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Searching for Genocide Survivors a Century Ago, in the Classifieds
One century ago, on April 22, 1919, my grandfather placed a classified advertisement in the Hairenik, the leading Armenian language newspaper in the United States.
His message was simple, and it was direct.
I am from the Aygestan neighborhood of Van, my grandfather wrote. My father was a Vartabed (high priest) named Yeghishe Kherany
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Great short piece. I think they continued with similar newspaper announcements until even the 1940s and 1950s. I’ve even heard of church badaraks where letters were recited of families looking for each other.
Nice article, Matthew. I am actually in the process of abstracting more of these ads this month (for February-April 1920). I will publish these new ones soon to this web page.
http://markarslan.org/ArmenianImmigrants/Public-ViewSummary-ArmenianImmigrants-Ads-ByPublication.php?SelectPublication=Hairenik&SelectSortOrder=ByIssueDate&Staging=
My mother was born in New Britain to Dickran and Armenouhi Maghakian in1926. They came to Ellis Island in 1920, I believe. He, Dickran had a men’s clothing store and they came to CA in 1937 because he had asthma. Selling a vibrant business in the Depression years and smoking led to an early death from heart disease in 1942. My grandmother loved God and He kept their family of 4 alive during the war and after. She was contacted by a sister who married a Turkish man because as an orphan she had been raised as a Muslim.