akuperma -“He might have had Jewish ancestry but it is clear he was a religious Catholic. In his line of work (seaman) he could easily have moved to another country, yet he chose to stay in Spain – meaning it is very unlike he was a Marano.”
What does one have to do with another? A lot of Jews stayed and became Marranos because they didn’t want to leave Spain for a variety of reasons.
“He went to great efforts to marry “above his station” rather than marrying someone else of Jewish descent (i.e. he made sure his children would be goyim, if in fact he was Jewish).”
And this is proof that he isn’t Jewish? I thought you live in the US where there is 50% intermarriage with Goyim? Did you ever hear of a Tinuk Sheneshba? He probably didn’t know better.
a Not every argument needs to be fought to the death. See wikipedia for full coverage of this issue.a