A Sad Letter on Your Birthday....

Last week I received a copy of a letter a father wrote to his daughter on her birthday. The letter was written by George Azar Khoury in 1966 to his youngest daughter from his first marriage to Lucia Simon. George is my grandfathers first cousin and emigrated to Arizona via Mexico early in the 20th century.

George has always fascinated me while I've been on this journey because he was one of the first relatives I found that had emigrated. I found several instances of him coming through border crossings from Mexico right up until the 1950's.

The letter George sent to his daughter was to wish her a happy birthday. He also tells her about her birth and the death of her mother only days after her birth. He wasn't the most eloquent of writers but you could feel his love and pain through his words.....to tell you the truth it brought a tear to my eye reading the letter. Unfortunately his wife Lucia passed away four days after the birth of her child from renal failure. George writes in the letter that her grief is what killed her as another child had severely hurt herself a couple of days before the birth.

Its amazing what you can learn from a letter. In this letter he writes how when he was young he was studying in a seminary to become a priest but found it wasn't for him as his father had passed away and he had to return home and look after the family. A few years later the village priest who was his uncle passed away and the villagers ask him to become the priest. This is an important thing as at this time our village priests had always been from our village. This has made me curious now to find out who the priest have been in our village church. Derdghaya has supplied many priests and nuns over the years.

Sixety Five Years

Last night I was surprised when I had a message from a distant cousin asking if I wanted to speak with his Grandmother.

A little background.....Philips Grandmother is married to Sitti Jamileh's first cousin Philip Salim Zarka. They have lived the last 65 years in Israel (Palestine at the time), having not been able to return during or after the war in 1948.

So after replying to Philips message we switched over to Skype. Philips Grandmother Em Atef is 86 years old and god bless her she remembers everybody from Derdghaya. She was so impressed with herself remembering people she says to me not bad for someone who only lived in Derdghaya for a year and a half. I have to say her knowledge of people was very impressive

The biggest joy I got was that she remembered my grandfather. First question she asked me was who is your grandfather....Najib Boulos auntie.....she answers with joy in her voice ah, Najib Boulos was one of my favorite people, a great man. This bought great joy to me as I never knew my grandfather but everyone has spoken in this tone about him. She then asks who my father is.....Sami auntie I reply, again she espouses what a nice person my father is.

We spoke for around an hour about Derdghaya its current and former residents, family and friends. I have to say it was a pleasure to have spoken to Em Atef and hope one day to make a trip and meet her.  I think next time I talk with her I will do an interview with her about her life as she knows a lot about the family.

Picture Tells a Thousand Words.....

I while back I found a picture of my Great Great Uncle Peter Rashid (Sitti Jamilleh's Uncle) and his family, it was taken for a passport for their return to Michigan from Lebanon in 1923. He had left for America early in the 20th century settling in the Lansing area in Michigan. Here he met his wife Nora and they started a family. To my knowledge he only ever returned on 2 occasions, around 1920 and some time in the early 1950's.

I had already met a couple of his Grandchildren (They would be my first cousins twice removed) through Facebook, so I decided to post the picture in my Old Family Photos album and tagged my cousins.

Well just through tagging one of my cousins I ended up meeting several more. It was such a joy to meet them and everyone has been very kind with their time and knowledge about what they know about their Grandfather. I was also able to supply them with Zarka family tree's which was greatly appreciated.

I have come to the conclusion that sometimes its the little things that bring families together no matter how far they are apart or whether they have ever met.....

Finding New Cousins

In August last year I wrote about finding new family members. That post seems like a lifetime ago now as I seem to get into contact with close and distant cousins nearly every week.

I grew up here in Australia and never had any cousins around because my family was the only one that emigrated. We had some family friends from my Dads village Derdghaya but realistically at the time I didn't realise they were distant cousins.....you have to go back 4 generations to find the connection.

In the last month I have found that my fathers first cousins family live in Melbourne....I was quite shocked, I don't think my Dad even knows this. My parents came to Australia 41 years ago, but I think its been only in the last five years that they have moved to Melbourne. I now have a phone number and more contact and maybe a trip to Melbourne maybe in order.

I've also been able to contact more and more people from Derdghaya whose families have emigrated to America nearly a century ago. This sort of spins me out as they have been the ones that have wanted to know more and more information and have also been willing to provide me with what ever information they have.

Who is buried in the Church

I was watching TV and they were showing how in England some people were buried in the church there. They were usually clergy or rich villagers who paid for the right to be buried there as it was an honor.

This made me remember that my father had told me recently that there were burials in our village church St. Georges. Now the reason for the interest is that one of the original priests there would be one of my ancestral grandfathers and to be buried in the church would be a great honor and give me some bragging rights.

The other thing is that the current church was built in 1911 and they just recently celebrated the centenary of the church. Apparently there is access to lower levels that contain the previous incarnations of the church. I'm thinking this is where the burials are as I don't think they would be recent.

Maybe an archaeological approach on my next trip may be in order.

Story of Elias Makhoul Khoury's Death

In late 1956 early 1957, Elias Makhoul was walking down the main street of Derdghaya when he encountered my grandfather Najib Boulos and another man possibly Eid Raad. He asked the men to go to a certain place where he owned land and dig his grave by the road; the men were startled at such a request and enquired why. Elias Makhoul replied he is getting his affairs in order as he would be dying tomorrow.

Elias Makhoul left the men to their task and kept walking along the road as he was on his way to Neffakiye to collect money from a man that had borrowed a sum from him. Elias Makhoul was quite well off as he had spent a few years in America working and once he came back to Lebanon he was also quite successful in business. Later in life he lent money to people at interest.

Once he got to Neffakiye he was unable to obtain the money so went on his way to Maaroub where another man owed him money. He was also unsuccessful here as well and returned to Derdghaya. 

On his return to Derdghaya he was approached by my grandfather and told that the spot he had chosen was not desirable as anyone passing by on the road could stop and urinate on his grave as they passed. He informed my grandfather of another spot to dig the grave and that when he was finished to come to his house.

Later Elias Makhoul gathered his family around him, his wife Nasra (Nifaji) had already passed by this time. My grandfather attended Elias Makhoul’s house where he was paid a sum of money for his work. Elias Makhoul gave directions to his children of what he wanted done and who they still had to collect money from.

After giving his children his directions he sat back on his lounge looked up and seen two doves flying towards him. He started saying “Ijit Nifaji, Ijit Nifaji” (translated Nifaji is here, Nifaji is here). As the doves reached the house his voice lowered still saying “Ijit Nifaji” the doves reached the house and he went peacefully to be with his beloved Nifaji.

To this day his grave still stands where he asked to be buried

Bridge Building

In Derdghaya they predominantly worked the land as farmers. But as the village grew they became well known for their work as blacksmiths and stonemasons. At any one time there could be found six blacksmiths shops and several stonemasons’ quarries.

Sometime in the 19^th century a bridge needed to be built over the Litani River near the village of Qaaqaait el Jisr. The Litani River was the border between the provinces of Saida and Akka. The Governors of both provinces wouldn’t give in to each other so they both sent stonemasons to build the bridge. Each set of stonemasons would work from their side of the province and meet in the middle. As Derdghaya was in the Akka province their stonemasons were requested to do the work on Akka’s part of the bridge.

Both groups of stonemasons started their work but only the men of Derdghaya could get a start on the bridge, every time the men from Saida would lay their stones in the river they would be swept away by the strong current. But so skilled were the Derdghayans they were able to finish their side of the bridge within a week and not a spot of mortar being used because of the precise cutting of the stones in male and female ends. 

The Governor of Saida demanded the Derdghayan men finish the bridge but they refused as the Governor of Saida wouldn’t pay them. They demanded to be paid the same as they had received from the Governor of Akka, one gold piece. The Governor of Saida complained to the Governor of Akka but was met with a response that they have to be paid the same. Eventually the Governor of Saida relented and paid the men and the bridge was finally built. To this day the bridge still stands over the Litani River…..