Although this rear room was built out after Gomez was living here, it contains many artifacts associated with the family. Here we see (at left) the Denization that Luis Moses Gomez purchased in 1705, and the Gomez-Goldstone Family Tree, created in 1929.
The most significant item in the Gomez Mill House’s collection is the Denization of Luis Moses Gomez. This document details the legal status that Gomez purchased in 1705 for £56, about $30,000 today. He needed to buy this denizen-level legal status since becoming a full citizen required membership in the Church of England. As a Jewish person, he could not obtain full citizenship unless he converted his religion. This denizen's legal status allowed Luis Gomez to buy, sell, and pass land to his heirs. Without it, he could not buy land in Marlborough.
The Gomez-Goldstone Family Tree traces many prominent Jewish families who settled in NYC after the Spanish Inquisition forced them to flee Spain or Portugal. Harmon Hendricks Goldstone and his brother John Lewis Goldstone created the Gomez Mill House Foundation with their cousin Michael Cardozo, IV in 1979. Their other cousin, Joseph Cullman, III., donated the original investment on which the Foundation has operated.
This copy of the family tree was donated by Harley Lewis and her family. Harley is named after her uncle Harmon.