Vinhais is the seat of small municipality of 35 parishes and 10000 people spread over 700 km² in Alto Tras-os-Montes, Portugal. The municipality is bordered by Spain to the north and west (see map of Portugal and Western Spain).		The medieval heart of Braganza, now a district capital. The noble House of Braganza has long since ceased to be based here, for it was based at nearby Guimaraes before relocation to Evora in the south. Fernando, the 1st son of Amador de Lousada was born here around 1576. It is about 30km to the east of Vinhais and is on the border of the Montesinhos National Park.		Villaflor is about 90km to the south of Vinhais (but still north of the Duoro River). It is now known locally as the olive oil capital of Portugal. This town around 1600 was central to the lives of the Baruch Lousadas and associated families who lived there as New Christians.

Edgar Samuel by email 2 Mar 2016 stated his strong suspicion that Amador de Lousada, a shoemaker of Vinhais, was a direct ancestor. Amador was aged 50 when arrested in 1590 by the Coimbra Inquisition and he was then sentenced in 1591 to perpetual penitence. Resulting records reveal that he was baptised at the church of Sao Fagundo in Vinhais presumably around the date of his birth in 1540, though his father Pedro must have lived for a time in one of the Lousada villages in order to have acquired the surname he did. Perhaps his father was born in Spain and was a young child upon arriving in Portugal in late 1492 or early 1493. A chart of the family as revealed in ref 180 can be found here.

We have inferred that some of Amador's family moved away from Vinhais, arriving in Madrid around 1630, perhaps in large part because the Portuguese Inquisition was showing too much interest in Vinhais. The same seems to have happened in Villaflor, for many of its new Christian residents dispersed - some to Madrid. But the family of Fernando, Amador's oldest son, remained in Vinhais and the Coimbra Inquisition again caught up with them around 1650. Resulting records reveal that Fernando was born in Braganza, suggesting that Amador was in Braganza in 1586 but returned to Vinhais by 1590.

In any event, the family of Henrique - Fernando's oldest son - is suggested as the origin of most of the USA Lousadas. Rather than escaping Portugal via Madrid, it appears the family left Portugal for Spain to the north soon after release by the Coimbra Inquisition, for Vinhais was one of the Portuguese border towns ravaged by irregular warfare after the 1640 Portuguese secession from Spain. Two brothers (Jacob and Abraham) reached London in 1698, probably making use of the packet boats sailing between Corunna and Falmouth. Subsequently the War of the Spanish Secession necessitated the packet boats sailing to Porto and Lisbon rather than Corunna.