A genealogical history of the Raperport family — from Renaissance Italy through Poland and Lithuania to the East End of London.
Welcome to Raperport.com. This site traces the origins and journey of the Raperport name, an uncommon spelling of a storied Ashkenazi surname. Whether you carry the name yourself, married into it, or arrived here chasing a branch of your family tree, the four chapters below are a starting point.
The first chapter tells the wider Rapa-Porto story — five centuries of an Ashkenazi surname that travelled from the medieval Rhineland to Renaissance Italy and onwards across half a continent. From the second chapter the page becomes more specific, tracing one documented branch — that of Stuart Raperport, whose grandson built and maintains this site — from 16th-century Poznań, east into the small Lithuanian villages of Lazdijai, and finally west to Whitechapel.
The chapters of this history
I — V · ORIGINS
From the Rhine to Renaissance Italy
The spelling variants, the medieval Rhineland and Mainz, the Italian town of Porto, the Kohanim priestly tradition, and the family crest.
VI — IX · THE DOCUMENTED LINE
From Poznań to Whitechapel
Akiva Rapoport in 16th-century Poznań, the Lithuanian villages of Lazdijai, the Polish Rappaports of Staszów (Poland), and Marks Raperport's arrival in the East End of London.
X — XII · RESEARCH & REFLECTIONS
Sources, questions, and a closing note
How to trace your own Raperport branch, the questions visitors most often ask, and a brief reflection on the five-hundred-year arc of the name.
XIII — XVII · REFERENCE