One evening in 2017, my husband Meindert and I were at home in Holland enjoying the television show “Verborgen Verleden” (hidden past) - the Dutch version of "Who Do You Think You Are".  The episode featured well-known Dutch journalist, TV and radio personality Hanneke Groenteman.  As I followed the story of Hanneke’s roots, I was astounded to recognise names of Lobo ancestors that were also in my own maternal family line from Barbados.  It became clear that Hanneke's earliest Portuguese Jewish ancestor was also my own ancestor - Baruch (Bento) Osorio.   The following days were spent delving into the marriage records in the Amsterdam Archives where we confirmed the facts and established the family links.  Baruch Bento Osorio was my 10th great-grandfather.

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Bento married Esther (alias Maria) Teixeira in Lisbon in 1588.  Some sources in Amsterdam claim they came to the Dutch Republic in 1597, where Bento then started to openly practice his Jewish faith as one of the first 16 Jews to do so, and became a founding member of the Beth Jacob Synagogue. But there seems to be no record of Bento in Amsterdam until 1610; and when his daughter Anna Osorio wanted to wed in Amsterdam in the year 1631 it was stated that the 24 year-old was born in Lisbon. He and his family must therefore have left Lisbon around 1610, when the Twelve Years Truce had been in effect for a year, and trade between the Iberian Peninsula and the Low Countries was thriving.   Bento was a founder of the Beth Israel Congregation - the Portuguese Synagogue, also known as the Esnoga, completed in 1675.

Not only did Bento wish to openly practice his Jewish faith, he was a merchant driven by sound economic motivations for leaving Portugal for Amsterdam.  The following clip edited from the television show tells about  the circumstances in Lisbon leading up to Bento's departure and reveals documented evidence that he was spied upon by the Catholic Inquisition even after he had escaped to Amsterdam.