By Amanda Berger
DEARBORN, Mich. — The second annual Armenian Genealogy Conference was held at the University of Michigan—Dearborn on March 18 with related events being held at all the Detroit Armenian community centers throughout the weekend. The conference was sponsored by the Armenian Research Center at the University of Michigan-Dearborn and co-sponsored by the Cultural Society of Armenians from Istanbul, the Nor Keghi Association, and the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research. Over 250 people from 18 different states attended the conference.
The conference began Friday night with an opening reception where 150 people with Armenian ancestry gathered at St. Sarkis Lillian Arakelian Fellowship Hall to connect with each other and to enjoy a traditional Armenian buffet, in which each item was identified by its historic origins. Der Hrant Kevorkian, pastor of St. Sarkis Armenian Apostolic Church, extended a warm welcome to the guests who were seated at tables that mapped the geography of Historic Armenia with each table being designated a particular province. This gave conference attendees the opportunity to connect with others whose ancestors hailed from the same regions of Historic Armenia. Whether Keghetsis, Everegtsis , Adanatsis or Kharpertsis, compatriots made their way for group pictures taken according to regional roots.
The Saturday conference opened with introductory remarks and a welcome by George Aghjayan and Ani Boghikian Kasparian of the organizing committee as well as by Dr. Ara Sanjian, the director of the U of M-Dearborn, Armenian Research Center. The morning sessions touched on genealogy 101 (Tracy Keeney), the hidden Armenians of Turkey (George Aghjayan) and the history of the Palu region (Vahe Tachjian). In the afternoon, participants went into four consecutive break-out sessions on various themes including the Armenian Immigration Project (Mark Arslan), genealogy and social media (Tracy Keeney), DNA testing (Janet Achoukian Andreopoulos), Armenian/Ottoman records (George Aghjayan), success stories (Jen Langley), and sources in Armenian research centers (Ani Boghikian Kasparian). Speakers shared “success stories” of genealogical discovery and encouraged those in attendance to start putting together the puzzle pieces of their own family history.
In her presentation on Saturday morning, Tracy Keeney, creator of the Armenian Genealogy Facebook page, encouraged conference attendees to become more involved in tracing their family lines, whether it is through genealogy websites, newspapers and national archives, or Google, stating, “You never know what you’re going to find and where you’re going to find it.” Keeney emphasized the importance of connecting with living relatives. “You’re not going to find this all on ancenstry.com,” she said, “There’s so much more to genealogy than names and dates.”
Saturday evening, the banquet participants enjoyed the culturally rich program with traditional songs and dances of historic Armenia. Harry Kezelian III, accompanied by Dickran Callan, sang songs from various regions, explaining the occasion of when they used to be sung, while playing the oud. The Hamazkayin Arax Dance group of Detroit, led by Nayiri Karapetian, performed dances from Vasbouragan, Shirag, Kessab, and Sepastia. They invited the guests to join them in an effort to reintroduce some of the original steps.
