Will it be difficult for a Turk to start a "Family Tree" , due to the 1923 reforms (Ottoman Era/ T.C.)?

Show all answers

Min Tous Kiklous Terates

I SUPPOSE it is possible to get as much information about ur ancestory..as much as you put in it... i once was curious to see if i can find any traces of my grandfather in AMERICA.during his teenage life he went to america as all where going to the us then for abetter fututre anyway he ended up in UTHA of all places building the railways there..i rember asking the first thing about him and that every thing came bit by bit to mefrom all difrent sources..so with all this in my posseion i began a search in genealogy search engines..at first i typed my family name..and to my supprise i found a preacher in miami who was greek but preached baptisim. intrestign enough though although we had the same family name we where not related but how ever there was apicture of him..and he looked nothing like my familys men...HE did have the same ears as my dad did? wow i thought could there be a genealogy that is lost in time? but that got me thinking i did a lot searching and i even came up with people with my family named who got arrested in that week in the US criminal registry.. AMAZING HOW SEARCHES GO.. but i had no success for a while and left it.. for about 15 months .then i was talking to a cousin of mine who said that all imigrants tot he usa had to get through ELLIS ISLAND .so i went and did a search..and wow..TO MY SUPPRISE THERE IS an ELLIS ISLAND REGISTER..OF WHO LANDED IN ELLIS ISLAND WAY BACK THEN TILL THEY CLOSED ELLIS ISLAND AS AN IMMIGRANT PROCESS UNIT. you wouldn,t belive it but ,but soem one has gone to the trouble of recordign all orinially MANIFIST of ships of the day and thier cargo... including passengers..and there in a search that last a day i found my granfathers name and surname ..when he arrived on what ship how much money he had what proffesion he had .who sponsered him and where was his abode goign to be....WOW i thought.. so i made a copy of the manifest...and did futher reserach and found out that he ended up in utha..building railroads,but he only stayed 5 years and left , he didnt like america at all..so went back to greece.. how ever as i spoken to u before ibrahim about names.. it does get hard to chase ur heritage in greece as proably in turkey as well.i would presume as the changing of the script of the turkish anals..might have seen older anasl in arabic script been discared and hence lossign all evidence of genelogy of a lot of people who made greece thier home..and who @ the time where registerd by the ottaman..authorites,so i suppose the only thing u can really do as i did keep askign questions and gather as much info as u can..and keep on doign research ..one tip i can offer is to ask older people in remote villages they alwsy have an intrestign story to tell..just rember to brign some raki with you..lol good luck my friend,,

Zoi ((Ζωή))

Hi Ibrahim.
I understand you, because I had the same 'worries'.
My honest opinion...

Take a specific test that tells you also where your ancestors lived during the 'historical' years too.

www.igenea.com

https://www.igenea.com/genealogy-dna-certificate-result-ancestry-07.htm

There are maybe better institutions that DON'T inform you about this detail.

I trast their results enough, because they are based on specific mutations of your DNA, when they happened, where they are often etc. So, they define your country of origin.
Just, bear in mind that the results may take into a great surprise.
This is what happened to me for all of my four ancestors.

So, don't be surprised if you see a Germanic ancestry, while you are black haired for example. ;D

Bix

I think it's the contrary. Due to the Family Name Reform of Atatürk from 1934 (not 1923), more Turkish people can follow their ancestries at least back to that date.

The aim of this reform was to eliminate the inequalities in the society and to build a true "Civil Society". This is part of the "Halkçılık" (the English term "populism" is frequently used to describe this doctrine but I'm not quite satisfied with it) doctrine within the 6 "Flashes" of the Kemalist Doctrine. It's about the civil participation of the citizens in the society.

Before that, there was no civil society in Turkey and its predecessor Ottoman Empire like in Western European countries. It was Atatürk who started to build it up.

Genealogy is only possible within a society with families taking part in the civil society. This is actually why some people in Europe have knowledge of their ancestors. The ancestors were "citizens" and not just "subjects", sometimes even earlier than the democratizations of these countries. They had great power, particularly in the cities.

Being a true citizen was very uncommon in Turkey because a civil society was practically inexistent but there are some exceptions. There were some very influential families and such families do still know their ancestors. They had the quality of being citizens before Atatürk's reforms.

The family of Latife Hanım, Atatürk's wife, Uşaklıgil, is such a family. Before the reform of Atatürk, they were known as "Uşşakizadeler". This family of salesmen and politicians had a lot of influence in Izmir and therefore, we have even knowledge about Latife Hanım's grandfather and perhaps we can follow her family tree even further.

Athena D

Ahh Turkey is always a hard case because Kamal got rid of old Arabic style names (ibn, bint, abu, etc.) and put in European ones. But there should be records that allow you to look for your ancestors. It will be somewhat difficult but nothing impossible. Try going to certain administration or library (we use libraries in the US but I come from Lebanon so I know we do things a bit differently).

Bleda The Mad

Yes i think. Years ago a person from my father's village did it. He could find that the villagers came from Bulgaria centuries ago.

But i don't know how far you can go.

amaannnn

u cant find anything if ur family hasnt got any vakıf in ottoman ages.

if your family roots didnt came anatolia from somewhere else like balkans, africa etc. Big probabality u have still same DNA with first anatolian Turks.

if the mosque that in ur village is not converted from church u dont have any greek armenian jewish DNA

if ur village is new then u r propabality balkan origin

if women in ur village dont wear colorfull dresses like in central asian style and dont sing with tiny voice (like old shamans) in special times.
then u r mixed but probabality not greek armenian and jewish %90 with persians in selcjuk times in iran and ur family already was mixed when they came

Anatolia was about 1 million before 1071, after mongol invisation of asia it was about 4 million, all central asian Turks(even ottoman family came in 1200's from uzbekistan) moved here

but most of ppl who came anatolia was from selcjuk ppl thats mean Turko-persian ppl so we use %15 of persian language. Our kitchen is very close, poets and books written in persian(like mevlana) many things more also persians were muslims too so easy marriages.

u can find ur answers only in ur village and in thieir traditions. but if u r from central anatolia then big probabality Turko-persian, from mountians of mediterian and agean then big probabality Turkmen of central anatolia if u dont have village and if u r from one of cities then low posssibility but ur origin may be greek armenian.(of course u have to follow ur villages because ppl move and create new villages)

Suzy

No. Ottoman archives are so detailed. I am a turkish cypriot and even in cyprus I could trace back my family. I even found out where they came from, what was their occupation ...I found out their nicknames too. (so much people in my ancestors with the nickname 'crazy' : )))

readylaura

I think it'd be impossible to find your ancestors if there are no records. Only what you've heard from your grandparents.

gugu

It is difficult to track your ancestors in Turkey but this difficulty has nothing to do with the old alphabet. Read this article of Murat Bardakçı:
http://www.haberturk.com/HTYazi.aspx?ID=394

Sss

IMPOSSIBLE, ever Turk use to only have 1 name (a clear Mongolian feature), so good luck typing Mahmood and seeing what you get, even more hits under Genghis, and why do you want to look up the truth and see a "modern" Turk is descendants of Christian Jannisarie stolen children which were Greek, Armenian, Bulgarian, Albanian, Serbian, Ukrainian, and Russian...makes no sense, this is Kemalist Turksy where we must keep re-inventing who we are to hide the truth, you are a Sultan spy !!!

Enter Your Message or Comment

User Name:
User Email:
Post a comment: