Surname/tag: Khweis
This is an academic research project with the aim of discovering the origins and history of the Khweis family in Palestine, the Greater Levant & worldwide.
Below is a message from Ibrahim, the son of Kamal Said Dawud (Khweis) to the Khweis family and other friends & relatives living in the village of A-Tur and around the world.
Greetings.
When my beloved father Kamal Said passed away in 2008, he left behind a room full of old documents, photos, and the personal belongings of himself, his brothers and sister, his parents, his grandparents and his great grandparents. Most of the contents were unimportant business and accounting files. In between though, I found very interesting personal documents containing historical information about their lives. I realised that if I did not scan and preserve these fragile documents, the information contained within them would be lost forever.
During conversations with younger people from the village, I was astonished at how little was known about people and events from only 20 years ago. It occurred to me that, as our older loved ones pass away, we are gradually losing information about our past. There is a wealth of memories, data, photos, and other information in each of our homes that is slowly getting thrown away, lost, water damaged, and just simply ageing.
Simply put, I think it would be a tragedy to lose this history. Therefore, I decided to start a small project to document, record and store as much data as possible and make this information public on the Internet for anyone interested to see. I created a digital family tree with genealogical research, notes, biographies, and photos.
As an example, this is a snapshot of my own family tree which is still a work in progress. https://www.wikitree.com/genealogy/Dawud-Family-Tree-1 on WikiTree (@WikiTreeOfficial).
The tree is published on the Internet in English on wikitree.com which is an interactive, free-to-use genealogy website.
I would love to improve and expand the Khweis branch of my tree but, without the help of my late father and other elders, I have run out of accurate information. I heard that a Khweis family tree already exists but I have personally never seen a completed version which would help fill in many missing gaps.
I want to point out though that my project is more than just about building a family tree. It is about the telling of a rich story of each and every ancestor. It is about honouring and respecting their lives. It is about discovering who they really were, what they did in their lives, where they travelled, and who they loved. This project is about our history and our origin. I want to bring our beloved ancestors from out of the darkness and into the full light of history.
So what do I want from you? I am looking for any verifiable information on our ancestors including memories, stories heard when you were young, biographies, old photos, old documents and any other information such as dates of birth, dates of death, places of birth & death, passports, certificates, letters, diaries, wives / maternal lineages, archives, jobs, genetic testing or anything else of historical significance.
I am particularly interested in old photos that ideally show each ancestor in the prime of their life. Actually, any photo is appreciated. Please try your best to provide a good quality scan of the photos and documents before sending them. Also, please try your best to carefully verify that the person in the photo is actually the person in question. If you do not have a good scanner, I am happy to scan & return the original documents.
My focus at the moment is on the Khweis family but all the families of A-Tur & beyond are welcome to participate. As you already know, we are all connected through friendship and all related to each other through blood.
If you are interested in this topic and think you might have something of value to contribute, please feel free to contact me. Maybe we can even start a small chat group to exchange information. Let me know who you are and how we might be related. If you send me your email address, I can invite you to join the wikitree website.
Finally, as many of you know, I don't read or write Arabic. The project is currently in English and my lovely wife Sawsan is helping me with translations. So please be patient with me. Also, I am working on this in my spare time so it will likely progress very slowly and will take years to complete.
Help me leave behind an electronic record of our family history for future generations that will hopefully still exist on the Internet when we are long gone. Thank you
Right now this project just has one member, me. I am Ibrahim Dawud.
Here are some of the tasks that I think need to be done. I'll be working on them, and could use your help.
Will you join me? Please post a comment here on this page, in G2G using the project tag, or send me a private message. Thanks!
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