What's In MY Name?

Well, I have been absent from my blog for about two weeks now. A lot has happened in various areas of my life. On Wednesday 24th June, while in the course of a conversation, I stumbled upon some information in an article that shook me up pretty good regarding my ethnicity. As you know, I have been spending more time praying. Around this time, praying for Israel, Jerusalem and the Jews is something that became very exciting for me.

I was casually discussing an old Jewish shop sign I spotted along one of the main roads and checked online for more information about a prominent and Jewish family that had operated a successful exclusive store on the island until a few years ago. Hans Stecher came to the island at the age of 14 with his family, fleeing Vienna in 1938. In his reflections about the 'disappearance' of the Jewish community on the island, he mentioned that many Jewish family names were changed and listed some last names that actually point to Jewish families, as well as some that were slightly changed. My last name was one of them. I also found a website maintained by our national library that also contained this information.

I spoke to my mom (who has always been intensely passionate about anything Jewish, without knowing why) and was told that:

• she has always considered herself a 'Jew', I have many times heard her say that she is connected to 'those people' (but thought it was her Christianity making the connection)
• she long ago, secretly felt and wondered that perhaps there was some Jewish ancestry just based on the depth of her emotions
• not only is my last name from my father, well, they also share it in their genealogy. More precisely, my mom and dad are related: My mom's grandfather's (her mother's father) sister's son , was my father's father. That means my parents are distant cousins.
• these were white-skinned, long, straight-nosed, brown/red haired people who married into the other Caribbean ethnicities, namely, East Indian, perhaps indigenous Indian and African, so that now, we mostly look a nice blend of dark, 'local Caribbean'.
  

I face several difficulties in finding out more. Detailed birth and ancestry records were not kept in the islands; much of my family is split up in different countries now; the older generations are practically gone; my parents' and their families were actually from another island nearby (and most of them did leave that island) and my parents have never been back to their island of birth since leaving in the mid 1960's.

The more research I do on my last name, the more evidence turns up that this name does indeed point to some Jewish Sephardic families. I have always known it was 'Portuguese' and since I live on the brink of South America, that made even more sense, but the origins of its origin had never occured to me till now.

Part of me is very excited. Part of me was somehow 'shook up.' I want to know for certain. But I don't know how to know. There just seems to be nothing else to work with right now.