on July 23, 2020

Ribeiro do Vale Family

on July 23, 2020

Many descendants of Portuguese noble families were attracted by the promise of wealth in Brazilian lands during the colonial period. This was the case Ribeiro and Vale families, united by the marriage between sons and daughters of bandeirantes paulistas.

The surname Vale

There are many possible origins for the surname Vale, which was adopted by several families of Latin origin in the most varied places, such as Spain, Italy and Portugal. It has a toponymic origin, that is, it refers to the birthplace of those who adopt it, in this case, in regions between mountains.

As well as the entire north of the Iberian peninsula, the Valongo mountain region was occupied by several prehistoric tribes. Then the Romans arrived in order to explore gold in the Serra de Santa Justa, where they established fortifications and roads that gave rise to those that today link Porto to Guimarães and the Alfena-Valongo-Aguiar de Sousa / Penafiel road. After the Romans, the Suebi and Visigoths arrived, followed by the Arabs.

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The surname Ribeiro

Like the Vale, the oldest records of members of the Ribeiro family also date back to the north of the Iberian peninsula. D. Ramiro, the last conductor of Leão, would have been one of the first members of this family in Portugal.

In the specific case of the branches of the Vale and Ribeiro families we dealt with here, both migrated from Valongo, in Porto, Portugal, to Brazil in the 17th century. In 1662, Domingos Francisco and Maria do Vale were married in Valongo. One of his sons, Captain André do Valle Ribeiro, married on May 9, 1707 in São João Del Rei, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil, with Teresa de Moraes, giving rise to the Ribeiro do Valle, who left descendants throughout the region, in cities like Aiuruoca and Andrelândia.

It turns out that Teresa de Moraes was the great-granddaughter of the bandeirante Antonio Raposo Tavares and Beatriz Bicudo, and this, in turn, was the granddaughter of new Christian Antonio Bicudo, characterizing this family as a descendant of Sephardim. Due to marital intertwining, other families in the region inherited such descent, Arantes, Asuncion, Fonseca, Walnut, Branches, Rocha, Salgado, among others.

An alert

However, it is worth noting that the surname Ribeiro was adopted in Brazil by countless families of indigenous and black descendants enslaved without blood ties to the branches from Valongo, which can cause some confusion.

Important to remember: Last names are indications, but they do not determine whether or not you are descendants of Sephardic Jews. To prove this link, a genealogical study is really necessary.

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