Howdy! After quite a few tornadoes in Oklahoma this year, a calmer summer season is on the way. We were very fortunate that only one small tornado was even close to us. However, we had my dear friend from California visiting at the time. While a bit shaken, she took the tornado warnings very well.
Our garden is going strong. Tomatoes are coming on. A few peppers have been harvested. We took a mini-break to San Antonio. I bought a purple bougainvillea at the Swap Meet. It’s beautiful.
Let’s get to it.
Every person has two parents. They have four grandparents. If they are lucky, they know quite a bit about each of these people. My mom had a pretty good knowledge base about three of her four grandparents. The one that was always a mystery was her maternal grandfather.
Family lore said that Jose Ismael was from Syria. His paperwork from Hermosillo Civil Registration materials and the Catholic church documented that he was from Turkey. Looking at the below map of the Ottoman Empire, I can see how it might have been a game of: let’s guess where the new immigrant to Mexico originally came.
The details of Jose’s life are very limited. He married Jesus Corral (Mama Chu) in 1913. He owned a store in Hermosillo so he must have arrived to Mexico a few years before that to get his business established. The couple had 4 children, 3 who lived to adulthood. Mama Chu said that he was shot and killed during a card game. That was when she came to Arizona.
That was all we knew. Before you get your hopes up, that is still all we know.
However.
A few weeks before Mom passed, I was able to tell her about a DNA match she had. I reached out to this DNA match. The person who is in charge of his results told me that our new cousin was from Lebanon. Wait. What?! My whole foundation just took a hard right turn. Our cousin gave us advice on which area the family could be from and which surnames for which to look.
I did do that. And it helped an awful lot.
Apparently quite a few Ancestry DNA tests had been given as gifts to more of my distant family because I now have about 15 surnames that come up as matches! Here are the facts. The relatives aren’t from Turkey. Like our distant cousin said these matches come from Lebanon.
I googled “Lebanese in Mexico” and so much information popped up. Have you ever seen the culinary delight that is Al Pastor being made on the rotating spit? That’s the Lebanese loving their new land. You are welcome. Hahaha! Salma Hayek is of Lebanese descent, and well she is kind of amazing too.
I have recently wondered if Jose’s name was Yusuf (the Arabic name for Joseph, Jose in Spanish) and he used the Spanish when he arrived to Mexico. The surname of Ismael could be from his father’s first name, listed as Ismael Ale in the records. Our family picked up the spelling Ysmael in the United States.
Mom and I took a brief wander through her personal things in March. She showed me a treasured coin. Her grandmother had given her the coin and said, “This didn’t belong to Jose, but do you see this writing? It looks like how he used to write.”
I went through the genetic matches Ancestry is giving us and found the following surnames that are links to the Ysmael branch.
Not all of these matches have Family Trees associated with them. However, the ones that do all state that their families are from Lebanon. Cities that have connections: Tyre, Sour, Aabbassiyeh, and several from Beirut.
And it’s not like this is a small deal. Mom’s DNA was about 29% Levant. The green below is where Jose’s family is from regionally. The darker green is their concentrated location. My mom’s other DNA dominant region is Spain – also at 29%.
Do you have any idea how exciting this is for me?? Now I have a whole new continent to research. Somebody needs to warn them that their tenacious cousin knows where they are and she is ready to start sending her letters. I haven’t found the names Ali or Ismael in the matches. Maybe by elimination, and by gratuitously putting this post up, others will find me. Maybe one of them will know of the relatives who left their homeland for deeply personal reasons we will never know. Hopefully they will find me – Jose’s great-granddaughter who would LOVE to meet them. And find out what I can about them all.
Over some Tacos Al Pastor.
Other reading:
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