I was reading a book called "Indentured Immigrants, A Jewish family odyssey from Madeira to the Sandwich Islands",( about the Perrira and da Silva family), and did not realize the large connection of Jews and Madeira. The only reason that I was reading this book was because the person that wrote it, had family that sailed on the same ship, Stirlingshire, at the same time as my family. My Great Grandparents were Antonio de Freitas da Silva and Julia Agrela. Julia also used the last name Ascensao, her mothers. According to this book, "Because the letters "p" and "f" are interchangeable in the Hebrew alphabet, a variant of the name Pereira in Latin is Fer(r)eira from the word Ferrarius. That is, a blacksmith, or one who works with iron. The family names of this group can be associated with the Italian city of Ferrara where Jews were living from at least the 13th century to possibly as early as the 11th century. The Pereiras, whose origins can be traced to the original family name of Ibn-Dana or son of Dana. (Ibn is another form of patronymic.) The Ibn-Danas left the Holy Land after the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem around 2,500 years ago. This initial event ultimately led the family to take up residence in Morocco, Span; mainland Portugal; Madeira; the Sandwich Islands and finally California. The Ibn-Dana changed their name to both Pereira as well as Ferreira while residing on the Iberian peninsula. It is well known that both the Perrira and da Silva families lost countless member to the Inquisitions under first the Spanish and then the Portuguese starting in the 14th century. Over ten percent of all those that perished were named Pereira. The only other family to suffer such a great loss was the da Silva Family. A major contributing reason for the Spanish expulsion was the frequent and false accusation that Jews killed Christians and drank their blood. Ultimately, many Jews left Spain in 1492 under an Edict of Expulsion to seek refuge in neighboring Portugal and elsewhere. According to this book, the Jews in Spain as well as Portugal had to become closet Jews because the law at that time forced them to become Christians. If a Jew did not convert to Christianity, then they had to leave Portugal by October 1497, by order of Queen Isabel on December 5, 1496. On Friday, March 19, 1497, the first day of Passover, Jewish parents were ordered to bring their children between the ages of two and fourteen to Lisbon. Once in Lisbon the crowds were informed that their children were to be given to Catholic families who would raise them as good Catholics. Many parents while assembled in Lisbon killed their children and then committed suicide rather then allow them to meet such a fate. Later in the book it states that "Starting in 1540 the first Auto-de-Fe' took place in Lisbon. Because of this, many shiploads of Jews left Lisbon - the only port for embarkation - bound for the Portuguese island of Madeira." There are several pages in the book that explains the journey from Jerusalem to Morocco, Spain and Portugal and then to Madeira. I thought that this might be on interest to those that do not know the above story. The author of the above book is Phil Pasquini and his web site is http://www.mac.com/philpasquini The story of the Stirlingshire is at http://web.mac.com/philpasquini/iWeb/Pasquini%20Site/Stirlingshire.html Tom Freitas