The births, marriages, and deaths inscribed in this Hebrew Bible trace a typical route followed by Sephardic families from the Old World to the New—from Spain to Holland to Jamaica to New York to South Carolina. It probably was Jacob DeLeon, grandfather of the South Carolina settler of the same name, who carried the Bible from Amsterdam to the West Indies. His son Abraham was born, married, and died in Spanish Town, Jamaica. The next generation moved to New York, where in 1789 Jacob DeLeon married Hannah Hendricks.

By 1796 the DeLeons had relocated to Charleston and entered the ranks of southern Jewish society.