My mother's maiden name was Mary Eleanor Lousada and from an early age I wondered why her exotic surname appeared in an obscure Australian country town. Family myth was that we had Spanish ancestry and thus my uncle Francis Cecil Lousada was given the nickname 'Spanish' by his WW2 Army colleagues. However, as will be seen, we were Portuguese as much as we were Spanish and indeed the origin of 'Lousada' is a Portuguese town! My pursuit of Lousada history was initiated when my mother gave me an old family tree which was somehow generated by one or both of her uncles - Benjamin Barrow Lousada and Horace Frank Lousada (the latter was named after the 3rd Lousada Duke) - both of whom visited London. Soon I came to realize that I was also pursuing Barrow history despite the fact that memory of the Barrows has become dim amongst the Australian Lousadas. For each of the Australian Lousadas had more Barrow genes than any of the current Barrows (because our ancestry contains 2 Barrow and Lousada marriages in successive generations), and a little later I also came to realise that because of our double dose of Barrow genes coupled with the Barrow's (probable) Lousada ancestry, we each probably had more Lousada genes than almost any of the other Lousadas. This makes an Australian perspective on the Barrow Lousadas curiously appropriate! My mother also knew of Peak House in Devon, but not where it was or its significance. She also knew that some Lousadas were in Jamaica but not that direct ancestors were there, nor that Barbados, Amsterdam, Surinam, Curacao, Livorno, Madrid and Portugal entered the picture. We were aware of our immediate losses in the World Wars, but not of those of our more distant relatives. And perhaps more understandably, for Australia is a long way from Europe, the Australian Lousadas were unaware of the thriving Bedfordshire Lousadas (descending from Simeon Charles Lousada, an uncle of Edward Charles Lousada), the Bacon Lousadas (descending from a Lousada aunt Mary of Edward Charles Lousada), the Yorkshire Lousadas (descending both from Isaac Baruh Lousada an uncle of Edward Charles Lousada and also from Isaac the first Lousada Duke), and the many Barrow aunts, uncles and cousins descending from Simon Barrow of Bath. The Australian family was ignorant of its Jewish past, but was not alone in that. Likewise it had little idea why there were Dukes in the family.

Uncle Frank enjoyed a little collaboration on the tree with an English Baruch Lousada; for Lily Lousada, a granddaughter of the notable Sir Anthony Baruh Lousada told me that her father Sebastian (a fourth cousin) recognized the handwriting of his father on a copy of the tree I sent to her! The handwriting shows the 2nd marriage of 1961 and its 2 children and thus must have been written no earlier than 1964 - but since Benjamin died in 1954 we can conclude that it must have been Horace Frank Lousada who made contact with Lily's grandfather! This was in the latter half of 1978, the only known visit of Horace Frank to England, and after Anthony was knighted, a fact which he wrote on the family tree. I have been lucky enough to have achieved contact with other distant family members; with many of whom I in turn have enjoyed cordial collaboration and indeed without the enthusiasm of my Barrow 4th cousin Tony Harding in South Africa I might not have made been encouraged to make the effort I did. He put me in touch with Peter Barrow (who put me in touch with his sister Carlotta); and John Bury (who arranged my Peak House visit and our first contact with Peter Lousada). In due course Peter Lousada shared with me his vast collection of Lousada data and memorabilia, which included the Dirsztay tree which despite its Hungarian origin has provided indirect evidence for family connections with Italy via the Austro-Hungarian Empire. I was particularly delighted to have made contact with the Louzadas of Leiden; though there had been occasional contact with them during my lifetime by Winton Harmon Lousada (a grandson of Howel Arthur Lousada, an Australian brother of Edward Charles Lousada) and Peter Lousada, how we were all related was a mystery. But they gave me access to a large body of work on the Surinam Baruch Louzadas which enabled me to assemble a picture of how the Surinam Baruch Lousadas were related to us via the Curacao Baruch Louzadas who were previously unknown to all of us. Trying to understand the family tree and the lessons available from it has also put me into contact with historians especially Edgar Samuel whom I met in London in 2013 and 2015 and genealogists (especially Ton Tielen whom I met in Amsterdam in 2013 and whose familiarity with the archival resources in Amsterdam and Den Haag has been most helpful). Help has also been received from many other quarters, especially Fernando Gonzalez del Campo Roman, as acknowledged here. By these means we have been able to trace the Baruch Lousada ancestry back almost to the 1492 expulsion of Jews from Spain. We have also been able to understand how the Lousada Dukedom came about, and how most if not all of Peter Lousada's collection fitted the picture. We also now understand early Barrow history much better, though its Vienna origins remain somewhat unclear but fascinating nonetheless.

Most of the present-day Australian Lousadas originate from Edward Charles Lousada #20, but I was amazed to learn that when he came to Australia in late 1871 he joined 2 brothers Howel Arthur Lousada #28 and Harry Burningham Lousada #30 who had arrived a few years earlier. The latter arrived first but was rather accident-prone (some of his accidents can be found here); he married in Melbourne but died in Western Australia with no known descendants. Edward Charles and Howel Arthur each farmed for a while in the Warrugul region, and contact between some of their descendants continued for several generations (especially between the Parkers and the Wilsons). But many of his other siblings had descendants in Australia. Living nearby in Warragul was his nephew John Graham Tyssen (son of his sister Mary Jane). Later, descendants of St Leger Lousada and Reginald Robert Lousada came to Australia as well. I learnt that Edward Charles' uncle Samuel Barrow became in 1842 a Police Magistrate in Tasmania, where he married Margaret Louisa Kemp (who was a daughter of a key figure in the Rum Corps) then fathered 5 children, but was shocked to realize that he then spent an unfortunate period of some 11 months from late 1845 until Oct 1846 in a position of authority in the grimmest Australian penal settlement (Norfolk Island) and was lucky enough to be appointed by Governor Latrobe the first Superintendent of Pentridge Gaol in 1850 - just before the goldrushes and in preparation for the beginning of the new colony of Victoria in 1851! I uncovered the mystery of his unfortunate death by drowning in 1854. I learnt that in total 3 siblings of Samuel Barrow produced Australian descendants (one of course married John Baruh Lousada of Peak House in Devon who was the father of Edward Charles and siblings). I also learned of the somewhat more distant relative Jacob Barrow Montefiore who was a key figure in the formation of the colony of South Australia, and who with local help from his brother Joseph - an Australian businessman - was a founder of the bank that became the ANZ Bank. All this can be found in a chart of the Barrow Lousadas in Australia. Ref 43 gives some historical background on these tumultuous years of convicts and land grabs, while ref 57 explains how the already grassed and hence very desirable pastoral land in Australia was created by the aborigines - only to be degraded by poor management after their dispossession leading to forest regrowth, more severe bushfires, soil erosion and proliferation of pest species. Those who acquired land late were forced to clear bush - a much tougher economic proposition - as Edward Charles Lousada (my great grandfather) and Aubrey George Lousada (my grandfather) found out. In Oct 2015, contact was established with descendants of the Hall family (from which came Beatrice the wife of Edward Charles Lousada and also his wife's sister Jemima Affleck of Warragul). In early 2016 I had the pleasure of welcoming them when we 'unveiled' the epitaph I commissioned for the grave of Charles and Beatrice in Korumburra. And I uncovered the evidence of Edward Charles Lousada's moves from Hastings through Gippsland (Brandy Creek, Warragul, Calignee, Toora, Korumburra) to Lilydale where he died in 1932.

The family tree dramatically takes the English Lousada line all the way back to an Antonio Louzada alias Moses Barrow alias Moses Baruh Lousada who achieved great prominence during his 40 years in London since the close of the Commonwealth and held high office at the Portuguese and Spanish Synagogue especially as first elected treasurer in 1663. During a 2006 visit I saw his name commemorated on a plaque in the Bevis Marks Synagogue along with the names of the other early office-holders and of course there was documentation of the 1663-constituted Jewish community of which Moses Baruh Lousada was first Gabay - or treasurer. When a family tree has been circulated separate from its underlying established facts, it is good to find such confirmation of the existence of a key person; but things were not that simple. It quickly became apparent that there were many people called Moses Barrow/Lousada to consider and that it was not easy to tell them apart. In time I concluded that he was not a direct ancestor, despite the family tree, and further that his line did not continue in England. Sir Thomas Colyer-Fergusson (ref 85) recorded Lousada ancestry as he did many Anglo-Jewish families, but he was understandably vague in the pre-1700 period and tentatively sketched the family of Moses Baruh Lousada #46 - suggesting 6 sons. Others including the author of the old family tree incorrectly gave that sketch too much authority. For Hyamson (ref 6) suggested that there were only 2 sons and indeed it eventually became clear that the 2 sons were Mordecai and Abraham. It was also important to realise that even though Moses Baruh Lousada #46 sometimes used the name Moses Barrow this did not make him a Barrow - a trap into which some genealogically-inclined Barrows have fallen!

The right hand branch of the family tree was headed by a Jacob - but there were a few Jacobs to tell apart as well and it turned out that the wrong Jacob appears at the head of this branch. The first Jacob Baruh Lousada #1388 joined the London community around 1660 with Moses Baruh Lousada; but this Jacob moved to Amsterdam where he died in 1681. Bevis Marks records show a daughter Rebecca of this Jacob was married in 1696 to Isaac son of David (one of many marriages of cousins in the family) and indeed we concluded that this Jacob was a cousin of Moses and half-brother of David. For some time our attention was attracted to a second London Jacob #740 who went to New York in 1710 with two young sons (Aaron #53 born 17 May 1695 and Moses #54 born 2 February 1701) and became a wealthy chocolate merchant, and died in 1729 (ref 7). In the end we realized that not being Baruch Lousadas they would have been more distantly related, but became the foundation for a good part of the USA Lousadas. Finally, the third Jacob was a stepson of 'brother' David #44 and from Wilfred Samuel (ref 5) we learn that this Jacob #711 went to Barbados with his father David after the 1695 death of his uncle Aaron of Barbados; he was possibly the James Lousada endenized in 1694. Ultimately though, we will see that it was none of these three Jacobs but a Jamaican Jacob #380 - born in Barbados - who heads the right hand branch of the old family tree which contains (as ref 80 shows) many of the great characters of Anglo-Jewry. In a further remarkable co-incidence of names, Jacob #380 married an Abigail Lamego - but my ancestor Jacob #36 from Jamaica also married an Abigail Lamego a cousin, both having the first Abigail Lamego as an aunt and the first Jacob as an uncle! The Lamego connection was clearly worth examination. It took 4 years but in 2014 contact was established with a genealogist descendant of Jacob #380 named Alan Pereira.

  Nevertheless, despite these and other serious problems the family tree was a useful guide. Curiously, the Barrow family tree which I first saw in 2011 also places Moses Barrow in the direct line of ancestry of the Barrows; this and some of its other deficiencies are noted here but ultimately we were able to suggest a more plausible origin of the Barrows with the Livorno Baruch Lousadas and a man we only know as Baruch (a collateral ancestor of Baron Lyon de Symons the father-in-law of Simon Barrow of Bath). Neither tree helped us understand how important Amsterdam (and - as later as we came to realize - Livorno) was in the family history. The Barbados and Jamaica transition required careful analysis to unravel, as did the Surinam and Curacao connection. For all this some general history was needed enabling us to see how the family tree evokes many aspects of the history of Atlantic exploration and trade development, the early Enlightenment, and the influential role played by Sephardic trading people (either New Christian, crypto-Jewish and then Jewish) in these major phases in modern history. They were able to trade with the Spanish-speaking world where their English and Dutch hosts couldn't. It prompts us look into the diaspora of our ancestors and more generally of the related Iberian Sephardic Jews. The diaspora was driven by the 1492 Spanish expulsion of Jews together with their forced conversion and virtual entrapment in Portugal; this momentum was shaped by growing Atlantic trade opportunities, the separation of the United Provinces from the Spanish Netherlands and the growth in the naval and mercantile strength of the Netherlands and England; and was ultimately muted by enlightened – or financially needy - monarchs and rulers in Livorno, Spain, England and the United Provinces who welcomed their commercial links and expertise. From all this it can be seen that the saga of the Baruch Lousadas had much in common with the several hundred Sephardic families who made their way in the Atlantic after leaving Iberia.