RE: Teresa Heinz Kerry

I pointed out that Thierstein, the name of Mrs. Heinz Kerry's father, is not is not Portuguese. Randy Black says: "Does the "Thierstein" in Mrs. Kerry's maiden name indicate that she is descended from the secret Jews or Morranos of Portugal? From the Guardian: The daughter of a prominent Portuguese doctor, Heinz Kerry, née Maria Teresa Thierstein Simoes-Ferreira, grew up in Mozambique. She attended a school run by British nuns, and later studied Romance languages at senior school in South Africa, where she became involved in the nascent anti-apartheid movement of the late 1950s. At university in Geneva, she was a classmate of Kofi Annan at the city's School of Interpreters. Now fluent in five languages, she graduated and went to New York to become an interpreter at the United Nations, before marrying Heinz in 1966.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1130650,00.html

I also found this: Teresa Heinz Kerry’s maternal grandfather, Albert Thierstein, was born in Malta. He spoke five languages and upon finishing his schooling at the age of 21, left Malta to seek his fortune. His parents had died when he was a small child, and he was raised by his French grandmother. As a young man, Albert was forced to figure out how to make his own way in the world. He put three names in a hat: Africa, America and Australia, and vowed to go to the place he picked out. He picked Africa and left for South Africa to work for a French company. When the Boer War broke out, Albert Thierstein was forced to leave because he was a British citizen. He went into exile in Mozambique, where he met his wife Maria (Teresa's grandmother). They had three daughters. One was Teresa's mother. He fell in love with Mozambique and never returned to South Africa.

Teresa was born in Mozambique in east Africa. She often says the wildness and beauty of Africa made her an environmentalist because it taught her respect for the natural order. But her country had a dark side. Its people lived under the oppressive thumb of Portuguese dictators. There was no civic life and no one dared talk of politics outside the privacy of home. Her father, a highly regarded doctor, did not vote until he was 71 years old. This experience left her with a deep and abiding appreciation for democracy and freedom. Ms Heinz Kerry recalls that her late mother visited a cousin in Malta, Maria German. Maria was one of many children of Ernest Thierstein and a countess. Another child was Roberto who was a young major in the British Army during World War II and fought in the African front .
http://www.maltastar.com/news.asp?newsitemid=11837&date=

RH: One daughter of Albert Thierstein was the mother of Teresa, which was therefore her mother's name. Was the father Simoes Ferreira, which is a Portuguese name?