was tracing my own lineage back to Pre Inquisition Spain, I decided to compile all the available archival information and established this site to help those wanting to research their own Ancestry through the Archives in Spain.

You will be able to find the main archives in the country and a synopsis of their content. You will find the Church archives as well as the Diocese that each Archdiocese covers and University Libraries. In essence, most of the reference material that is available in Spain is listed on this website. Click here to start your search