This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/kRC.2ACE/5442 Message Board Post: Alcantara came from Spain,it means the bridge, Al--cantar( I think it also means sing),it could also be "the singer" or to sing. ALCANTARA is originally Jewish in origin,a Sephardic Jew. Read Spanish and Portuguese Inquisition. Thousands of Jewish families were persecuted,exiled,killed, and forced to conversion to Roman Catholicism,by Tomas Torquemada(Spanish Inquisitor),King and Queen of Spain,the Popes,priests,etc.(1492),papal bull 1484