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• 1 2021-01-08T21:07:16+00:00 The Immigrant Journey 30 Understanding Jackie and her family's immigration history plain 2022-10-21T18:04:42+00:00 Much of the family history which Jackie shared with Eric and me, was focused on the lives of her maternal Grandfather Chukri Abouchar and Grandmother Adele Abouchar. Chukri Abouchar was the patriarch of the family as he was the member who first moved his family into the United States. Although born in Beirut, Chukri worked extensively for the British in Tanta, Egypt, before moving to Columbia (which had a large Syrian and Lebanese immigrant population) and taking over his brother’s coffee plantation. He began with shipping coffee into the US, before then pivoting and importing dynamite to Columbia and Egypt for the building of the Suez Canal. Once this connection was made, he moved between the US and Columbia before finally settling in Brooklyn with his wife Adele. Jackie’s Grandmother Adele had an interesting life which allowed for a lot of travel between her home in Damascus, Egypt and Columbia. She spent the majority of her childhood in Damascus and was taught in both British and French schools, with each nation having a colonial foothold in Syria at the time. After moving to Columbia, at age sixteen Adele met and married Chukri who was over twenty years her senior, before then moving to the US full time. The below pictures show Chukri during his time in Columbia and the certificate of boat passage from Alexandria to New York.
  The below clip shows Jackie detailing the Abouchar history in the Middle East and their arrival into the United States. The corresponding document is the Abouchar certificate of naturalisation into the United States.  
  
  
  Upon arrival in the United States, the family settled in Henry Street, Downtown Brooklyn. Jackie recounts below that Henry Street had been an upscale neighbourhood for the family in the 1940s before this changed during her childhood. The family then moved to the Sunset Park district (seen below) which contained a close-knit Syrian and Lebanese population, with the community often gathering for large formal events. Such experiences in New York are seen in the below clip where Jackie discusses her family's life in the 1940s.
  
  
  
  Jackie's paternal family history differs from that of her maternal. This is seen in the below where Jackie discusses a silk blight that impacted her family in Syria and influenced their decision to move to the United States and begin work at a silk mill in Patterson New Jersey. The below pictures show the silk mill where Jackie's family worked, the machines that have since been displayed at the museum and the types of Syrian scarves which her Grandfather made. The final clip then provides an anecdotal piece on her father's family in Aleppo, discussing their experiences with the Turkish authorities who sought to invade the space.