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| | There are no proofs of the family presence in Portugal before the 19th century.
Most of the information on our family origin and history came from "Genealogia Hebraica", by José Maria Abecassis, which refers two family branches in Portugal: one came from Tanger, starting with the reverend Yahya Abecassis, great
rabbi of Rabat-Salé in the 17th and 18th centuries; and the other constituted by those present in Ponta Delgada (Azores) and Lisbon, starting with Messod Abecassis, born in 1740, probably in
Tangier.
Although the origins appear to be the same these two branches use a different spelling: Abecasis and Abecassis.
The first member of the Abecasis branch in Portugal was Joseph Abecasis (English nationality). He was born in Gibraltar
in 1841, son of Ana Navarro and Salomon Abecasis, a Jew of Cordova.
He was an engineer, and came to work in the S. Domingos mines. He married Rosa Ribeiro, of Vila Real de St. Antonio, in Algarve. They had 8 children, four boys (José, Francisco, João and António) and four girls (Teresa, Clara, Maria and Ana).
There are still some family members living in Gibraltar, and there is a passage with our family name over
there.
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