A family history

The Awn and Saydah Families: From Damour and Forzul to Brooklyn

The story of our family, with the records behind it

1869 to 2000131 years of records
2 villagesDamour and Forzul, Lebanon
128 documentsshown beside the story
Awn and Saydah family historyShare

This is the story of how the Aouns of Damour and the Saydahs of Forzul crossed an ocean, settled in Brooklyn, and became the family we are today. It is built from ship lists, census pages, naturalization papers, death certificates and newspaper clippings, and from the stories our family has told. Every record sits right beside the part of the story it belongs to. This is a first edition, not the last word, and it will keep growing as new records turn up.

How to read it

Every fact carries one of three labels:

  • Confirmed: a record shows it.

  • Family: told to us, not yet found in a record.

  • Probable: it fits the records but is not proven.

Names changed shape on the way. The family name Aoun became Awn (Family), and records also write it Owen and Aun. Saydah appears as Saidah and Sayda. These are the same families, and each time we say which spelling a record used.

What I would love from you: corrections, names for the faces in old photographs, and the stories no record keeps. Send Sarah a correction, a name or a memory and it will be added here, so this story keeps growing for the grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Tap or click any document picture to see it large, with what it says.

The Family at a Glance

131 years, from Joseph's birth in 1869 to Helen's death in 2000

  1. Joseph (Youseuf) Aoun born
  2. Anton arrives (his papers)
  3. Mathilde born
  4. Anton weds Wassela
  5. Anton becomes a citizen
  6. Anthony born
  7. Helen born
  8. Aoun family crosses the border
  9. Joseph (Youseuf) Aoun dies
  10. Anthony weds Helen (28 or 29 Dec; records disagree)
  11. Anthony becomes a citizen
  12. Anton Saydah dies
  13. Anthony dies
  14. Wassela dies (about)
  15. Helen dies

The two lines meet in the middle of the picture: Anthony and Helen were married in December 1940, two years before he became a citizen.

Part OneThe Aoun (Awn) Family, from Damour to Brooklyn

The Awn story begins in Damour, a coastal village south of Beirut, with a family named Aoun. In America the name became Awn (Family). Records also wrote it Owen and Aun, and the father's own papers use Owen.

Damour sits on the Mediterranean coast about eleven miles south of Beirut. When the Aouns left in the summer of 1920, the First World War had only just ended, and Mount Lebanon was recovering from a wartime famine that, by most historians' estimates, killed a large share of its people. In September 1920, as the family crossed into New York State, France was proclaiming the new state of Greater Lebanon under its mandate. This is background, not a record of this family, and the papers do not tell us why Joseph and Assin decided to go. What they do tell us is that they took all eight children with them, a party of ten on third-class tickets by way of Southampton and Quebec, with Joseph about 50 years old and an uncle waiting in Brooklyn. That is a lot to stake on a new country.

Joseph and Assin Aoun

Anthony's father, Joseph Aoun, was born 21 November 1869 and died in Brooklyn at about 1 a.m. on 14 September 1932, aged 62. His death certificate spells the family name Owen, lists him as retired, and gives his parents as Peter and Teresa. The cause was cardiac failure from a coronary thrombosis, and he was buried at St. John's Cemetery on 16 September (Confirmed, NYC death certificate no. 18405). On the 1920 ship manifest he is Youseuf Aoun, a farmer or traveler of 53. The certificate says he had lived in the U.S. for 12 years, which fits the 1920 arrival.

His wife Assin Aoun (written Essine on the manifest and Aseen in the 1925 census) was the daughter of Joseph Segan. She died on 16 October 1935 at Bay Ridge Hospital, a widow living at 1047 75th Street, of a ruptured appendix after an appendectomy. She was buried at St. John's on 18 October, and her son John signed for the burial permit. Her age is written four different ways across the records (45, 40, 50 and 52), so her birth year is unknown. Her death record also spells the name Owen (Confirmed). The same undertaker, Jere J. Cronin, Inc., on Atlantic Avenue, handled the funerals of Joseph, Assin and their son Nessil.

Eight children

The 1920 manifest and later records give eight children, listed here from oldest to youngest:

Family stories (told by Aunt Jackie) say that two of Anthony's brothers died young: one drowned, and one died of peritonitis after surgery on his arm. Nessil is one of the two. His death certificate gives pneumonia and tuberculosis, not drowning or surgery, so the cause in the story may belong to the other brother. The other brother may be George, who has no record after 1930 that we have found. That is our guess, not something the family has told us (Probable, not proven).

The crossing, 1920

In the summer of 1920 the Aoun party left Southampton on the S.S. Grampian on 25 August, bound for Quebec, and crossed into New York State at Rouses Point on 5 September 1920 (Confirmed: the manifest, Anthony's immigration ID card, and his own petition, which says he entered as Antoine Aoun by the Delaware & Hudson Railway).

The Grampian manifest lists the family together, heading for an uncle, Michal Malleut, in Brooklyn, with last residence Damour. The father is written Youseuf Aoun (age 53, farmer/traveler) and the mother Essine (45). The children listed are Thirsie (14), Georges (10), Michel (8), Elias (6) and Antoine (4), followed by Nessil (22), Matilde (29) and Jean (16). The family tells us all eight are brothers and sisters, so the manifest shows the whole household crossing together (Confirmed names; Family for the relationships). Ship ages are approximate: Anthony was 4 on the manifest but 6 by his birth date. Thirsie is Theresa, Michel is Probably Mitchell, and Jean is John.

Home on Tompkins Place

By 1925 the family was living at 37 Tompkins Place in Brooklyn. The New York State census taker wrote the name Owen and listed Joseph, Aseen (40), Matilda (23), John, Theresa (20), George (18), Micheal (16), Luis (13) and Anthony (10), all born in Syria (Confirmed). Nessil is missing because he had died the October before.

In April 1930 the federal census shows Joseph (60), Assin (50) and five sons and a daughter still at home. Mathilde had married four years earlier and moved out. John (26) was a manager in a dry goods business, Theresa (23) a clerk in dry goods, George (21) a manager in ladies' apparel, Mitchell (20) a clerk, Louis (18) and Anthony (16) (Confirmed). The family was already in the clothing trade, which fits the family story that the brothers started with fabric and later ran the shop in Manhattan.

Anthony probably finished high school in 1932. The Brooklyn Eagle of 30 June 1932 lists an Anthony Aoun among the Alexander Hamilton High School graduates (Probable; the list gives no address, so it is not certain this is him). The family says that only Anthony and Mitchell were allowed to go to school while the others worked (Family).

Becoming American

The brothers each took the same path to citizenship, and the papers survive:

The brothers' and sisters' later lives

John J. Awn (Jean on the manifest, and John Joseph Owen when he signed his name) was the oldest son in the household after Nessil's death. He first filed to become a citizen in 1926, filed again in 1940 as a merchant living at 1047 75th Street, and took the oath on 5 November 1942, with Said Owen, a shoemaker, and his brother-in-law Fred Gorayeb as witnesses (Confirmed, naturalization papers).

His birth date puzzled even the courts. In December 1940 the Brooklyn Eagle reported that he asked a federal court to change it from 15 August 1905 to 15 August 1903, and that the Assistant U.S. Attorney opposed the change as an attempt to avoid the draft. Later papers use 4 August 1903, which also fits his ages in the 1925 and 1930 censuses.

In April 1940 John headed the household at 1047 Bay Ridge Parkway as the manager and owner of a retail ladies' wear business, with his brothers Mitchell and Anthony living with him (Confirmed, 1940 census, spelling used: Own). The business was Awn's Specialty Shop at 82 Greenwich Street, the address on his draft cards. He married Louise (probably Louise M. Alouf, in 1951; Probable), and they had three children, John Jr., Christopher and Linda. A 1953 New York Times real-estate item says a John Awn bought a house at 24 Harbor Lane. It is Probable this is the same John, though Theresa's 1955 papers use 26 Harbor Lane, so we are checking.

John died on 22 May 1977. The New York Times death notice calls him the beloved husband of the late Louise and father of John Jr., Christopher and Linda, and brother of Matilda Gorayeb, Teresa Koury, Mitchell and Elias Awn. His funeral was at McLaughlin & Sons Colonial Home on Third Avenue at 97th Street, with a Mass at Our Lady of Lebanon in Brooklyn Heights (Confirmed, NYT, 25 May 1977). He is buried at St. John Cemetery, Section 3, Row C, Grave 12 (Probable, strong).

Mitchell Awn was born 4 July 1909 in Damour. He married Barbara Machanskis on 14 October 1940 in Yonkers (Confirmed, his draft card). On 9 June 1943 a federal court changed his name from Mitchell Joseph Khoury Aoun to Mitchell Awn, the order that made Awn his legal name (Confirmed). In June 1947 he bought a house on Anthony's block. A later wife, Laurdes Nassr (1923 to 2021), is Probable (marriage about 1947), and Barbara's fate is still unknown, so his two marriages are an open question. His children are Probably Paul (1953 to 2014), Rosemarie and George. Caravan notices show him as president of the St. Nicholas Young Men's Club in 1953 and of the Knights of St. Maron in 1958. He died in September 1978 on Staten Island and is buried at St. John Cemetery, Section 3, Row C, Grave 8 (Confirmed, Find a Grave).

Mitchell's draft card, filled in on 16 October 1940, gives his full name as Mitchell Joseph Khoury Aoun and his address as 420 Central Park West in Manhattan. It names his employer as his brother John at 82 Greenwich Street and, like Anthony's card, gives his citizenship as "France." He signed it two days after his wedding to Barbara Machanskis, a young woman born on 15 June 1918 in Plymouth, Pennsylvania (Confirmed). Three years earlier, in April 1937, he and Theresa had been the two witnesses at Elias's wedding.

Elias (Louis) Awn was born 3 May 1912 and became a citizen on 6 February 1941. He married Isabel (born 20 August 1916) on 18 April 1937 in Brooklyn, with his brother Mitchell and sister Theresa as witnesses (Confirmed, marriage certificate; spelling used: Awn). Their children are Claudette (now Mrs. Maraziti), Louise (Mrs. Jeremiah Crowley, married at Our Lady of Lebanon on 5 January 1969), Dr. Peter J. Awn, and the late Richard P. Awn (Confirmed, Elias's 2001 obituary and the 1969 wedding notice). The family was at 294 Clinton Street in the 1940 census. Elias died on 5 January 2001. The New York Times described Awn's Specialty Shop as a fixture in the Wall Street area for over 50 years, and Louise's wedding notice says her father was a partner in the shop. Isabel died 13 February 2007, and both are buried at St. John Cemetery, Section 3, Row C (Confirmed).

Elias's marriage certificate of 18 April 1937 gives his name as Louis J. Awn, age 24, a salesman living at 1047 Bay Ridge Parkway. His bride, Isabel, was 20, from 190 Warren Street, and had been born in Paterson, New Jersey. The couple were married at 295 Hicks Street in Brooklyn by a "M. Stephen," with Mitchell and Theresa as witnesses. The certificate names Isabel's parents as Fred and Sarah Ganimy, but a 1958 Caravan notice calls her father Fred H. Owen of 81 86th Street, who died of a heart attack at Adelphi Hospital on 6 January 1958, about two months after his wife, Sarah. He had been living with his daughter and her husband, Mr. and Mrs. Louis Awn (Probable, strong that these are the same man, with the spelling differing). When Elias filed his citizenship petition in September 1940, his witnesses were James J. Glayat and Said Owen of 294 Clinton Street. The same Said Owen, a shoemaker, vouched for his brother John, and a Louis Glayat vouched for Anthony, so a small circle of Clinton Street friends stood up for all three brothers. Elias's own papers give his entry date as 7 September 1920, two days after the others, and the family has a story that explains it. Elias, then eight, had an eye infection, said to be pink eye, and was turned away at the border at first. He crossed two days later, once he could be admitted (Family; the two-day gap in the records fits the story, but no record mentions the eye).

Mathilde (Matilda Gorayeb) married Fred Gorayeb on 25 April 1926 and lived on Bay Ridge Parkway. They had no children (Confirmed, her petition). She became a citizen on 30 June 1942, with Isabel Awn and Fred as witnesses to her good character (Confirmed, her naturalization papers).

Her 1942 petition describes a woman of 5 feet 4 inches and 165 pounds, with brown hair and eyes and a small scar on her throat. She was a housewife at 1047 Bay Ridge Parkway, which she shared with Fred and her brothers.

Fred Nahim Gorayeb was born in Damour (his draft card gives 5 November 1889, though his other papers give three other dates in 1889 and 1890). He came to New York as a boy of about 14, on the French liner La Savoie, in November 1903. By 1920 he was a merchant at 40 Washington Street, in the same Syrian trading district where Anton Saydah had his business, and in September 1920 he became a citizen. In 1921 he was part of Gorayeb Brothers, importers and exporters at 51 Washington Street, and a letter from the firm in his passport application says he was traveling to Cuba, Panama, Ecuador and Peru to sell goods and collect money. By 1942 his draft card, with the same telephone number as John's, describes him as self-employed, 5 feet 3 inches tall and 165 pounds, with brown eyes and gray hair (Confirmed). He and Mathilde vouched for each other's good character and stood as witnesses for John's citizenship in 1942. Fred's death and burial have not been found.

Theresa Koury (born 7 August 1905) married Michael Koury on 12 January 1939. Their children are Ann, Antoinette and John (Confirmed, censuses). Theresa most likely died in March 1994 (Probable, strong: Asbury Park Press index).

Theresa was 5 feet 1 inch and 126 pounds, with brown eyes and black hair. She did not become a citizen until 10 May 1955, thirty-five years after she arrived. Her witnesses were Helen Awn, our Helen, and a Louise Awn at 26 Harbor Lane, probably John's wife (Confirmed, her petition). She was by then living at 79 86th Street, on the same street as Helen's house at 95.

Her husband, Michael Koury, was born on 27 April 1906 in Lebanon and arrived in New York in August 1914, aged eight, just as the First World War began. He became a citizen in 1943. In April 1940 the census finds the couple at 294 Clinton Street, the same house as Elias and Isabel, with their baby daughter Ann, then two months old, and Sophie Koury, a widow of 62 who is probably Michael's mother (Probable). Michael is listed as a manufacturer in the negligee trade, working on his own account. Their children are Ann (now Mrs. Dowd), Antoinette (now Mrs. Haddad) and John.

A sister in Lebanon, Esther Ayoub. The family remembers a sister who stayed behind in Lebanon when the others came to America. The Caravan of 2 February 1961 (page 12) reports that Mitchell Awn received a cable telling of the death in Beirut of his sister, Mrs. Esther Ayoub. A memorial Mass was held for her at Our Lady of Lebanon on 29 January 1961. The notice names her survivors:

The notice is Confirmed, and it is Probable that Esther is the sister the family remembers, since she is the only Lebanese sister named. She does not appear on the 1920 ship manifest, so she likely stayed in Lebanon, married and had her own family there. Her name Esther and her birth year are not yet known. She may have been older than Matilda (born 1899). Her married name is Ayoub, and her daughter's married name is written San Remi in the newspaper, so spellings may differ in Lebanese records. "Mrs. Mary Awn" of Beirut is also interesting. She may have married a cousin or another Awn of Damour, and it is worth asking the family who she was. Her grandchildren's names are not in any record we have yet, so this is a good question.

Still open in this line

John's exact birth date; George's death record (and whether he drowned or had the arm surgery); Mitchell's two marriages; and a record of Elias's delayed entry at the border (the family says an eye infection held him back).

Part TwoThe Saydah Family, from Forzul to Brooklyn

Helen's father, Anton Saydah, came from Forzul, Lebanon. His name appears as Saydah, Saidah, Sayda, Saida and even Smyda. Helen's mother was born a Hodod, a name that records also spell Hadad, Haddad and Hadel.

Anton arrives, 1898

Anton was born on 15 August 1880 or 1881 (the day is the same in every record, but the year is not) in Forzul. His own sworn 1909 declaration and 1913 petition both say 1881, written "Forgul" in the petition (Confirmed as his statement). His 1942 draft card gives his parents as Wahbeh Saydah and Noor, whose maiden name is written Kereisati on one record and Jureisaty on his brother's death certificate. The "W." in the three brothers' names stands for their father, Wahbeh (Confirmed).

A young man of the right name and age, written "Antoun Smyda," 18, appears on a manifest of the French liner La Touraine dated 28 November 1898, going to a brother at 73 Washington Street (sheet 183 of the manifest). This is only Possible, not proven. The manifest's spellings are rough, and Anton's own sworn papers give a different date: his 1909 declaration and 1913 petition both say he sailed from Le Havre on La Touraine about 17 October and arrived in New York on 25 October 1898, a month earlier (Confirmed as his own statement). Either the manifest is a different voyage or one of the dates is off, so we still need his name on the 25 October sailing. If the manifest is his, the brother could be Khaleel, but we cannot yet say that he was in New York in 1898, because his own arrival year is uncertain (1891 in the 1910 census, 1888 in 1930, and about 1901 on his death certificate). Michael was in Illinois by then, which leaves Khaleel as the only brother we know of in New York (Possible).

The 1900 census at Negaunee, Michigan, finds Anton Saydah, born 15 August 1880 and arrived 1898, a boarder in the household of Abdalla and Sady Kirkish, who are probably his sister Sada's family. He was selling goods from house to house (Confirmed, spelling used: Saydah). By April 1910 he was back in Brooklyn at 570 48th Street, living in his brother Khaleel's household as a single man of 29, working as an employee in embroidered shirtwaists (Confirmed, census), which proves the two were brothers.

Anton and Wassela

Anton married Wassela Hodod on 5 May 1912 (Confirmed, NYC marriage index, spelling used: Hodod). The Hodod/Hadad family was already in Brooklyn, and the 1900 census shows a Hadad household on DeGraw Street. Her marriage certificate says she was born in Zahleh, Lebanon (Confirmed as reported there; no other record disagrees). Her birth year is still open.

The marriage certificate says Wassela was 23, born in Zahleh, and living at 301 Henry Street. Her parents were John Hodod and Amina Shehadi. The ceremony was at Holy Trinity Church, 157 Montague Street, and the witnesses were Khalil W. Saydah, Anton's brother, and a Mrs. Fuleihan whose name is hard to read (Confirmed).

The 1900 census finds a household that is probably hers on DeGraw Street in Brooklyn: a young Wassilla of 14, a saleswoman, living with her mother Emmel, her father John, her brothers Salem and Najeeb, another brother, Halen, and her mother's brother, Beshara Shahady, an importer who headed the household (Probable, strong; the Shahady name matches her mother's maiden name). By 1910 the census taker, writing the name Hadel, found John (65), Ameeny (45), Salim (24), Wassela (20), Charles (18) and Najib (13), who had been born in New York (Confirmed, spelling used: Hadel).

Their first child, Lily, was born on 5 March 1913 at 5305 Sixth Avenue, arrived early, and died three days later. She was buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery on 10 March (Confirmed, NYC birth and death certificates).

Wassela's family: the Hodods (Hadad) and the Shehadis

Wassela's family name appears as Hodod on her marriage certificate, Hadad in the 1900 census and on her daughter Evelyn's Social Security record, and Hadel in 1910. It is the same family. Her mother's maiden name, Shehadi, is also written Shahady.

Her parents. Her father, John Hodod, was born about 1850 (the 1900 census says March 1850, and the 1910 census says age 65). In June 1900 he was out of work and had been for twelve months. Her mother, Amina, appears as Emmel in 1900 and Ameeny in 1910. She was born about 1865, and had borne eight children by 1900, five of whom were living, and nine by 1910, four of whom were living. The census says both parents came in 1892. An 1898 Brooklyn directory lists a John Haddad, grocer, on Washington Street, who may be Wassela's father (Possible).

Her brothers. The 1900 and 1910 censuses together name four brothers:

Her uncle. In 1900 the family was living on DeGraw Street in Brooklyn in the household of Beshara Shahady, an importer born about 1870 who arrived in 1898. His surname matches Wassela's mother's maiden name, so he is probably her mother's brother (Probable, strong; the marriage certificate does not say so).

Wassela's own dates. Her records disagree more than any others in the family. In 1900 she is 14 and a saleswoman, born May 1886 and arrived in 1892. The 1910 census, her marriage record and the 1915 state census all point to about 1889 or 1890. The Social Security death index gives 20 December 1889. The 1930 and 1940 censuses push it later, to about 1892 and 1893, and the 1950 census says she was 57. Her marriage certificate says she was born in Zahleh, Lebanon, and the other records say only Syria, which is consistent because Lebanon was then part of Ottoman Syria. We are leaving her birth year open. All we can say is that it falls between 1886 and 1893, and that every record after 1900 makes her younger (Uncertain).

People we cannot yet place. A January 1898 ship card for a ten-year-old "Wassilah Hadad," traveling with a Nadra Hadad to a cousin named Amin on Washington Street, looks like her at first. But the 1900 census shows her whole family already living in Brooklyn since 1892, so it Probably describes a different girl. If it were hers, it would link the Hodods to the Merhige family, Aunt Jackie's husband's family, but no record shows that link (see "Jackie's husband's family: the Merhiges" in Part Three and items 90 to 93). A Dr. Haddad on Garden Place, who signed Lily's death certificate in 1913, may also have been a relative, and the 1912 marriage certificate names a witness, a Mrs. Fuleihan, whom we have not identified.

Anton became a U.S. citizen on 22 January 1914. His declaration was filed in 1909 and his petition in 1913 (Confirmed, naturalization papers). His witnesses were Anton Simon, a commission merchant of 515 47th Street, and Willard Van Wagner, a dry-goods man of Quincy Street, who swore they had known him since December 1905. The petition names his wife as Wassila Saydah, born in "Turkey" (the empire, with no town given), and the court granted citizenship on 22 January 1914. Under the law of the time, a wife generally took her husband's citizenship when he was naturalized, so Wassela probably became a citizen through Anton in 1914 and likely has no naturalization papers of her own (Probable; this is the general rule, not a record about her). The better place to look for her origins is her father John Hodod's naturalization, or the family's 1892 arrival. He registered for the draft in 1918 and again in 1942, and in 1916 the deed index shows him selling property.

The family lived at 570 or 567 48th Street in 1909 and 1912, then on Sixth Avenue in Bay Ridge. In the 1915 state census they are at 4721 Sixth Avenue. By 1925 they were at 33 86th Street, where they stayed through 1945. Anton went into the linen and import trade as part of the Saydah Importing Company, with an office at 85 Washington Street in 1918 and at 736 Fifth Avenue by 1942 (Confirmed, draft cards). His 1942 card describes a man of 5 feet 5 inches, 180 pounds, with brown eyes, black hair and a dark complexion.

The Tuxedo Park accident, 1917

One hard chapter in Anton's life reached the newspapers. In the summer of 1917, about a year before the trial, Anton was driving his automobile from Pennsylvania back to Brooklyn with his friend Najib S. Maloof as a passenger. Near Tuxedo Park, New York, the car crashed into a fence. Maloof was thrown out and killed instantly. On 24 June 1918 a jury in the Supreme Court, before Justice Cropsey, awarded Maloof's widow, Affie N. Maloof, $17,500 against Anton. The Brooklyn Eagle describes Anton as an importer and Maloof's lifelong friend (Confirmed as reported in the newspaper; we have not seen the court file, and we do not know whether the verdict was appealed).

A Najib S. Maloof appears on the 1909 officer list of Damascus Lodge, the Masonic lodge Anton's brother Khaleel helped found, so the two men probably knew each other through the lodge and the Syrian community (Probable). The 1915 Brooklyn tax list assesses Anton at $60,000 in personal property (Probable), which fits an importer doing well. His 1918 draft card gives his business address as 85 Washington Street. We have not yet found Maloof's death record or the 1917 newspaper account of the accident.

Three daughters

Anton and Wassela raised three daughters in Brooklyn:

Evelyn was born on 2 February 1920. In the 1950 census she was 30 and a bookkeeper, living with her mother and sister Helen. She married Eli Zrake on 3 January 1954 (Confirmed, Caravan). Eli, born 22 November 1918, was the son of Najeeb and Matilda Zrake. He died on 5 April 1958, aged 39, with a funeral at St. Mary's Orthodox Church in Bay Ridge. His notice names his wife Evelyn and their children, James and Helen. She later married Leonard F. Deschner in 1971. Evelyn died on 19 December 2001, and her New York Times notice describes her as the wife of Leonard, the mother of Helen Dodson, and the sister of Virginia Hakim and the late Helen Zaloom (Confirmed).

The family remembers that Helen was Eli and Evelyn's only child together, and that James ("Jamie") is Eli's son from an earlier marriage, to the sister of George Hakim, Virginia's husband. That makes James Helen's half brother and a cousin of Carroll and Michael Hakim on his mother's side (Family). A James E. Zrake born 3 March 1948 in California may be Jamie (Probable, moderate). We have not found Eli's first marriage record or where Eli and Evelyn are buried.

Leonard F. Deschner, Evelyn's second husband, was born in Brooklyn on 24 March 1911, the son of Nicholas and Anna (Abel) Deschner (Confirmed, his 1940 draft card and a 1932 marriage record). He married Edna Margaret Durkes in Brooklyn on 22 October 1932. In 1940 the couple lived in Ridgewood, Queens, where Leonard was an insurance clerk with Mutual Life, and in 1950 the census finds them there with two young children (Confirmed). Edna's fate is unknown: she died or the marriage ended sometime before Leonard and Evelyn's 1971 marriage in Manhattan (Confirmed as an index entry, with the certificate not yet seen). Leonard died on 10 September 2003, aged 92, in Fairfield, Connecticut. So when Evelyn married Leonard she became stepmother to his children from his first marriage, just as she had been to Eli's son James. The names of Leonard's children are in the project files and are left out here until the family decides how much to include about living relatives.

Virginia was born about December 1921 and married George Michael Hakim around 6 May 1945, with the wedding at St. Nicholas Cathedral. The 1950 census finds George, 31, an account examiner at an advertising agency, with Virginia (28) and two small children, Carroll (4) and Michael (1). By 1962 the family was in Englewood, New Jersey (Probable). That may explain why Wassela's 1969 obituary appeared in a New Jersey paper, The Record of Hackensack.

Anton's brothers and sisters

Anton had two brothers, Khaleel and Michael, and two sisters, Sada and Nustas Kirkish. The Brooklyn Eagle printed death notices for both brothers, and the 1948 notice for Khaleel names his brother as "Antoon."

Khaleel W. Saydah

Khaleel was the oldest of the brothers we know. His death certificate gives his birth as 19 March 1870, while the 1910 census (age 43) points to about 1867. The same census says he arrived in 1891, but other records give 1888, about 1901, and (on his death certificate) 47 years in New York City, so his arrival year is open (Uncertain). He was a naturalized citizen by 1910. He may have been in New York when Anton arrived, so the "brother at 73 Washington Street" on the November 1898 La Touraine manifest could be Khaleel, if that manifest is Anton's and Khaleel had already arrived. Michael was already in Illinois, which leaves Khaleel as the likeliest brother, but all of this is only Possible (see Part Two).

He married Katie (Kate) about 1902. She had immigrated in 1901. In April 1910 the census shows them at 570 48th Street in Brooklyn, a house they owned with a mortgage, with Victoria (7), Alfred (6) and Edward (3), a servant, and Anton as a brother boarding with them. The family was still on 48th Street in 1915 and 1930, at 567, and later moved to 247 84th Street.

Khaleel was a businessman. The 1910 census calls him a merchant in shirtwaists and embroidered goods and an employer. In May 1907 the Brooklyn Eagle reported that he bought a lot on Forty-fifth Street for $4,400, with a $2,000 mortgage. He was an officer of Damascus Lodge when it was founded in 1909, and he later became president of the Saydah Importing Company on Fifth Avenue, in which Anton was a partner for more than thirty years. The 1915 Brooklyn tax list assesses a "K. W." Saydah at 567 48th Street and Anton at the same large amount, which suggests the brothers were already partners (Probable; the list prints the initial as R). Khaleel was a witness at Anton's wedding in 1912.

Khaleel died on 26 November 1948 at 247 84th Street, aged 78. His death certificate names his parents as Wihby (Wahbeh) Saydah and Nora Jureisaty, and his daughter Victoria Jureidini gave the information. He was buried at Green-Wood Cemetery on 29 November and was moved to Lot 38102 in October 1949 (Probable). His Eagle notice names his brother "Antoon" (Anton) and his surviving brother and sisters, Michael, Sada and Nustas Kirkish.

His wife, Kate, died on 14 May 1960 at 247 84th Street, aged 77. She had been a charter member of the Syrian Ladies Aid Society in 1908 and its president in 1914 and again from 1936 to 1938. Her funeral was at Fourth Avenue Presbyterian Church with Dr. Edward Jurji, and she was buried beside Khaleel at Green-Wood, Section 77, Lot 38102 (Confirmed, Eagle and World-Telegram, May 1960). Their children were Victoria (Mrs. Jureidini), Alfred V., Edward, Lillie and Sylvia (Mrs. Munroe). Alfred's engagement to Marguerite Siyufy was announced in the Eagle on 29 December 1930.

Michael W. Saydah

Michael is the brother whose own papers tell us the most. His 1918 draft card gives his birth as 6 August 1877 in Forzul, though his sons' records suggest about 1870, so the year is open (Uncertain). He left Lebanon in October 1891 as a teenager and went west to Illinois, where he lived in Chicago and Oak Park. That is why he was not the brother waiting in New York in 1898. He became a citizen on 18 March 1903 in Cook County, Illinois, which his passport applications between 1915 and 1922 confirm. The 1925 New York census says he was naturalized in Brooklyn in 1915, which is wrong.

He married Marie A. Luckey in Grundy County, Illinois, on 4 or 5 June 1901. What became of that marriage is unknown. His later wife was Zakeya H. Lian, born in Zahleh. Their children were Jameel (born 26 November 1909), Samura (about 1911 or 1912), George M. (born 26 July 1913), Victor (born 15 December 1918), a first Theodore, a second Theodore (about 1926) and Eleanor (about 1928). Victor died on 31 December 1919 at 570 48th Street, aged one year, of bronchial pneumonia. The first Theodore died on 9 February 1922 at 8726 Fort Hamilton Parkway, aged 11 months, of encephalitis, and was buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery the next day (Confirmed, NYC death certificates). A George M. Saydah, probably Michael's son, was an usher at Virginia's wedding in 1945 and is buried at Green-Wood (Probable).

The family stayed in Chicago and Oak Park until about January 1916, then moved to Brooklyn, where Michael is at 570 48th Street, his brother Khaleel's address, by 1918 and 1919 (Confirmed, from his 1915, 1916 and 1919 passport applications and his 1918 draft card). By 1925 he was at 8726 Fort Hamilton Parkway, where the 1925 and 1940 censuses find him. A New York Times list of taxpayers in September 1925 names "A. W." and "M. W." Saydah as separate payers in similar amounts. Khaleel's 1922 letter calls Michael "my brother."

Michael died on 1 March 1953 in Brooklyn. His Eagle notice names his wife Zakeya, his children Jameel, George, Theodore and Eleanor, and his sisters Nustas and Sada Kirkish. The index prints the name "Sahadi," which is Probably a misreading of Sada. He was buried at Green-Wood on 4 March, Lot 38184. Zakeya was buried on 26 February 1966.

The Kirkish sisters

Anton's two sisters were Sada and Nustas Kirkish, and both were alive at Anton's death in 1949 and Michael's in 1953. In June 1900 a Sady Kirkish (born 1 October 1874) was living in Negaunee, Michigan, with her husband, Abdalla, and their baby son, Naseem (born 14 December 1899), and a second Kirkish household, Faris's, was next door. Anton was boarding with Abdalla and Sady that month, which is a strong sign that she is his sister (Probable). Nustas probably appears in the 1910 census at Ishpeming, Michigan, the mining town next to Negaunee. A Nustas Kirkish, 24 and born in Syria, lived there with her husband, Marun P. Kirkish, 28, a grocer who had come in 1902, and their sons Fred (3) and Richard (under one). Marun's brother Joseph, 25, worked as a clerk in the grocery. The name Nustas is rare, and the surname and the state fit, but no record yet names her parents, so this is Probable, not proven. If it is her, she was about six years younger than Anton, and the two Saydah sisters married into the Kirkish families of Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

The end of Anton's life

Anton died on Thursday, 17 November 1949, in Allendale, South Carolina. The Brooklyn Eagle notice calls him the husband of Waseela, the father of Evelyn, Helen Awn and Virginia Hakim, and the grandfather of five. It also names his brother Michael and his sisters Sada and Nustas Kirkish. The funeral was at Christ Episcopal Church at Ridge Boulevard and 73rd Street, with a Masonic service from Damascus Lodge. He was buried at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, Section 57, Lot 38063, on 11 February 1950, about twelve weeks later, for a reason we have not found (Confirmed, newspaper and cemetery record).

Wassela outlived him by almost twenty years. The 1950 census finds her living with Anthony and Helen on 86th Street. She died around 6 January 1969, though the Social Security index says December 1968. An obituary index lists "Wassela A. Saydah" in The Record (Hackensack, New Jersey) on 8 January 1969, naming her daughters Helen Awn and Eve Lyn, and the Home Reporter of 17 January 1969 printed a sympathy notice from her three daughters, Helen Awn, Evelyn Zrake and Virginia Hakim (Confirmed for the notices, Probable for the date). She rests beside Anton at Green-Wood, with Helen.

Still open in this line

Anton's birth year; Wassela's birth year (Zahleh is her reported birthplace, awaiting a second record); her death month; Michael Saydah's birth year and what happened to Marie Luckey; and whether the family was Maronite or Orthodox.

Part ThreeAnthony and Helen

Two families from two Lebanese villages came together in Brooklyn at the end of 1940.

They did not have far to go to find each other. The Awn brothers lived at 1047 Bay Ridge Parkway, which is 75th Street, and the Saydahs at 33 86th Street, about eleven blocks away in the same Brooklyn neighborhood of Bay Ridge. We do not yet know how Anthony and Helen met, and it is a good question for the family.

Anthony, a citizen and a shopkeeper

Anthony J. Awn was born on 6 March 1914 in Damour and arrived at six as Antoine Aoun. He filed his declaration of intention in 1939 and registered for the draft on 16 October 1940. The draft card names his employer as Koury-Awn, Inc., at 38 East 32nd Street, and gives his brother John at 1047 Bay Ridge Parkway as the person to contact. It also gives his country of citizenship as "France," which probably reflects Lebanon's status under the French Mandate (Confirmed for the entry; Probable for the reason). His address on the card was changed by hand to a Marine Avenue number in Bay Ridge.

We do not know who owned Koury-Awn, Inc. It may have been a business of Anthony's brother-in-law, Michael Koury, who married Theresa in 1939, but that is only a guess (Possible). It may also simply carry the family's own double name, since Mitchell's and Elias's full names were Mitchell and Elias Joseph Khoury Aoun. Mitchell's draft card, written the same day, names a different employer, his brother John at 82 Greenwich Street, so the East 32nd Street firm and the Greenwich Street shop were separate businesses in 1940.

He took the oath of citizenship on 10 November 1942. His petition describes him as 5 feet 8½ inches tall and 172 pounds, living at 123 Marine Avenue, with a wife, Helen (born 9 January 1917 in Brooklyn), a son, Joseph (born 14 November 1941), and a request to be known as Anthony Awn. His two witnesses, Louis Glayat, a salesman on Clinton Street, and Jerome Kinberg, a salesman on West 103rd Street, each swore they had known him since 1 January 1933 (Confirmed, naturalization papers, spelling used: Awn).

The papers give us a picture of him. When he filed his declaration of intention on 4 May 1939, at 25, he was single with no children, living at 1047 Bay Ridge Parkway, and gave his occupation as "negligee salesman." He described himself as dark-complexioned, with brown eyes and dark brown hair, weighing 155 pounds, and gave his race and nationality as Syrian. He said he had entered the United States at Rouses Point, New York, on 5 September 1920 as Antoine Aoun, coming from Quebec on the Delaware & Hudson Railway, and he signed it "Anthony Aoun" (Confirmed, declaration of intention, spelling used: Aoun). His draft card of 16 October 1940 adds that he was 5 feet 8½ inches and 168 pounds, with light brown hair and a light brown complexion, and an appendicitis scar as his identifying mark (Confirmed). By the time of his petition in 1942 he weighed 172 pounds. His witnesses swore their affidavit on 10 August 1942, three months before the oath.

By 1950 the census calls him a comptroller in a retail ladies' wear business. The family says he worked with his brothers at Awn's Specialty Shop, 82 Greenwich Street, near Rector Street in Lower Manhattan (Family). The shop itself is Confirmed by a 1946 ad (the saved copy is captioned New York Post), Brooklyn Eagle ads in 1949, a 1965 ad and two 1984 neighborhood-paper ads (items 120 to 126), and Elias's obituary. The family remembers that the brothers began with a fabric store and that Anthony, John, Elias, Theresa and Mathilde all worked in the business (Family).

He was also active in the community. The Caravan, the Lebanese-American newspaper, lists him as recording secretary of the St. Nicholas Young Men's Club in 1953 and 1954 and as its president in 1955 and 1956, with his brother Mitchell holding the same office a few years earlier. A "Tony Awn" won the Class B golf championship at the Syramar Golf Club in 1963 (Probable). The family belonged to Our Lady of Lebanon, the Maronite church in Brooklyn Heights (Family; Joseph's 1967 wedding there is Confirmed).

The wedding

In April 1940, eight months before the wedding, Anthony was living with his brothers John and Mitchell at 1047 Bay Ridge Parkway, working as a salesman in wholesale ladies' wear (Confirmed, 1940 census, spelling used: Own).

Anthony and Helen were married on 29 December 1940 in Brooklyn. That is the date Anthony himself swore to on his 1942 naturalization petition (Confirmed). A second source, the Caravan, gives 28 December, so we still want the marriage record itself (NYC Historical Vital Records, Awn Marriages 1940).

A home on 86th Street

In 1947 Anthony bought the house at 95 86th Street (Confirmed, deed index). The 1950 census lists Anthony (35, comptroller in a ladies' wear business), Helen (33), Joseph (8), Jacqueline (6) and Kathleen (3), together with Helen's mother, Waseela Saydah (57, widowed), and her sister Evelyn (30, bookkeeper) (Confirmed, census, spelling used: Awn).

The 1947 purchase tells us something about the household. Helen had grown up three blocks away at 33 86th Street, where the 1925, 1930 and 1940 censuses find her parents, and her father's death notice in November 1949 gives his address as 95 86th Street. So Anton and Wassela moved in with the young family after the purchase (Probable). That is why the 1950 census shows three generations under one roof: Anthony, Helen, their three children so far, Wassela and her daughter Evelyn. One Caravan notice writes the house number as 96, but the deed and the census both say 95.

Helen

Helen Saydah was born on 9 January 1917 in Brooklyn (Confirmed, Anthony's petition) and grew up at 33 86th Street. She is 2 in the 1920 census, 8 in the 1925 state census, 13 in 1930, and in 1940, at 22, still single and living with her parents, a few months before she married Anthony.

Helen was the oldest of Anton and Wassela's three living daughters, and the first of their children to survive: her sister Lily had lived only three days in 1913. She was a baby in the summer of 1917, when her father's car crashed near Tuxedo Park, and she was not yet two when the jury awarded the widow of his friend Najib Maloof the judgment against him. The 1920 census finds her at two. The 1930 census, when she was 13, shows the household at 33 86th Street with her sisters Evelyn (10) and Virginia (8) and a live-in servant, which fits a father who was by then an importer in business with his brother (Confirmed). We do not yet know where she went to school or what she did before her marriage. In April 1940, at 22, she was still single and living with her parents (Confirmed).

Her sisters stayed close to her all their lives. In May 1945, at 28, Helen was matron of honor at Virginia's wedding to Staff Sergeant George M. Hakim. The Brooklyn Citizen's notice says the ceremony was to be at St. Nicholas Cathedral, performed by Archbishop Antony Bashir, with a reception at the Hotel St. George. Evelyn was a bridesmaid, Anthony was best man, and Anthony's brother Mitchell was one of the ushers, so the whole Awn and Saydah circle stood together in that wedding party (Confirmed, as printed). The same notice says Virginia had studied at the Juilliard School of Music. By then Helen was the mother of Joseph, who was three, and Jacqueline, who was not yet two (Family for Jacqueline's birth year).

Helen's name turns up in the records of the 1950s mostly as "Mrs. Anthony Awn," the wife and mother at 95 86th Street. In 1955 she signed as a witness for her sister-in-law Theresa Koury's citizenship, writing her name "Helen Awn." In October 1956 the Caravan's Bay Ridge column reported that George Hakim, now living in California, was visiting Brooklyn and staying with Mrs. Anthony Awn of 86th Street, which the paper calls his sister and probably means his sister-in-law (Probable). During those years she raised five children, with her mother and her sister Evelyn under the same roof.

Anthony died in July 1966, when Helen was 49 and her youngest daughter was still a child. A year later their eldest son was married at Our Lady of Lebanon, and the notice calls his father "the late Anthony Awn." In January 1969 she lost her mother, Wassela. In November 1975 the Home Reporter lists Helen among those at a Syramar dinner-dance with Gil Zaloom, and the following year they were married. The family spelled his name "Saloon" (Family).

After Anthony's death she married Gilbert R. Zaloom in 1976 (Probable, strong: marriage index). Gilbert was born on 26 February 1921, the son of Nasri N. Zaloom and Marie Maroun, and in the 1940 census, at 19, he was living with his widowed mother and his siblings. He served in the Army in World War II and died on 24 February 1995. He is buried at St. John Cemetery, Section 42, Row N, Grave 192 (Confirmed, Find a Grave).

Helen died on 26 January 2000 and is buried with her parents at Green-Wood Cemetery, Section 57, Lot 38063. She is listed as Helen Awn Zaloom in the Social Security death index and in her New York Times notice of 27 January 2000, which names her children and 13 grandchildren and says the service was at Fourth Avenue Presbyterian Church (Confirmed).

Helen lived to see a great deal of change and loss. She outlived Anthony by almost thirty-four years, her eldest son Joseph by eleven, and her second husband Gilbert by five. Her sister Evelyn died less than two years after her, in December 2001, and the notice for Evelyn names Virginia as still living. At her death Helen was survived by four daughters, 13 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren (Confirmed, NYT notice).

Five children

Anthony and Helen had five children: Joseph, Jacqueline, Stephanie, Kathleen and Marie. Their families are in the descendant tree below.

Joseph Anthony Awn, the eldest, was born on 14 November 1941, about a year after his parents' wedding (Confirmed, Anthony's petition). He was 8 in the 1950 census. He served in the Marines in 1963 and 1964 and married Virginia Marie Milkie at Our Lady of Lebanon on 11 June 1967 (Confirmed, Home Reporter, 16 June 1967). He died on 18 January 1989, at 47, and is buried in the same row as his father, in Grave 002A next to his father's 001A (Confirmed, memorial card and Find a Grave).

The four daughters were Jacqueline, Kathleen, Stephanie and Marie. Jackie's engagement to Richard Merhige was announced in the Home Reporter in 1964, Stephanie married Allen Collins in 1976 (Probable, marriage index), and Marie married Patrick Gunner on 18 June 1983 in Brooklyn. Kathleen married Nico Zappia.

Anthony's death

Anthony died in July 1966, at 52. The family says 6 July, and an index entry for the Daily News of 8 July 1966 fits that (Probable). The index names his wife Helen, his children Jacqueline (Merhige), Stephanie and Joseph, and his brothers and sisters Mathilda Gorayeb, Theresa Koury, John and Mitchell Awn. The index is machine-read and we have not yet seen the clipping, so the fuller list of children may be on the page itself. The family says he was buried on 9 July. He lies at St. John's Cemetery in Queens, Section 3, Row C, Grave 001A (Confirmed, Find a Grave), in the same row as his brothers John, Mitchell and Elias. His son's wedding notice the following June calls him the late Anthony Awn. We are still reading the clipping itself (Daily News, library visit pending).

Jackie's husband's family: the Merhiges

When Jackie became engaged to Richard Merhige in 1964, two families from the old country met in Brooklyn. The Merhiges were not related to the Awns by blood; they joined the story through Jackie's marriage. Their records are pictured in the gallery (items 90 to 93).

Richard's grandfather, Amin Merhige, was born in Syria about 1870 and landed in New York in October 1893. By 1905 he was an importer living at 421 43rd Street with his wife Helen (born about 1882, married 1 March 1901) and their small son Habib (Confirmed, 1905 census, spelling used: Merhige). Amin later became a silk manufacturer, moved the family to 8314 11th Avenue, and died on 14 June 1941 (Confirmed, death index). Family: the family says the Merhiges built the house, and the records have the household there by April 1923.

In April 1923 Helen applied for a passport to travel to France, Egypt and Syria on the Britannia, with Habib swearing he had known his mother twenty years (Confirmed, item 91). That July Habib married Georgette Halaby at Tripoli, and the couple entered the United States at Rouses Point, New York, on 11 September 1923 (Confirmed, item 92). The trip fits a journey to arrange the wedding, but no record says so (Probable). Georgette became a citizen on 31 May 1932. She and Habib lost two infants, a girl in September 1930 and a boy in March 1932 (Confirmed, death index). In April 1940 the household at 8314 11th Avenue held Habib, a silk broker, Georgette, their children Richard and Carol, and Amin and Helen (Confirmed, item 93). Richard is the Richard who married Jackie (Probable, strong). Habib died before 1964, and Georgette appears in Jackie's engagement notice as Mrs. Georgette Merhige Couri.

An open question connects the two sides. A ship card from January 1898 shows a ten-year-old "Wassilah Hadad" going to a cousin named Amin on Washington Street, and our notes tie that Amin to Amin Merhige. If that card is Wassela, Anton's wife, then Jackie and Richard would be distant cousins. But the 1910 census says Wassela's family had been in Brooklyn since 1892, so the card is Probably a different girl, and no record links the Hodods to the Merhiges (Possible, unproven). The card names Tripoli, where the Merhiges came from, while Wassela's marriage certificate says Zahleh.

The Descendants of Anthony and Helen

This is the family as it stands today, shown as names only. Family-reported unless a record is named.

Note: there are two Stephanies, Aunt Stephanie Collins and her niece Stephanie Konat. Marriage records for Joseph and Virginia, Jackie and Richard, Marie and Patrick, and Kathy and Nico are still to be looked up.

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