Over the years I have come to the conclusion that some parts of the family tree may never be found, but I always remain optimistic.
Above my fathers house is a ruin that has been there for as long as people can remember in the village....the elders like my dad and other say it has been empty since their childhoods and before. The house would have been beautiful in its day....
I knew who the owners of this house were but there had been no sign of them in any paperwork I had seen or found online. For a while I was hampered by the fact that I only knew a nickname not a family name. Later I learned they were a Rizk family. I have been told that they may have originally come to Derdghaya by way of Tibneen. Makes sense as many men and women from our village had married into Tibneen families.
A few years ago I had obtained a book about Derdghaya that had been put together to raise money for St. George Church. It was created by expat Derdghayan's in Michigan and from one of the memorial pages in it I was able to use the names to link back to this Rizk house....took a bit of work scouring records online but in the end I was able to make the connection. This was one daughter down.
Months later while just looking through some records. Not looking for anything in particular, I came across a name in some naturalisation records that was similar to Rizk. This peeked my interest and on further investigation the woman was from Tyre and her husband was from Derdghaya....bingo
People sometimes ask why I spend so much time researching Derdghaya's family tree, but its finding these gems that that get me all excited. From just looking at an old ruined house that had seen its hey day that stood there with no one to tell its story I was able piece together its family again....
The adventure continues.....
No comments:
Post a Comment