At an Amorphous Level: Conversos – New Christians

This project is about extracting the names of the New Christians/Conversos/Marranos (Jews forced to convert to Catholicism from 1391 up to 1497 in the Iberian Peninsula) from all major available sources.

The scope of this ambitious genealogical project is a daunting one. Geographically, it covers almost the entire Western Hemisphere. The chronological duration is of a period of about three centuries.

The nature of the sources: The project will attempt to gather data from a variety of internal (communal, when applicable) and external sources, struggling with a mass of millions of pages.

In its first part, this paper will outline the scope, challenges, and difficulties of this “extreme” endeavor.

The second part will discuss the “end users” of the project - historians and individuals (Jews and non-Jews) in search of their personal roots - and the enrichment of historiography through the proper use of genealogy, particularly in the broad field of “New Christian Studies” in Spain, Portugal and their colonies, and in the communities throughout the Marrano Diaspora.

The presentation will conclude with a demonstration of the cutting-edge technology used to enable the project.