If you only have the certificate of origin, this doesn’t guarantee the completion of the documents required to obtain the spanish citizenship; this certificate is only one of the requirements, so we’ll have to acquire more evidence of your links with the sephardic community, besides taking some tests about spanish culture and
language. If you have any doubts or you want us to obtain your certificate of the sephardic origin of your surname, don’t hesitate to send us an email at info@tolentinoabogados.com or by calling to our office in Madrid at (+34) 910 25 85 89.
Related:
List of Sephardic surnames with certificate of origin
How to obtain the spanish citizenship for being a Sephardic jew descendant?
Cervantes Institute around the world
There’s a list of surnames circulating the web ¿are those the surnames eligible for the spanish citizenship?
No. It’s possible that some surnames might concur with real sephardic surnames but many other will not. We’re not basing our work on any list, we use a team of researchers and historians to track the sephardic origin of your surname to see if it match with surnames located in historical documents and archives. Those lists circulating the web are not official; the spanish government hasn’t approved any list of surnames.
So, are these surnames really sephardics?
Indeed. The surnames we locate are listed in documents and archives of the time and refer to persons of Sephardic minority, shortly after the expulsion in 1492.
If I have a sephardic surname, does that supports my condition as sephardic jew?
The fact that you have a sephardic surname, does not implies your condition, but as the law says, the certificate of origin of your surname is only one of the documents that you’ll have to present, it’s considered an additional evidence.
Does my surname can have variations and resemble one from the archives?
Yes, the spanish rules of grammar of that time weren’t sufficient enough to ensure the duration of these names thru time, and for different orthographic or lexical reasons, and the evolution of language may have been some changes.
I’m convinced by other means that I’m a sephardic descendant, does it means that if I’m not in the list, my ancestry is not guaranteed to be sephardic?
No, it is possible that our researchers haven’t found yet any document or archive of that time with your surname and we can’t attest your sephardic jewish ancestry, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t a descendant of sephardics; remember that this certificate is just another documentary evidence, and not an absolute and unique requirement. In every case, we’ll attend your consult with professionalism and diligence.
I only know my parents surnames, is it enough?
In principle yes, but it would be convenient if you could provide us with the surnames of your grandparents (4), great-grandparents (8) or great-great-grandparents (16), so we can establish a lineage of your ancestry and try to link it to sephardic sources.
I believe that I am descended from a family of Sephardic jews converted to Christianism. Are my surnames still valid?
Usually not, because when you converted to another religion, although you conserve some of the remaining Sephardic traditions, the original names are replaced with other Christians, so that jewish the link disappears. This is accentuated throughout the Modern Age in Spain, where the tradition of “blood purge” makes it more difficult for any remaining sephardic jew to conserve their traditions intact.
I’m completely sure my grandfather or great-grandfather were sephardic jews, but I don’t practice their religion. Can I solicit a certificate?
Yes. The law does not discriminate about religious practices, whether you are practitioner of jewish religion or laic. If you are a descendant of sephardic jews, you’ll have the right for the citizenship.
If I’ve lost my grandparents traditions and religion, how can I probe my link with the sephardics?
You’ll have to get your grandparents birth certificate or any other official registry, where it states their past condition as sephardic jews.
Are these certificates reliable?
Our certificates do not respond to any sociological or anthropological interpretation about the Sephardic minority expelled. Clearly, these certificates show that there are document of that time, from the thirteenth century to the sixteenth century where individuals who lived in the peninsular kingdoms had these names.
Are these certificates legally valid?.
The certificates collects and transcribed certain personal and legal matters of people named with these surnames. They are subject to interpretation, but that reflect accurately that an individual of this community and in that specific time in history, had that name.
Is it a closed list?
No, our historians keep searching for new documents and archives that will be adding new names to list, since the majority of these documents are centuries old and many of them are lost without possibility of recovering it.
Tolentino Abogados de Extranjería 2015
