This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Yonan, Amoo, Enweeya, Desho Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/ZW.2ADI/2110 Message Board Post: Greetings, I know that there is a large Assyrian community in Turlock, CA. I hope someone might be able to help me get started with Assyrian genealogical research. My husband's surname is YONAN and he is Assyrian-American. His parents were both Assyrians and emigrated to the United States in the early 1900s from Urmia, Persia. They moved to Chicago first and were married there. In the 1920s they moved to Knox, Indiana and in 1947 they moved back to Chicago. My father-in-law's name was given as Bachus AMOO on the ship's passenger list but was changed to Benjamin Yonan at Ellis Island. He emigrated alone as a teenager to make money to send back home so his family could also emigrate. However his village was attacked and the residents massacred by the soldiers of the Ottoman Empire that ruled that area before his family could escape. As far as we know my father-in-law's family members were all killed. ENWEEYA is the only surname I'm familiar with of a relative of my father-in-law's from the Middle East. He lived in Chicago in the early and mid 1900s and emigrated from the Middle East in the early 1900s. My mother-in-law's maiden name was DESHO. Can anyone give me suggestions on how to go about Assyrian genealogical research in the Middle East and particularly the Assyrian villages of old Persia? Thank you for any information you might have that would help us trace my husband's roots. Mary Allison Yonan Decatur, IL yonan@fgi.net