A Family Wedding

Continuing to edit over 60 reels of 8mm film to post to the YouTube Channel linked on the video page to the left. Here is 5 minutes of footage from a 1970 wedding in Providence, Rhode Island with glimpses of many, many cousins. Enjoy.

Blouza Reunion 2016 in Rhode Island!

Saturday July 30th
(afternoon)
informal picnic at
Rose Larisa Park
(Crescent Carousel)
East Providence, RI

Saturday July 30th
(evening)
hafle at the Continental Restaurant
(Lebanese-owned)
Smithfield, RI

Sunday July 31st
informal gathering at
Sachuest Beach (Second Beach)
Newport, RI




Hafle will cost $50.00 for adults and $18.00 for kids and includes dinner and live Lebanese music performed by  oud virtuoso Mitchell Kaltsunis and his band.

Important details:

HOTEL - A limited number of rooms are reserved at the Hampton Inn, Smithfield, RI
You must call the hotel by JUNE 29th 1-800-HAMPTON and ask for Blouza Family Reunion

HAFLE - THE RESTAURANT NEEDS TO KNOW HOW MANY WILL ATTEND YOU MUST RSVP FOR THE HAFLE BY JULY 15th AND FOLLOW UP WITH PAYMENT ON-SITE WE WILL BE CHARGED FOR NO-SHOWS

PLEASE RSVP Gail Murray at

gcmerhi811@gmail.com or 802-380-8204

See you in Rhode Island!

Reunion 2015 Photo Album

Here are a few photos from the 2015 reunion and hafle (click here). If you have photos from 2015 that you would like to add to this album please contact me through a comment below. We also have a private Facebook page that you can join to keep in touch with cousins and get other updates about the reunion and other family news.

Reunion 2014 Photo Album, Updates, and More!

Well, last year it only took me one month to post the reunion photos and this year it took me six months, something in my life must have changed! But at long last, here are last years photos in all their Lebanese glory! Just click here to go directly to the album. I've also made a few updates to the site. The links to different pages of the site are now listed in the column on the left and I've separated the reunion photos and the expanding collection of historic photos into separate pages. I'm still adding to both pages as I receive and find more photos. Last year, I reorganized the reunion photos page and placed empty albums for years that are lacking photos. If you have any photos from those years, or more recent years, that you would like to add to the albums please email them to me in any format. As you can see there are many years without photos and we know they are out there hiding in your computer or an old shoe box! We are planning for the 2015 reunion and since everyone enjoyed last years picnic and we were able to raise a small amount of money it looks like we will have a similar reunion. If we can do that again in 2015 we may be able to have something a little more elaborate in 2016 as we approach 35 years of reunions! Finally, I have been planning a special Memorial Day post to commemorate all of our deceased family members who served in the military.  Please share with me any photos or stories you have and I will do my best to weave them into the next story.  If I don't hear from you soon expect a phone call!

A new life in the United States of America: Deanna Toney

Assif Solomon, Caribou, Maine ca. 1907.

On August 29^th 1920 Deanna Simmon was born to a Maronite Christian family in Blouza, Mount Lebanon, within what was then known as the Kingdom of Syria.  The Kingdom of Syria was a small portion of the former Ottoman Empire controlled by the British and French through the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement.  The Kingdom was made up of small provinces (including Beirut, Mount Lebanon, and others to the north) divided by the dominate religions in those provinces (Muslim, Maronite, Greek Orthodox).

Unhappy with the secret European arrangement, a small group of northern Syrians led by Faisal bin Hussein (later the leader of Iraq) started a revolt in early 1920 known as the Franco-Syrian War.  The war only lasted five months and resulted in a loss for the Syrian revolt. France eventually established Greater Lebanon (which included Beirut and other coastal areas as well as Mount Lebanon) as a separate protectorate from Syria and a safe haven for Maronite Christians.

Unfortunately, before the short revolt was over it reached  outside of northern Syria resulting in a famine that killed over 100,000 people in Greater Lebanon where Deanna lived with her mother Zahia and her father Naseem.  Zahia was one of nine children born to Assif and Mary Solomon.  Assif, Mary, and eight of their daughters left Lebanon before World War I erupted and moved to Petropolis, Brazil.  For reasons unknown they left Zahia behind in Lebanon where she married Nasseem Simmon and gave birth to Deanna.

Blouza Village ca. 1939 (Photo by Nathan Toney)

Zahia’s family eventually left Brazil and made their way to the United States, arriving first in Caribou, Maine around 1907.  Perhaps along the journey or when she arrived in Maine, Zahia’s sister Emma met Amos Toney (who may have been moving from Argentina) and the two eventually married.  They stayed in Caribou long enough for their first son Nathan to be born there in 1910.

Amos, Emma, their son, and all of the Solomon family eventually moved to Providence, Rhode Island.  After a short time in Providence, Amos moved his family, which now included their son Thomas, to Brattleboro, Vermont in 1920.  Like almost all Lebanese who had come to America in the preceding 30 years, he was a peddler and moved to Vermont hoping to exploit a new market.

Although the unrest from World War I never really subsided in Syria or Greater Lebanon, in 1926 the French government formed the Lebanese Republic with its own constitution, a new flag, and relative peace that ensued for more than a decade.  But across the Mediterranean Sea there was unrest in Europe as Adolf Hitler became the leader of the German National Socialist party, better known as the Nazi party.  They slowly gained power and in 1933 Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany. 

September 1, 1939 New York Times

By the Spring of 1939 Germany was invading its neighbors and a European war seemed certain.  The European powers knew that if war erupted in Europe it would ripple into the fragile peace maintained in their Middle Eastern colonies, including Syria and Lebanon.  Despite the spreading violence in Europe, Emma Toney sent her son Nathan, now just 29 years old, back to Lebanon to marry her sister’s daughter and bring her back to America.  Nathan boarded a cruise ship and traveled from New York, through Italy, and arrived in Lebanon where he met the 19 year old Deanna Simmon for the first time in the Spring of 1939.

Later that year, on the first day of September Nazi Germany invaded Poland.  All of the surrounding countries, shocked as they were, remained neutral, including Italy.  Only two days later the S.S. Athenia, a British cruise ship headed to Canada was torpedoed by a German submarine just north of Ireland.  The attack killed all 112 passengers and crew and was the start of the Battle of the Atlantic and World War II.

The Conte di Savoia as seen from her sister ship the Rex, crossing the Atlantic in 1937
(internet source, photographer unknown).

Thomas Toney, Army portrait, 1943.

Nathan and Deanna were married in Lebanon and by the time they boarded a cruise ship in Beirut bound for Naples, Italy on February 1, 1940, Deanna was almost 8 months pregnant.  Just ten days before they left Lebanon, on January 20^th, 1940, another German submarine sank a Greek cruise ship off the coast of Portugal.  Italy had still not entered the war but its coasts were lined with busy ports.  One of those ports was in Naples.  On February 21, 1940 Deanna and Nathan finally boarded the S.S. Conte di Savoia in Naples, Italy bound for New York.  The Conte di Savoia was built in 1932 and was a famous steam ship known for its “smooth crossings” through the Atlantic Ocean.

Dibe, as Deanna was known to her family, and Nathan, finally arrived in the United States of America on February 29, 1940.  Only 12 days later Deanna gave birth to her first son, Raymond, safely back in Brattleboro, Vermont.  As fighting escalated back in Europe, Naples became the most bombed city in Italy during World War II and the Conte di Savoia was sunk by German troops in 1943.  That same year Nathans brother Thomas joined the United States Army. Several members of Assif Solomon's family would eventually join the United States armed forces throughout the 20th century.  Nathan and Deanna had two more sons during the war, Kenneth and Robert, and continued to live with Nathans parents in Brattleboro, eventually adding a daughter to their family, Theresa, in 1955.

Top row, left to right, Nathan (36), Deanna (25), Amos (60), bottom row, left to right, Raymond (6), Emma (51), Robert (6 months) and Kenneth (3).  Photo taken in April 1946 on Canal Street, Brattleboro, Vermont.

1940 passenger list for the S.S. Conte di Savoia with (Deanna) Dibe Toney listed as an "alien passenger".

1940 passenger list for the S.S. Conte di Savoia with (Nathan) Anthony Toney listed as a "citizen passenger".

Reunion 2013 Photo Album

I've finally added a photo album for the 2013 Reunion, just click on the Photo Albums link above and scroll down to the new album. I reorganized the Photo Albums page and placed empty albums for years that are lacking photos. If you have any photos from those years, or especially from this year, that you would like to add to the albums please send them to me. As you can see there are many years without photos and we know they are out there hiding in your computer or an old shoe box! You can look forward to a newsletter in the fall with a wrap-up of the 2013 reunion, the tentative plans for the 2014 reunion, and other exciting news about the progress of the family archive and history project.

Blouza Reunion & Hafle: Update #3

The only known recording of Tony Solomon playing the Oud is now on a CD and will be among the prizes when you enter the raffle this year at the reunion. Remember, all the money raised by the raffle goes directly towards paying for the the Hafle. We also have 10-x-20 framed photos of last years group photo that we will be giving away to raffle winners. If you are still on the fence about coming to the reunion, the time has come to make the logical decision and start packing your bags for a fun weekend with your cousins in the mountains of Vermont! Bring your dancing shoes and your swimsuit (and don't forget your old photos for the heritage session on Saturday morning).  See you in 10 days!