Nasri Talamas and I took a Google Street “walk” through his old neighborhood of Jabal Araktingi (as it was called at the time). Nasri identified the families who lived in some of the houses and who were his neighbors before 1948.

A few months ago, I found a document on eBay that represented old shares in a company in Jaffa. It had the signature of Emile Berouti in both Arabic and English. I therefore decided to buy it. Over time and by chance, I learned a bit more about the company it represented.

Edouard Negib Berouti, Barrister-at-Law, tirelessly fought before the United Nations on behalf of Jaffa’s refugees, advocating for their right to return to their homes and recover their frozen assets.

Elias Gelat and Catherine Berouti’s house in Talbiyeh, West Jerusalem, was one of the most iconic houses in this upscale neighborhood. It still stands today as a testament to the expulsion and theft of an entire nation.

We know the tombs locations of some of our ancestors in Jaffa. Unfortunately, many others’ resting locations are still unknown.

This is a beautiful photograph, but, is this in fact the Berouti family?

When my cousin on my grandmother’s Zamaria side shared this letter with me, my first thought was that it should belong in a Nakba museum.

A few months ago, all I knew about my great-grandfather, Michel Berouti, was what my mom often told me—that he was “a successful orange grower and exporter in Jaffa.” At the time, he represented a somewhat distant ancestor that I hadn’t felt especially curious about. But after spending the last few months diving into historical archives, I uncovered a trove of information about his personal, business, and political life. It allowed me to begin piecing together a profile of who he was—and yet, I know I’m still only scratching the surface.

Emile Nicolas Berouti’s house in Ajami, just steps from the famous green Al-Kamal Pharmacy (owned by the Geday family), still stands today.

Contrary to initial family belief, Nicolas Yacoub Berouti did not come alone to Jaffa from Beirut. His older brother, Antoine Berouti, also made the move around the same time as Nicolas. Archival records indicate that the two brothers, their children and grandchildren, remained close until the Nakba scattered the family into different corners of the world.

While sifting through countless pages from the archival records of Jaffa’s Latin Church, I stumbled upon evidence of Armenian Catholic background.

It started with the desire to update the original family tree that was built by the late Antoine Gelat in 2001, but as more and more pictures and archival documents were assembled or discovered, the project progressively transformed into something bigger.