Coralian family
Ottoman Expatriation (terk-i tabiiyet)
Dr. Zeynep Devrim Gürsel, an Anthropology professor at Rutgers University, has prepared a database based on documents in the Ottoman Archives in Istanbul of individuals who left through the expatriation process (terk-i tabiiyet) from 1896-1908. Ottoman Armenians were allowed to emigrate on the condition of expatriating (no longer being Ottoman subjects) and never returning to the empire. Each individual or family had to be photographed in order to expatriate. Dr. Gürsel has spent many years researching the terk-i tabiiyet process, attempting to identify descendants of those in the photographs held by the archive and sharing photographs, when possible, with the descendant families. She plans to make the entire database open access. She is currently completing the first book on the topic.
For an overview lecture on the terk-i tabiiyet process see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRmV6fj9KXA or you can listen to a podcast here: https://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2021/06/gursel.html
She reached out to the Armenian Immigration Project to share her findings so that anyone searching for an individual on the Armenian Immigration Project website can see whether or not that individual went through the terk-i tabiiyet process. If they did, you can see what year they expatriated. If you reach out to Dr. Gürsel with the terk-i tabiiyet ID code listed next to the year, she can tell you whether a photograph associated with this individual has been found or not. She encourages descendants to contact her at z.gursel@rutgers.edu.
Dr. Gürsel regularly posts publications on the terk-i tabiiyet process to her faculty homepage where you can download recent articles. She encourages anyone who might have photographs of Armenian families believed to be taken in the Ottoman empire between 1890-1910 with Ottoman script on the back to reach out to her.
The photos, many of family groups, also contain information about family members written on the back. In some cases, these may be the earliest photos taken of these families. Here are some examples.
Coralian family
Shekoyan family
Simonian family
Here is this Simonian family's ship manifest documenting them sailing from Patras, Greece to New York (Ellis Island) and arriving 28 September 1906.
An abstract of this ship manifest can be found in the Armenian Immigration Project database, along with links to other records for the members of this family: