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ArchivesMaria Rosa Rado'
It was thought that my maternal grandmother was Rosa Rota, after investigation by a research company it became known that her name was maria Rosa Rado'. She came into Ellis Island from southern Italy but her surname is very rare and maybe only seen in one part of Italy six miles from where she supposedly lived. San Pietro Magisano to be exact but no records of birth or marriage certificate was found there. So, I am interested in the surname Rado'. I am told that it is a Jewish surname in Argentina. Could her family possibly be exiles from Spain and the inquisition who traveled to Argentina from Europe? Jewish results are present in my dna reports and the same for my siblings. Does anyone know anything about this surname?
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Replies
First of all, Rado is an Italian surname as you can see at tinyurl.com/yyetv4jn. However, I'm assuming that by Rado'you mean Radó which is indeed a Jewish name that you'll find in Guggenheimer & Guggenheimer's Jewish Family Names and Their Origins.
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Radó is a Hungarian surname that originates as a diminutive of any Slavic dithematic name in Rad- (such as Radomir or Radoslav). It's neither German nor Hebrew, so it's highly unlikely to be an "original" name for a Jewish person, but it was a common choice for Hungarianization in the 19th century (https://kt.lib.pte.hu/cgi-bin/kt.cgi?konyvtar/kt04112203/0_0_2_pg_184.html).
All that said, I suggest not putting too much weight on whether or not there's a diacritic on a name from a passenger manifest. They're notoriously messy and hard to interpret. If she was coming from Italy, her name was probably Italian, and any similarity to names from further east is probably pure coincidence. It can happen with any name, especially short and simple ones like Rado.
All that said, I suggest not putting too much weight on whether or not there's a diacritic on a name from a passenger manifest. They're notoriously messy and hard to interpret. If she was coming from Italy, her name was probably Italian, and any similarity to names from further east is probably pure coincidence. It can happen with any name, especially short and simple ones like Rado.
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