JewishGen Talks: Post 1492 Sephardic Dispersion and A Guide to Sephardic Genealogy

What happened in Spain? Why were the Jews expelled in 1492? How were they treated in the century before the expulsion? Where did they go? Sarina Roffe provides an overview of how Sephardic Jews dispersed around the globe after 1492 and discusses Sephardic resources for genealogy. 

Sarina Roffé is a professional genealogist, editor of the journal DOROT, and founder of the Sephardic Heritage Project. She is the author of Branching Out From Sepharad (Sephardic Heritage Project, 2017), which outlines the history of Jews in Spain, the 1492 expulsion, their history in Syria, and their immigration to the Americas. In addition to serving as the Director of the JewishGen Sephardic Research Division, she is co-Chair of the Brooklyn Jewish Historical Initiative. Sarina is also the author of Backyard Kitchen: Mediterranean Salads, a cooking app called Sarina’s Sephardic Cuisine, available in the Apple Store, as well as hundreds of articles. She is responsible for the translation and databasing of marriage and brit milah records on JewishGen. She acquired several databases of Sephardic records including cemetery records from Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba, and Argentina. Sarina presents often at IAJGS Conferences and has completed over a dozen genealogies, through her genealogy consulting business, Sephardic Genealogical Journeys.