Andrew Charlap has diligently documented his Christian family back to circa 1650. The Jewish Charlap family is well documented with a fixed, inherited family name in Eastern Europe as early as the 17th century. In this study, the author attempts to show that his family of non-Jewish Charlaps from Belarus are descended from the Jewish Charlaps who resided in the same region centuries ago. The evidence presented includes archival documents, genealogical correspondence, DNA analysis, various handed-down traditions, and old handwritten family trees of primary value and evidentiary worth. The Jewish Charlaps in the area descend from a certain Eliezer ben David, a Sephardic Jew whose family claimed descent from the Ibn Yahya family, royal court Jews of Portugal and Spain. The author alleges that his most remote direct ancestor, Parchom (Perfet) Charlapowicz, was a son of Eliezer ben David who converted to Catholicism.

Each reader must decide for himself whether or not the evidence is convincing that the author has assembled to support his hypothesis about his ancestor Parchom Charlapowicz’s connection to Eliezer ben David, who is apparently the first Jew to adopt the Charlap name. All scientific inquiry starts with hypotheses and much of the work of science lies in challenging and testing those hypotheses with the aim of proving or disproving them. Perhaps future researchers will be able to build on the work presented here to that end.

8½" x 11" 60pp. softcover $19.00