I am trying to trace my roots. I am a first generation American. I
located the ship my father and his family sailed to America on.
However, I can't seem to trace back from there. How can I locate my
father's birth or geneology records from Allepo, Syria and continue to
trace back to my grandfather,his father, and the origin and history of
my sirname, which is Nahas. Most geneology sites deal with America,
Ireland, Europe, etc. I have been unable to find any for Allepo,
Syria.

Dear Tanzee, 


The Nahas family is also present in a genology site dedicated to
Syrian and Lebanese emigrants: An American of Syrian origin, Raymond
Dib, actually hosts a forum of geneology of Syrian families:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~lbnwgw/whoiswho/indexes/pplidxn.htm#Nahas and
http://www.rootsweb.com/~lbnwgw/whoiswho/indexes/famidxn.htm

Roots web also has a list (I cannot attest for its level of activty),
on syrian geneology: "SYRIA. A mailing list for anyone with a
genealogical interest in Syria. To subscribe send "subscribe" to
syria-l-request@rootsweb.com (mail mode) or
syria-d-request@rootsweb.com (digest mode)."

An American of Syrian origin, Raymond Dib, actually hosts at the same
site a forum of geneology of Syrian families:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~syrwgw/ - which seems right now a bit
inactive. However, Mr Dib might have advices for oyu on where to look
further.

Another forum worth querying is Cousin-Connect
(http://www.cousinconnect.com/p/a/168), with an option to place a
message, looking for other relatives or information.

Many advices on how to research on the geneology of Syrian and
Lebanese relatives could be found at Sandra Hasser Bennett's article
"Researching Your Lebanese or Syrian Ancestry" at
http://genealogytoday.com/family/syrian/

There are numerous websites for Jews from Aleppo. You could read more
about geneological research about the town, even if you're not
interested in Jewish lienage at Sarina Roffé's article, "The Jews of
Aleppo" at http://www.jewishgen.org/sefardsig/aleppojews.htm

A search for Nahas family also brought up some sites: 
http://genforum.genealogy.com/brazil/messages/1498.html 
http://genforum.genealogy.com/lebanon/messages/238.html - a thread
with several answers
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec?htx=board&r=an&p=surnames.nahas -
Nahas at Ancestry.com message board

Recommended other sources: 
THE SYRIAN AND LEBANESE TEXANS by The University of Texas; Institute
of Texan Cultures. 1974.
The Syrian Embassy - http://www.syrianembassy.us/ 

Hope this helped. I searched for you under the terms: 
nahas  genealogy 
"aleppo OR haleb OR halab" genealogy 
syria genealogy 
Please contact me if you need any clarification on this answer. I'd be
pleased to clarify my answer before you rate it.

---

Clarification of Answer by politicalguru-ga on 07 Apr 2003 06:08 PDT

Dear Tanzee, 

I have been just updated on the following (thanks to my fellow
Researchers):
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/04/05/online.archive.ap/index.html
"Researchers, genealogists and the plain curious can now use the
Internet to check more than 50 million historical records at the
National Archives, from Civil War battles to family immigration
files."

Good luck planting your family tree!