Meshulam Rapoport I and II

Correction: the first was born near the end of the 14th century but moved to Italy around or after 1450.

Hi Geoffrey,

In my family, I have Rappaport, not Rapoport. (Note the 'pp'). and I do not go as far in time as you mentioned. My Rappaport seems to be from Dorohoi, Botosani, Romania.

Regards,

Michael

Hi, Michael!

In address books of big cities and other sources I saw 6 spellings: with double 'pp' / single 'p' and with vowels 'o', 'a', and 'e' : Rappoport, Rappaport, Rappeport, and Rapoport, Rapaport, Rapeport. Once and while I saw other variations of spelling.

My grandmother always used the spelling with double 'pp' when asked her maiden name. Accordingly, when I started "investigate" my family history, I looked only for the "right" spelling.

However, as I found pretty soon, in some documents, the last name of my great-grandfather was written Rappoport with the double "pp", but in other documents it was Papoport with single 'p'. The same with his son, my granduncle. This is for the period between 1890-th and 1950-th.

In the family of our relatives, I saw spellings alternating between 'o' and 'a' in the second vowel: Rappoport turned into Rappaport. The husband of my great-great-grandaunt was Rappoport, but in the next generation his son took the the name Rappaport. His daughter's maiden name in her marriage record was written Rappoport, with 'o', but when she was granted French citizenship, in the official publications her maiden name was written Rappaport, with 'a'.

I have a strong impression that in XIX and the first half of XX century people and government authorities did not pay much attention to the variations of spelling. Though in address books and similar they were listed separately, sometimes on different pages.

Hi, Geoffrey!

Given the first Rapoport was the first, most likely most ща other Rapoports (with any spelling) were his descendants, more often by the male line, but sometimes by the female line.

Before XIX century, in most of European countries last names were 'non-official' - they were more like nicknames of families. It happened especially often in Rabbinical "dynasties", when a student of a prominent Rabbi married his daughter. In a few rare cases, a student took his teacher's last name without marrying his daughter. The most prominent was the "Poznan Gaon" Akiva Eger (also spelled as Eiger) who took last name of his uncle who also was his teacher.

I know such cases in merchants' families as well. After a husband moved to his wife's city, people of the city very often applied her 'family nickname' to him and to their kids. It happened even when his own family nickname was even more prominent.

I case if doubt that between year 1450 and 16-th century a descendant of Rappoport could move from Italy to Poznan: it was anything but unusual. Rabbi and merchants moved easy, often, and far. Probably the most famous was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul_Wahl who moved from Italy to the city of Brest, at that time Lithuanian Great Duchess, now Belarus. It happened in earlier times as well: the earliest known Lurie (1340-1410) was a rabbi of Erfurt, Germany. Since 1470, a Lurie was a rabbi of city of Slutsk, also at that time Lithuanian Great Duchess, now Belarus.