Margo W. Arroyo (Karabilikian-Encababian)

Ipranosian family - Amasia 1902

My father, Hagop Karabilikian/Karabelikian, and his 3 older sisters were from Amasya. Their father Avedis Karabilikian and mother Karabilikian/Karabelikian (née Bakdamurian) perished in the genocide. My grandfather Avedis was a textile merchant on the Silk Road. My father arrived in the USA in 1920, under his sister’s (Varteni) married name Yazmajian/ Yazmadjian and later changed his name to Arthur James White.
Can anyone remember or did anyone know anything of my paternal family? This tragic event left so many victims; Victims who lost their sense of identity and belonging; voids and gaps in the continuity of the past; no past to be known. In its entirety it left many difficulties in building new foundations and moving on. “Stuck in the mud forever”. If you are aware of this name, even a thread, please write me.

The father’s name was not Bedros but was Avedis Karabilikian. Please, if anyone has information on the Karabilikian family from Amasya, I eagerly await your reply. Thank you.

Added info: **My father, Hagop Sarkis Karabilikian (Arthur James White), was born 1913 in Amasya; his mother Maryam (née Bekdemirian) also came from wealthy Amasya textile merchants. My father’s father Avedis and Avedis’s brother Hagop were affluent silk cocoon breeders and textile merchants who were also the Directors of Ipranosian’s Amasya commercial branch.

Arlene Shegerian

Your father’s family was a well-to-do family in Amasya (as you can imagine they were since you know that your grandfather was a textile merchant on the Silk Road). I believe that your father’s family owned a department store or what the equivalent was at that time. Your grandparents were so wealthy that they had a music box under the staircase of their home. Your grandparents wanted a son very much so they went to Jerusalem to pray for a son. And of course the rest is history. They had their son, your father, after three daughters. I think that your father was born in 1915. This is all I know about your paternal grandparents and children and of course I learned this from my mother.

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