Welcome to the Mendoza family Yahoo Group. This is a place for members and descendants of the Sephardi Jewish Mendoza family to share information on their history and genealogy.

The family originated in Spain and Portugal. Surnames used during the family history include: Mendoza (Spanish), Mendonça (Portuguese), Mendoca, Mendosa, and Mendelevitch (Russian). Possibly also Mendosse (French), Medonza and Mintouzo (Arabic). The American branch of the Mendelevitch family changed their name to Mendelson. An 18th Century member of the Portuguese Mendonca family in London changed his surname to Anthony.

A number of other names are associated with the family in the 17th Century, including Castro, Castro y Mendoza, Castro y Torres, Castillo, Alvarez, Torres, Tubi, Tobi, Rodriguez, Arias, Diaz, Navarro, Pina/Pena/Penha, Perez, Orobio, Osorio, Rivera and the Portuguese equivalents of these Spanish names. It was unusual for Jews to use the Mendoza surname. The vast majority of people called Mendoza today are probably not of Jewish origin.

Many places are associated with the family. The most important of these are believed to include: London, Amsterdam, Livorno, Bordeaux and/or Bayonne, Tunis, Alexandria, Thessaloniki, Pernambuco, Madrid, Seville, Puerto de Santa Maria, Pastrana and Valladolid.

The surviving Jewish branches of the family are associated with England, Egypt, Tunisia and Poland. There is possibly also a Greek branch. There are known Catholic descendants of the family in Spain and possibly also in Brazil. The English branch is by far the largest, and principally found in Britain, the United States, Israel and Australia.

The best-known member of the family is Dan Mendoza (on the left of the picture) who was Champion of England in the late 18th Century. Peter Sellers, the actor, was also a Mendoza.

If applying to join the group please CLEARLY state your connection to the family and your area of research interest.