ANOTHER DE SOLA FAMILY MYSTERYThe Jewish Encyclopedia has this to say about an Aaron de Sola:“Son of David de Sola (No. 18); born about the close of the seventeenth century. He was in Portugal as a Marano under an assumed name when his father was tortured by the Inquisition. His position became yet more perilous when two of his brothers, likewise living under assumed names, were ferreted out by the officers of the Inquisition as relapsed Jews, and after cruel sufferings met death at an auto da fé in Lisbon. After some years of extreme danger Aaron succeeded in escaping from Portugal on a British ship in 1749. Landing in London, he and his family at once openly proclaimed their fidelity to Judaism. From London they went to Holland, and here Aaron de Sola spent his latter days. “Here is the link to the entry on De Sola: http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13837-sola-de I think they have it dead wrong.According to me the real Aron de Sola was born, lived and died in Amsterdam. Here are the marriagebans of Aron de Sola, married to Lea, daughter of David de Preto. It dates from 24 January 1737, well before Aron de Sola supposedly escaped from Iberia. It also says he is from Amsterdam, which means he was born there. The next image is from the card index to Bet Haim, the burial ground of the Porrtuguese Jews in Amsterdam. From it we learn that his father first name is Isaac. He had three sons and six daughters, born over a period of 1738-1751, with one late comer named Abraham, born 1762. Alas, the children are mostly not named. Piecing together later data makes clear that this Aron de Isaac de Sola and Lea Pretto Henriques are the ancestors of among others, David de Sola, hazan in London Abraham de Sola, haham in Montreal and many others.But were does the story in the Jewish Encyclopedia of the escape from the Inquisition in 1749 come from? The article in JE mentions about 25 sources. I have been plowing through them, and found that the legend of the escape from the Inquisition is missing from the biography of David de Aron de Sola – hazan in London - penned by his son Abraham in 1864. It is also missing from: Picciotto, Sketches of Anglo-Jewish History, London, 1875. An dit is missing from: Morais, Eminent Israelites of the Nineteenth Century, Philadelphia, 1880. But I found it in: J. D. Borthwicks, Historical and Biographical Gazetteer, Montreal, 1892. Apparently the legend in the Jewish Encyclopedia is based upon this article, because the wording in JE is slightly identical tot his one – see below. Unfortunately, this publication provides no sources. Borthwicks writes: “Escape from the country by a suspect was then extremely difficult, but in the next generation his son, Aaron deSola, managed to secure refuge on board a British Man-of-War, and to make good his escape with his family to England ; not, however, before two of his relatives had been imprisoned, tortured and condemned to death at an auto da Fe, by the Inquisition, for secret adherence to Judaism. It was in 1749, that Aaron de Sola fled with his wife and family to England, and now that they were freed from the terrors of the Inquisition they openly avowed once more their loyalty to the faith of their fathers. From England they took passage for Holland, where they rejoined their relatives, and taking up their residence in Amsterdam they soon again rose to distinction in the various learned professions.” See: https://archive.org/stream/historybiographi00bortuoft/historybiographi00bortuoft_djvu.txt The trail of this legend goes cold here. Nevertheless the legend lives on, on numerous websites and in genealogical online trees. My conclusion: any genealogy coming from the Jewish Encyclopedia should be checked and rechecked: De Sola, De Casseres, Meldola, Cohen Belinfante and many more.