What’s this all about?

Twenty-three years ago, in 2001, the late Antoine Elias Gelat—son of Catherine Berouti and Elias Thomas Gelat—undertook the monumental task of building a Berouti family tree. His work traced the descendants of one man: Nicolas Yacoub. Originally from Beirut, Nicolas moved with his wife, Marie Regina Farajallah, to Jaffa in the mid-1800s. “As was customary back then, he was called Nicolas the Beyrouthy, which eventually became Berouti,” Antoine explained in the cover letter accompanying the family tree, which he mailed to all descendants.

In Jaffa, Nicolas and Marie Regina had 5 children: Marie, Michel, Gabriel, Negib, and Emile. Marie, the first-born, died at 14 months, while the four boys grew up, married, and each entered the famous Jaffa orange trade, building lives and families of their own. This story unfolded across four generations, until 1948, when, like the majority of Palestinians, the Beroutis of Jaffa were uprooted and scattered across the middle East during the Nakba.

This project began as an effort to update Antoine’s family tree with new marriages, births, and deaths. However, what started as a straightforward update quickly evolved. A chance discovery of the genealogy website FamilySearch.org and a collection of old photographs and documents shared by many cousins helped uncover fragments of the family’s history. Each new discovery raised more questions, prompting further research and leading to revelations that deepened our understanding of the Berouti family’s past.

The goal of this project is to reconstitute and preserve, to the greatest extent possible, a piece of what was lost—to remember and honor the Beroutis who once called Jaffa home.

The archives of Saint Anthony of Padua Latin Church in Jaffa, accessible online through FamilySearch.org, have provided invaluable insights into the lives of various Berouti family members and their interconnected relationships. These records have also led to surprising discoveries—ones I will share in future posts.