The Earliest Recorded Evidence of Nicolas Yacoub Berouti’s Presence in Jaffa

The first and second versions of the Berouti family tree, completed in 1994 and 2001, listed Nicolas Yacoub’s two eldest sons, Michel (b. 1861) and Gabriel (b. 1864), as born in Beirut, while the younger sons, Negib (b. 1868) and Emile (b. 1871), were recorded as born in Jaffa. It was therefore assumed that Nicolas Yacoub and his wife, Marie Regina Farajallah, likely arrived in Jaffa in the mid to late 1860s. (This was before the discovery of two older children of the couple: Joseph, born in 1857 and deceased in 1879, and Marie, born in 1859 and deceased in 1860.)

Newly examined records from Saint Anthony’s Latin Church prompted a revision of this earlier understanding. The archives revealed that all six known children of Nicolas Yacoub were, in fact, born in Jaffa, as shown by their baptism records. Since Joseph was the eldest child, born in 1857, this confirms that Nicolas and his wife, Marie Regina, must have been living in Jaffa by that year at the latest.

Further evidence has since allowed us to push that date back by nearly a decade. The earliest known record of Nicolas Yacoub’s presence in Jaffa now dates to 1848, when, according to the archives of Saint Anthony’s Latin Church, he served as godfather at the baptism of his niece, Susana (daughter of Antoine Yacoub Berouti).

Baptism record of Susana Yacoub, daughter of Antoine Yacoub and niece of Nicolas Yacoub, 22 October 1848. The family is identified as Armenian Catholic, and Nicolas Yacoub is noted as the father’s brother.

Interestingly, the year 1848 predates Nicolas’s marriage to Marie Regina by several years (which likely took place around 1852).

My sincere thanks go to the Geday family for this significant discovery.