Dear Marty Re: >I had ancestors who left Cologne very early, then Antwerp to Amsterdam, >everytime they relocated it was caused by the Spanish capturing these areas > Thank you very much for your most helpful and interesting message. I will try to get hold of Johnathan Israel's book on the Dutch republic. I believe my ancestor Jan Clement may have gone to Holland from Spain originally, as part of the wave of Spanish Jews who left Spain for different parts of Europe between 1200 to 1600, on account of the Spanish Inquisition. I understand most victims of the S.I. (in 1478) were former Jews who had been forced to convert to Christianity in the 13th century and some of the Inquisitors were also former Jews. (See Stan Mack's "The Story of the ews - A 4,000 Year Adventure", Villard, New York, 1998.) This theory of my Spanish Jewish origins ( based at present on my family's looks ) would help to explain why Jan Clement ( an orphan) escaped from the Spanish Netherlands to England before 1571. Since then my Clements family kept on moving, first to Ireland, and then, in the 19th century, to New Zealand. I would be interested to hear from anyone who knows of any research about Jews who escaped to Holland from Spain in the period 1200-1600. Barbara Holt