Currently we are wrestling with:
The 'Lousada' name appears most commonly in Galicia together with the neighbouring region of Portugal, while in neighbouring northwest Spain it becomes 'Losada'. New Christians often used surnames corresponding to placenames so this in itself does not distinguish our ancestors from the many Lousadas and Losadas known in the records. However, we have looked at the 1591 Coimbra Inquisition records of Amador de Lousada from Vinhais who is the only Lousada to appear before the Inquisition in a timeframe consistent with the Baruch Lousada presence in Livorno in 1640. He seems to have produced the correct number of children to explain the Baruch Lousadas evident in later records. Amador's son Fernao could be the ancestor of the 2nd wave of New England Lousadas. We do know where Amador de Lousada who was born in 1540 was baptized and confirmed, but his name probably means his parents had spent time either in the Portuguese Lousada town or its 2 satellite villages before moving to Braganza (where Fernao was born) and Vinhais. If our identification of Amador de Lousada is correct, this makes it likely we have found the place where the Lousada name came from!
An avenue of enquiry is to flesh out the Baruch Lousada passage from Vinhais to Livorno via Madrid. After 1580, Portugal and Spain were united but there may still have been expensive permits required to cross the border. The logic of Isaac #42 going to Livorno around 1640 so soon after his marriage link with the Rodrigues Pereiras needs unravelling. Perhaps this was part of the manoeuvring by Tomas Rodrigues Pereira in preparation for his exit from Madrid with his fortune in 1645, and his Venice detour may also have been important in this respect.
What was the role of the Rodrigues Lamegos of Rouen and later Bordeaux? They were associated in the early 1600s with Fernando Montezinos of Madrid and thus indirectly with Abraham Israel Pereira and the Baruch Lousadas. We know that France figured in the travel of Moses Baruch Lousada who appeared in London by 1660 but who was an annual visitor to Amsterdam in the period 1649-59. Jacob Gomes Serra was a long-term London business partner of Moses Baruch Lousada and his name suggests a link with both the Levi Montezinos family (who used the 'Serra' alias amongst others). Moses and Jacob had very similar handwriting which may suggest similar schooling! The presence of Curiel/Acosta in-laws in Cartegena des Indes, Barbados and Jamaica suggests a further factor in the Baruch Lousada decision to move to Barbados though the transition of the Mercados from Dutch Brazil to Barbados in 1655 was probably at least as vital (see 4 below). It seems likely that our key ancestor Aaron Lamego was a descendant of the Rouen Lamegos and then from Bordeaux made his way to Jamaica via Martinique or Guadeloupe from where he would have been expelled in 1685 and then perhaps via Saint-Domingue to Jamaica. And we have only clues as to how the Rouen Lamegos were related to the Madrid and earlier trading Lamegos and thus we would like to create an improved account of the Lamego family, which reverted to Judaism in France and Jamaica, had been almost at the top rank of Portuguese New Christian merchant families, and the wealth it generated through early participation in the Atlantic trade made the Lamegos key ancestors of the Lousadas, Mocattas, Aguilars, some of the Montefiores and many other Anglo-Jewish families.
It would be fascinating to know the composition of the dowry paid by the Baruch Lousadas to the Mercados in connection with the Gracia Baruch Lousada and David Raphael de Mercado marriage (and whether it involved the commitment for a time of Gracia's male relatives to the Mercado business in Barbados and London).
Baron Lyon de Symons aka Judah Low Pressburg was a descendant of Simon Michael Pressburg, but we also propose an earlier Barrow link with the Pressburgs. Sir Barrow Helbert Ellis 1823-87 was given the 'Barrow' name but this probably was not due to the fact that his aunt Tryphena Esther Lyon de Symons married Simon Barrow of Bath in 1808 but rather means that 'Baruch' was also a Pressburg family name. The Barrow link to Austria (as highlighted by the diplomatic duties performed for the Prince Regent by Simon Barrow of Bath) needs to be further clarified. By this means we can also clarify the Barrow link to the Dirzstays of Timisoara and Hungary. DNA analysis is helping us answer some of these questions.
Some other Baruch Lousada links are worthy of further examination. The Baruch Lousadas of Tunis go back to Livorno but this like many other aspects of our ancestors' lives in Livorno is not known in detail. There is a close link between the Levi Lousadas and the Baruch Lousadas (ref 149) and though we have made some suggestions the real position remains unresolved. It is of great interest in that though we suggest Baruch (the key Barrow ancestor) married a Baruch Lousada from Livorno we cannot rule out the possibility that the person he married was a Levi Lousada! Perhaps the Lumbroso Lousadas of Livorno were relevant, and perhaps even the few Israel Lousadas in Livorno.
The ancestry of Errol Barrow, first post-independence Prime Minister of Barbados, can probably be taken back to the local Baruch Lousadas. Certainly we can establish that there were at least 5 mixed-race Baruch Lousada descendants in Barbados from whom Errol Barrow may have descended.
Montefiore ancestry is not certain and a link to the Carvajals of Mexico needs confirmation though in Cordoba to this day there is no doubt about it. Simon Sebag-Montefiore reported his experience here which followed Julian Land's observation of a Carvajal family tree in mural form there. In particular was Judah Leon Montefiore - the origin of the family that purportedly gave rise to the English Montefiores - identical with Joseph de Leon, son of Jorge de Almaida and Leonor de Andrada? For we show that it is unlikely that he was the son of Joseph de Leon as one account has it. Though the commissioned work of John Montefiore-Vita has proved difficult to obtain from Montefiore family archives due to family circumstances, at least we have the account by Edgar Samuel of what it concluded - namely, that the Livorno Montefiores could be traced back to the hilltop village of Montefiore Conca near Urbino. It is this together with the Cordoba-inspired conviction which fuels our current hypothesis that the Montefiores have Carvajal ancestry. The recently published reference on Livorno Jewish marriages has allowed us to update the family tree of the early Montefiores of Livorno and thus confirm a link to the 1620 Olivetti marriage in Pesaro.
A key Baruch Lousada ancestor was Baron Moses d'Aguilar but his history is plagued by an abundance of inconsistent accounts. Fortunately Abigail Green has noted that an Oxford colleague is writing what we hope will be a definitive biography and we propose to defer to him. A grandson of Baron Moses d'Aguilar has given his name to numerous geographical features in southeast Queensland!