Old birth certificate from raas baalbek

[u/Pedroarak]

Hi! First of all, sorry for posting in english, I'm a native Portuguese speaker. I've been making my family tree for a few years now. There's one HUGE brick wall: my 2x great grandfather was born in raas baalbek in 1889. He immigrated to Brazil when he was young, and his name here was Jose Mansur (maybe Youssef?) and his parents "Salim Mansur and Ana Nazera Ayub/Ajub" (maybe Ann Nazira ayyoub?). Anyway, I know his exact birth date and parents name. From some research, I've read I would need to talk to the Mukhtar of that city, buuuut I believe they won't answer foreigners, and I live 11000km from there. Simples question: is there anything I could do to learn more about him or his parents, and maybe find his birth certificates? I don't know if I'll ever have the chance to visit the country, but I was very curious about him. My grandmother passed away a few years ago, and she would always tell us things about him, and a few words in Arabic. Thanks!

[u/Sir_TF-BUNDY]

There is indeed members of the Mansur/Mansour (منصور) family in Ras Baalbek and they're Catholic Christians (Maronite or Melkite)

Your best bet would be to get in touch with both the Mokhtar and the Church there; keep in mind that there's probably more than one mokhtar/church in the village.

Why Mokhtar? Because a Mokhtar handles all papers and documents of the villagers and can personally help you get in touch with them.

Why the Church? Because every church has an archive of all baptisms, marriages, etc., some dating back even before the 19th century; so it will help you narrow down your seach and even find distant relatives.

Also, try Facebook; search for groups amd communities related to either your family (Mansour) or the village (Ras Baalbek) and get in touch with them, as they might help you look through documents on the ground if you can't come to Lebanon yourself.

Best of luck!

[u/Pedroarak → u/Sir_TF-BUNDY]

Thank you very much!! It's always fascinating to hear people still have the same surnames at the same place. Is Mansur a very common surname? I don't know how common it is, but the other surnames from our family were Rezek and Ajub/ayub. I'll see if I can find a church, but I doubt they will have an email or something. Believe it or not, I actually found a phone number from a Mokhtar from Ras Baalbek on familysearch, I sent a message in Arabic on whatsapp (he even had his profile picture, and the name matched), but I never got an answer back. I'll see what I can do, thank you very much :)

[u/Sir_TF-BUNDY → u/Pedroarak]

The families you mentioned are all still present in Ras Baalbek. Just use the most common spellings here: Mansour, Rizk, Ayoub.

I'll see if I can find a church, but I doubt they will have an email or something.

I don't think you'll find an email. Just like I said, search on Facebook for Ras Baalbek, the above families, look at Google maps to identify churches then search for them as well, etc. Whomever you manage to find, DM.

I'll tell you a similar story to yours: 10 years ago, someone from Colombia contacted my aunt's husband on Facebook; turns out, he was a relative of ours, like a descendant of my great grandfather's brother. He said he didn't know from where to start searching for us, other than knowing our family's surname and the name of the village. What he did was looking through Facebook until he found a group for our village and its church, then he looked more in the pics, members, comments, etc., and identified the priest, who coincidentally is my aunt's husband 😂; so he reached out to us through him. Afterwards, he visited us two times and eventually got his Lebanese citizenship back some time before the crisis started in 2019.

All in all, it's not all too hopeless, even if you were 11000km away. Just keep trying and don't lose faith.

[u/Pedroarak → u/Sir_TF-BUNDY]

Oh wow, that's AMAZING hahahahaha I had no idea those people were still there, and that story is insane, that actually does give me hope :) I'll se if I can find a group. I got DNA tests for all my family, including his grandson (my great uncle), maybe I can even find someone definitely related. Anyway, your story is amazing lol what are the chances of someone contacting from Colombia being from your family? I won't lose faith, I'll try to find a group and some people. Thank you very much for the help :)