inquisition | inquisition

Oct.03.2011 Amsterdam. No But Yes. It’s Amstelredam; at least it used to be. Amstel is the correct name for the river that flows through the city, the “dam” part of the name refers to a dam (or dike) which Hollanders built in order to reside in this low lying seacoast area. Populated since ancient times, before the eleventh century...	Sep.28.2011 Curious Why You Look Jewish But Arent? You could be. It’s possible that your ancestors were Jewish and they did their best to conceal it. Throughout history, Jews have hidden and cut their ties to avoid persecution. There are many clues to decipher before uncovering family secrets and organizations dedicated to helping one find their...
Sep.22.2011 Grandmother Looks Jewish But Denies Being Jewish? Grandma may have been raised that way. Does she act fearful when it is mentioned? You would be fearful too if the Inquisition was after all your family, all your friends, your whole community. To survive, they converted to Christianity and kept their mouths buttoned tightly. But this is no longer...	Aug.09.2011 Tracing Southern Ancestry Back 2600 Years to the King of Babylon A genealogical posting on an ancestry message board regarding the surname, "Nunes" says oral history states that the name was originally "Ben-Nun", a reference to Nebuchaneezer, the king of Babylon who captured Jerusalem and in 597 B.C. kept the Jews captive for over fifty years...
Aug.08.2011 Inquisition Still On Their Minds, Jewish Immigrants Hid Their Origins The reason many Americans can't fill in their family trees is because their ancestors were Jewish. You'll notice Americans did funny things with their surnames, creating difficulties for descendants to trace them back to the old country. There was a lot of Anglicizing of names, both first and last...	Jul.24.2011 Why Wasn’t My Family Catholic? There were Jews who became Catholics during Inquisitional periods, there were Jews who remained Jews but not without tremendous sacrifice and there were Jews who became part of the Protestant religious movements that made "Pilgrimages" to Protestant countries such as Prussia, Denmark, the...
Feb.15.2011 The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco--Very Important and Well-written Historical Fiction Genius on every page, one of those classics that will live forever in those who read it. The first historical fiction I read; made me want to do it myself. Gets you caught up in Roger Bacon, etc., whether you're normally nerdy like that or not. Total immersion in the time. The mystery itself is...	Sep.03.2010 The Inquisition, the Jews of Andalus, and Columbus: 'By Fire By Water' review Historical novels vie with crime and romance novels for the titles of most derided and most widely read literature. They've had a bad rap ever since the 19th century, when the swashbucklers of Alexandre Dumas looked pretty wooden next to Dickens, and cartoonish in comparison to the depth of Victor...
May.17.2009 Early Morning Conspiracies: The Writing Life interview with David Liss David Liss is the author of classics of historical fiction from his Edgar Award-winning debut A Conspiracy of Paper, which was rooted in his academic studies, through the fabulous tale of the Portuguese Inquisition and the Amsterdam commodities exchange, The Coffee Trader, and on into his...