BY DR. HAROLD TAKOOSHIAN
The descendants of Hagop and Helen Alexander on September 7 held a family reunion with more than 100 attendees. The family filled the pavilion of Our Lady of Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Baltimore, Maryland for a reunion that was historic in a few ways.
First, this was the largest reunion of the Alexander family—with 108 individuals from a dozen states. The reunion was organized by the family’s 90-year-old patriarch Michael “Sonny” Alexander, a retired Command Sergeant Major in the U.S. Army who is also the last of seven children born to Hagop (1889-1960) and Helen (1900-1937). The family celebrated its many contributions to the U.S. military, law enforcement, technology, and other fields, and shared a lavish feast including Armenian delicacies imported from Kirichian Foods in New Jersey.
Second, this reunion was impacted by genetic testing on 23+me, after two young people in 2018—Brittany Bangert in Maryland and Lori Dondiego in New Jersey—discovered an unexpected connection that revealed Hagop’s unknown first marriage in New York City, between 1910 and 1914, with Mary Epremian and their two children Alfred (1911-1992) and Margaret (1913-1987). For unclear reasons, Alfred and Margaret never met their father. Hagop and Mary divorced in 1914, and neither spoke of their first marriage until genetic testing revealed the connection 104 years later.
With great hospitality, the Alexanders welcomed their six “new” family from New Jersey to their reunion for the first time on September 7, and celebrated this new connection. In fact, Sonny’s oldest brother, Alfred, was also a U.S. Army veteran—a decorated soldier in the Battle of the Bulge in 1944. Sonny’s oldest sister Margaret was an expert seamstress, the same life-long career as her father, Hagop. Throughout the reunion, people commented on how closely their “new” family resembled their own members—their faces, mustaches, mannerisms.
Hagop and Helen Alexander settled in Baltimore around 1918 to raise their growing family of seven children. Hagop originally migrated to the U.S. from the “magical” village of Evereg-Fenese in Central Turkey—a historic village that was brutally emptied of Armenians during the genocide of 1915. Remarkably, these villagers had formed the Evereg-Fenese Educational Society back in 1879 to promote education among the village’s children. Even a century after this village disappeared in 1915, this EFES remains a vibrant global association which continues to offer scholarships to its young descendants 145 years later. Until now, the Alexanders have been uninvolved with their Armenian-American community, and unaware of their connection with this historic village.
To learn more about the Alexander family reunion, visit Facebook. To learn more about EFES, visit the Facebook page or the EFES website, or contact Prof. Harold Takooshian at takoosh@aol.com
