Emma Solomon and Petropolis, Brazil

This border crossing document (right) from October 1931 reveals a lot of information about Amos Toney's wife Emma (our great situ or tita). Though this form lists the reason for her crossing into Canada as a "visit" it also shows that she was rejected at the border (and was carrying only $15). It may be that since she is listed as a citizen of Brazil, she was just at the border to renew her visa as is common in some countries today (more research needed). Some other interesting information on this form is that she lists Betropolie as her birth place. This is almost certainly the record keepers misunderstanding of her saying Petropolis which would sound like Betropolie with her Brazilian and Syrian accent. There is no Betropolie in Brazil but we know that all of the oldest Solomon children of Assif were born in the state of Rio de Janeiro. Petropolis is a small city in the mountains outside of the metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro and in the state of Rio de Janeiro (it's like New York, NY). Petropolis was the original capital of Brazil in its earliest colonial days and known as The Imperial City. It was originally settled by Germans (see the cathedral below) but had a significant Lebanese population, as well as other immigrant communities, that contributed to its early development.

If I can ever make it back to Brazil maybe I will be able to visit Petropolis and try to find more information about the Solomon's and Emma Solomon. Since this was the first place they went from Mt. Lebanon maybe there is more information about their family back in Lebanon or family that are still in Brazil. Here are some quick facts about the Lebanese in Brazil from a Lebanese Diaspora site (www.linkinglebanon.com):

"There are a total of nine million Lebanese in Brazil, which represents 6% of the whole population. Many Brazilian-sounding surnames such as Ferreira, Salles, Souza, Lage or Pedreira are, in fact, of Lebanese origin. There were three waves of immigration to Brazil, in the mid-1800s, between the world wars, and again post-war. Of elected politicians, 10% are of Lebanese origin; Brian Peter Medawar won the Nobel Laureate in Medicine in 1960 for the discovery of acquired immunological tolerance and Ziad Fazah, reportedly the worlds greatest polyglot, speaks 55 languages."

Is Toney really our last name?

We've all been asked at one time or another what kind of a Lebanese name Toney is, right? Well, my dad (Robert Nathan Toney) sometimes would say out of frustration that our last name is really George, or at least that's what his father (Nathan Amos Toney) would tell him. So how did it become Toney? Well, as the great article written by Amy Rowe shows (a link to the article is on the documents page above) many Lebanese (or Syrian, really Arabic) names were changed out of confusion when our ancestors emigrated to the United States. But the names weren't changed at Ellis Island or some other port of entry (though that did happen) more often they were changed by accident later when applying for identification, answering questions for census workers, or on medical records. 

As we all know, it is our tradition to name our sons by giving them their fathers name as their middle name (thus I am Joshua Robert Toney son of Robert and my father is Robert Nathan Toney son of Nathan, etc.). Since our ancestors did not speak much English when they arrived they would often be cut off when giving their full name and the record keeper would just write down the first two names. This is likely what happened to our patriarch Amos Toney. On the form above, you can see that he has given his name as Amos Tony George and listed his father as Tony. This is the earliest record I can find of Amos Toney. On later records he is listed as arriving in the United States in 1904 and the record above is from 1909, just five years later! On all other forms he is listed as Amos Tony or Amos Toney. Is this the right Amos Toney? Well, a few other pieces of information on this form match our Amos Toney such as the birth date and the father-in-law. What is confusing is that we know our Great-grandmother is Emma Solomon but on this record it lists his wife as Annie. Everything else is correct though such as Amos's mother and Annie's father Assif Solomon. It may be that Amos married Annie briefly or for some technical reason such as citizenship however the birth date for Annie does not match the birth date for the Annie that our family has records for. One other interesting fact on this record is that both Amos and Annie list mothers with the same last names. Were their mothers sisters thus making them first cousins? It's certainly possible, that's what happened with Nathan and Deanna, and it is and was quite common among Syrians and Lebanese.

So, from this 1909 record we have some answers regarding the origin or our last name but we now have many more questions about marriages and birth dates. I have found many other odd facts and it would not be surprising at all to find out that Amos either married twice or had two wives. There is also the possibility that the Annie he married died and her name was used on a future daughter of Assif. Stranger things are present in all these records. I'll try to sort it out in a future post. Until then, any tidbits you can recall from family stories can only help us.

Ben and Lillian

I just received some new photos from Amy and Kevin, along with this note, "I thought it would be fun to share a few picture of Ben and Lillian. The first two pictures were taken in the hospital last August 2010 the day after Lillian Mary was born. The third is of my dad and Lillian when he came to visit in September 2010. The fourth is from Christmas 2010 and the last three I took this summer 2011". Thanks Amy! Looking forward to the photos from Lillian's first birthday party!

Christmas on Marlboro Avenue 1996

I didn't really bring that much with me when I moved to Hawaii but I did bring some of my favorite photos. This one is from Christmas 1996 (I'm pretty sure). It doesn't have everyone in it, but almost. I always liked that Uncle Raymond's high school photo can be seen on the wall just above Amy's head and of course Amu in the center with his hands up...I can almost hear him, "...weeell if it isn't the Toney family photo...".  I always loved Christmas in Brattleboro. There was always the anticipation of everyone showing up at our house (eventually), maybe a dabke, maybe Uncle Bob singing Frank Sinatra, but almost always the old home movies (on Super 8 reel-to-reel film!). Maybe Amu would drink too much and pass out, maybe Aunt Marie and Aunt Theresa would get into a fight (okay, that just happened once), maybe the kids would disappear up into their bedrooms, and in the early days even Tony John would show up (where is he now?). Sarah and I had it easy, everyone came to our house. For everyone else, the Beebe's, the Burgoyne's, the Murray's, and all the other Toney's, it was usually the final stop of the night. It kind of faded off in the early 2000's and by the time my parents moved to North Carolina there really wasn't a Christmas party on Marlboro Avenue any more. For the years that it did happen though it was a source of all kinds of great memories. What are your memories of these Christmas reunions?

Mount Lebanon, Syria to Providence, Rhode Island: 1904-1920

Amos Toney was born in Blouza, Mt. Lebanon, Syria on April 12, 1886 and died November 21, 1949 in Brattleboro, Vermont, according to his death certificate. He arrived in the United States in 1904 at the age of 18 and by the time of the 1920 census (left figure, lines 30-34) he was married to Emma (Solomon) Toney and had two sons, Nathan and Antone (aka Thomas, Fishy, or Amu). Listed on line 34 is a sister "Roseacino Joseph" who was born in Massachusetts in 1910. I am still trying to figure out who she is and what her real name is since I can't really read the handwriting. The last name Joseph does come up in North Adams, MA and we do have some relatives there; still working on this one. In any case, Amos is listed as a clothing proprietor on this census and continues with this profession throughout his life. His wife Emma Solomon was one of the many Solomon sisters from Providence who had one brother; Anthony Assaf Solomon (aka Tony Solomon, Gail Murray's grandfather). I'll have more on Emma and the Solomons in another post. The address listed for the Amos Toney family (along the side of the form) is 24 Wickenden Street. This was in the Fox Point district of Providence down by the bay. This area was mostly demolished in the 1950's to make way for new interstate highways but it's history has been widely researched. You can also see that another family lived at this address with the last name Rufful. I asked my dad about the Rufful's and he seems to remember stories of them being family friends but also from Syria.

Wickenden Street was the main street of the Fox Point area and was home to most of the businesses in the neighborhood including the one owned by Amos. There were many immigrants living there in the 1920's and 1930's, many Syrians, but mostly Portuguese from Portugal (the Azores specifically). The photo below is of the corner of Wickenden and Benefit street around 126 Wickenden Street.

I have not found any old maps with low numbers such as 24 Wickenden on them and it may actually be that the Toney's lived at 124 Wickenden (and there is later evidence that they lived near or on Benefit Street). Although the photo has a car in it they were pretty rare at the time and it would have been more normal to see a horse drawn carriage headed down the urban dirt roads. I'll try to write more about the Fox Point neighborhood and Wickenden Street in a future post.

Welcome to the family blog!

Welcome to the new family blog! I'm starting this blog with a picture of Blouza because it's hard to believe sometimes that Blouza is a real place and not some mythical homeland. I've been thinking about this a lot lately as I peruse the archives looking for clues about our shared patrilineal ancestry. Where is our family from? Looking through census records and other historical documents reveals many inconsistencies in our family records but the one fact that is always consistent is where they came from. On every record the place of origin is Blouza, Mt. Lebanon, Syria. This is both a reminder of where our family is from and why they left. The early 20th century was a tumultuous time in the Middle East (was it ever peaceful there?) and the Persian War of the first part of that century involved many from Syria. Almost 50 years later Mt. Lebanon gained independence from Syria and later France to become Lebanon. These events may be part of the reason our family left and that portion of our history will require some much deeper digging. When they left though, they started a new history for our family, and that one is found in the census records, obituaries, marriage records, and other public and private documents that can be found and searched for in archives all over the United States. I started this blog so we can all experience the rediscovery of that history together.

I wanted to start this partly out of frustration for the lack of records and stories that have been handed down to us, partly out of joy for the history and records I am finding, and partly (and this is a BIG part) for the fact that I haven't been to a reunion or hung out with my cousins in almost 10 years. I miss you guys! So, lets start sharing. Write a story, post a picture, share a thought, or just say hello. If you aren't comfortable with the Blogger set up just send me an email with your photo and text and I'll take care of it. There are links on the side menu for the Picasa photo album which will hold any photos that are posted to the blog as well as any that are added to it from Picasa and everyone should have access to that album with their gmail account. At the moment there is just one big photo album so try to tag your photos or use the date in the file name (I suggest using the Picasa desktop application if you aren't already). I will try to get it set up so we can have different albums if it gets too unwieldy and confusing.

If you don't want to check the blog regularly you can sign up to get an email when someone posts something. There is also a link on the right to a Google Documents spread sheet that will eventually have everyone's contact info; again we can all edit this so just add or correct as much info as possible. Well, I guess that's enough for this first post. I hope everyone will take advantage of the blog when they can and that in some small way it will make us all closer.