Along the way when you are researching there is always some people that intrigue you. I've come across a couple of people like that and Majeed Rizk is one of them. I first came across his name on the electoral roll for Derdghaya, the reason his name stood out is that his first name is quite unique. In Derdghaya I hadn't come across anyone else with that first name.
Once again his name came up again while I was researching the Simon/Semaan family in Douglas, Arizona. He had married Nazera Simon the daughter of Elias Simon and Missaadi Rizk and he and Nazira had two boys.The name I came across on a WW1 enlistment and 1920 Census was Majeed Ayoub....Lebanese take on the fathers name as a surname sometimes, I explained it in the first or second blog post. But here he has taken on his grandfathers name Ayoub Rizk.
The Ayoub family name isn't from Derdghaya so it had me dumbfounded for a while. I remembered seeing the name Majeed on the electoral roll so I went back to it and found it was the same person, as Nazera and the children's names were listed. I spoke to my father about the name and he told me that he remembered an Ayoub Rizk mentioned in stories, so I assumed that Majeed was his son until I found his father Hanna's emigration records coming through Ellis Island.
I next came across his children names on the 1930 census at a boys home....St Francis home for Orphan Boys in Detroit, Michigan. But there was no sign of either Majeed nor Nazira in the 1930 census. I knew Majeed hadn't died as he remarried in Derdghaya and had another 5 children. I spoke with my dad again and after racking his braid said he remembered a couple of people came back to Derdghaya from America after having shot someone over cheating playing cards and that Majeed was one of them.
This still left a question mark over Nazera as there was still no sign of her. I just put it down to the fact that like so many others she had died from some epidemic that seemed to sweep the world and left it at that.
Then about a month ago I went up to Brisbane for a wedding and thought I'd make a couple of visits while I was there. I visited Nellie (Khoury) Rizk. Nellie's father and my grandfather are first cousins. But little did I know was that Majeed Ayoub was her uncle.....her mothers brother. During the conversation we were having about all things Derdghaya and family she mentions her uncle Majeed, my ears just pricked right up. I asked her if it was the same person and it turned out it was.
I then found out the whole story of Majeed Rizk....He hadn't killed anyone but his wife Nazira had been murdered by their next door neighbor. The lady next door was good friends with Nazira but was a victim of domestic violence, one day while she was being beaten by her husband Nazira intervened and was then set upon by the neighbour who ended up murdering Nazira in his rage. Majeed came home after work to find his wife dead. They say he was never the same after that. He packed up the kids and headed back to Derdghaya where after some years he remarried.
A couple of weeks before meeting Nellie I had been told of a story that happened in Derdghaya where a man was accidentally killed in a dispute over some land....he was just an innocent bystander when he was shot in the neck. The person that told me the story didn't know who had fired the gun.
While talking to Nellie she was telling me how much of a wretched life her Uncle had lived and told me how they were doing some work on the road in Derdghaya and from what understand they wanted to take some of his land and he objected to it. In the dispute Majeed finally had enough and went and grabbed an old shotgun he had. He fired a warning shot, but the gun hadn't been fired in so long the barrels exploded and the shrapnel struck this other man in the neck and killed him.
