A C17th Crypto-Jewish Marriage in the Family of Isaac Orobio de Castro

On 11th November 1648 at the parish of San Lorenzo in the city of Jaén, a blessing (velación) was administered upon the marriage of Antonio de Castro, a merchant, the widowed husband of Leonor Enríquez, and his new wife Doña Ana de Orobio, a native of Madrid, the daughter of Manuel Álvarez Orobio and Doña Mencía Núñez, then residents of Sanlúcar de Barrameda. The priest who recorded the entry specified that Antonio and Ana had been married at Sanlúcar before travelling to Jaén, and that he had seen a notarised copy of their marriage record from that town's church. 

From the names of the parents of the bride it is evident that she was a sister of the physician, philosopher and writer Isaac Orobio de Castro, later persecuted by the Inquisition and eventually exiled in Amsterdam.

SOURCE: Diocesan Archive of Jaén, Parish of San Lorenzo (city of Jaén), Marriages 1632-1676, P. 35.

Genealogical Oddities (XLI): An Italian Jewish Convert to Catholicism in 18th Century Cadiz

Marking the start of Hannukah, here's a rare reference to a modern-day convert from Judaism in Spanish sacramental registers. At the chapel of Cádiz' La Carraca arsenal on 29 June 1787, Benjamin Norza, 'known as Alejandro Ferreti in the Marine Batallions', aged 34 or 35, was baptised a Catholic and given the names Pedro Antonio María. Curiously, the record does not say whether he would from then on use the surname Norza or Ferreti. He was stated to have been born in Mantua to Jewish parents, Abraham Norza and Flora Norza.

SOURCE:  Arsenal of La Carraca, Cádiz, Baptisms 1781-1817, Page 38; Navy Museum Archive, Madrid.