Update photos from Turkey

Some of my many pictures from the trip. I'll be uploading several galleries over the next few weeks and including some blog posts with them.

Today Turks recognize Ataturk on the 76th anniversary of his death http://www.worldbulletin.net/news/148080/turks-commemorate-ataturk-countrys-founding-father

We left Goreme and our friends at the SOS Cave Hotel and took a bus to Ankara (10/9 I think), we stayed overnight in an apartment near the embassies via airbnb and then went on via high speed train (marvelous, very fast 250 km/hour top speed and brand new) to Eskisehir (10/10) where Musa's brother-in-law Huseyin met us at the terminal. Here is a picture of me and Jaime with Huseyin and Oya my #2 cousin (each cousin ranked by birth order...there's a lot of them, you'll appreciate it later). Huseyin acted as interpreter and Oya and her husband Tuncay (in second picture- he also knew a little English) along with Huseyin took us around the old parts and museums of Eskisehir. Huseyin's wife Nadide also treated us very well with an excellent brunch and met us at the bus station when we sadly had to leave a few days later.

day 2 and 3 in Turkey:Istanbul

Finishing our second full day on Istanbul. Staying on sultananmet neighborhood; a tourist area near all the important sites on the old part of the city. Yesterday toured: the Blue Mosque, the Basilica cisterns, the Hagia Sophia, the oldest church in the world and the Topkapi Palace. Each site a wonder. Here are some pictures with more descriptions to follow.

Add water or determination: instant family

My goodness, okay a lot has happened since the 7th (it is the 10th today) as in we now have a whole new very large family!

We arrived at Goreme in the magnificent area of Cappadocia. I picked completely randomly to stay at SOS Cave Hotel because of great reviews on Tripadvisor and Booking.com and because it looked lovely. Who could know that we would meet Musa Kanlibas who would steadfastly and doggedly work to find our relatives.

Thanks to Musa and Mehmet his nephew we not only were able to learn some things from several 60 year old letters we brought with us from home, but they also learned enough to locate our family! So we went from expecting to spend the next several days in Ankara and Eskisehir poring over census lists and newspaper articles to meeting at least 12-15 cousins and learning more about our father than we ever knew.
Here is how my brother Jaime put it (I added a couple of parts here and there):

"So imagine if you will with me, it's over ten years ago since your mother passes away and you evaluate your life: 2 siblings one married with two kids and the other also married but that's the sum of your family.

Now a few years pass and your nephews are getting older and add two more kids (including the first girl born since Sarah) but that's it. Still simple, easy enough to count on both hands.

Then last week you travel to Turkey [thanks to Lisa Mulcahy and her generosity to start a kickstarter campaign for Sarah to offset the cost of traveling], half way around the world for you. Some of your time is meant for vacation but also for genealogy, just to find some roots. Expecting only to find some names, maybe a grave or an address and somehow you come across very kind and big hearted individual [Musa] in middle of one of the most beautiful parts of the world [Cappadocia or Kapadokya).

You get some information and translation of past letters and photos. Giving us a little hope but not placing much into it. No reason to get too excited might lead to nothing. Next day the flood gates open and more and more information comes.

You head to Eskisehir meet two cousins then 4 then 8 then 12 with more still planning to come the next day. Most incredible and kindest biggest hearted people inviting you to their homes and into their lives. Each and everyone of them incredible, beautiful, full of life and love. You can't help but to fall in love with each of them and cherish them instantly.

Now the small family has become so large and never will be the same. Thank you to all of you."

well said!

Some of our cousins did not even realize they had relatives overseas and we had no idea more than 1-2 relatives were still alive or could be found. Our father, their uncle or cousin disappeared in 1950, leaving his family to go to America. He broke his parents hearts [they did not want to see him go], but was determined to go to America and did not want to serve in the military. He went to school, got a PhD at 24; worked for NACA [NASA] then Philips Petroleum (a few more interesting stories tomorrow), got married and settled down in Bartlesville Oklahoma. He felt he could not return or would be prevented from leaving Turkey again and he did not want to leave his American family. Then he passed away too young (at 42) leaving very few clues. So the saga continues.....

We are at one of the most beautiful and tranquil places

Pigeon Valley, View from the hotel

Jaime celebrating our good luck.

I have ever seen. It's is in an area roughly in central Turkey (Anatolia) called Cappadocia or Kapadokya near the village of Goreme. In addition, we are the luckiest people on earth; the brother and co-owner  of the SOS Cave Hotel where we are staying ( Musa Kanlibas) and his nephew and staff/colleague Mehmet not only entertained us in conversation but also translated several letter we were carrying with us. We learned more in 3 hours than we have learned in decades. We know the names now of our grandfather grandmother uncles and many cousins and nieces and nephews!! Hurrah!

View from the patio at SOS Cave Hotel

In Paris airport; severe aesthetic design; not a lot of soul but efficient. Good food on Air France, including complimentary wine and brandy. Here's Jaim

e in the airport

Both Jaime and I are heading off from our respective airports (Tulsa and Nantucket) to meet up at Logan and jump on an Air France flight tonight. To prepare for the trip I downloaded language apps and a program to learn Turkish on the airplane (a cinch, right?), informed all credit and debit card companies I was not a hacker/thief, notified the embassy under the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program, printed off e visas, arranged about 20 other crazy things (buses places to stay, air bnb, internal flights, tours, etc.). and found an old acquaintance from high school who works in the United Arab Emirates who is visiting Turkey at the same time (and right down the street) to cool off and escape the hot weather.

Brother Alan found some more letters and clues including an uncle's name of Sadik Oktay. He is looking for another letter from our grandmother (büyükanne).

T minus 48 hours for lift off to Istanbul

Here's my blog, I will do my very best to keep it up to date on the trail. Underlined words go to links with pictures.

I have a pile of work to do and a lot of details to tie up before my "baby" brother Jaime and I head off on our adventure to Turkey. Here's a picture of me with both brothers and my lovely sister in-law Stephanie. Jaime is on the end. Alan, my older younger brother, is next to him and the spitting image of my Dad, more about that soon.


This odyssey began approximately a year and a half ago when my dear friend Lisa Mulcahy (she's beautiful, I would insert a picture here, but she is shy) decided to give me a special gift for my 50th birthday. This is what she did for me:

It's one of the kindest things anyone has ever done for me. She launched a crowd-sourcing fundraising campaign which raised $1105.00 toward a trip to Turkey in about 2 months. 16 generous friends and one total stranger donated to get me off Nantucket and on the adventure of a lifetime.

That was enough money to pay for my plane ticket and a hotel here and there in Turkey. Lisa knows me well and knew I might wait forever to go myself without the extra push.

Why am I going? Well, I am half Turkish, my father immigrated from Turkey on a student visa in 1950, coming through New York City. He led a very interesting life, eventually married my mom, had me, a few other kids.... as with many families some of us made it, some didn't. Fortunately I am blessed to have two great brothers. Both of my parents and every blood relative (except for my brother Alan's sons and grandkids) are no longer around, EXCEPT for the half of our family we have never met. They may or may not be extant, and Jaime and I are heading to Turkey to do some reconnaissance and hopefully find them, or find more clues. As far as I know, my Father never saw his family again, there was some mention that if he returned to the country, having severely (like forever) overstayed his visa, that they would not let him leave again. That may be apochyphal.

Here is a picture of my parents, Celal also called Celalettin Mehmet (C.M.) Oktay and Sarah Kathryn Oktay. My brothers are Jaime Adam and Celalan Mehmet Oktay. As the first born, my mom overruled my father and I ended up with the most Americanized name, Sarah Dawn

here are two jpegs of news article about my Dad. He was very optimistic, like I tend to be.

 

I'll load up one more before I leave. Believe it or not, much of what I learned about my father comes from these news articles, my Dad died when I was very young (in 1972). I became the boss then, and am still bossy, especially if you ask my brothers.

In one year he had finished his Master's Project at the University of Mississippi (Mathematical Analysis of Forced Convection Heat Transfer to Liquid Metals Flowing in Concentric Annuli;  exciting huh?)

He went on to the University of Florida and finished his PhD by the time he was 24 (in three years).

His thesis was entitled: "The Effect of Particle Size, Concentration, and Temperature, on Heat Transfer to Clouds of Small Particles". He used that work when he was at NACA (predates NASA) working on heat shield tiles. Here's one of my favorite pictures of him:

our homework was the same and at one time I could easily
do that equation. Good times

a fuzzy and impish picture of him graduating

OK so what do we have for clues?

1.  his family was at one time in Eskişehir; 

2. his brother was a train administrator:

3. He was born in Istanbul; 

4. went to school for a while in France; 

5. trying to corroborate if he graduated from University of Istanbul or Ankara.

I have this picture with writing on the back; we are tracking down some letters from either his uncle. mother, or brother. 

Jaime and I fly into Istanbul right at the height of the Sacrifice Feast or Kurban Bayrami. We spend two days there, then fly to Kayseri to visit the Cappadocia area including the UNESCO World Heritage Site at Goreme and the fairy castles and pigeon valleys. We will explore and do some hikes, stay in a cave hotel, and go on a hot air balloon ride in an enchanted landscape before we knuckle down and get to work (by then libraries and banks and universities will be open). We next go to Ankara via bus, one night there in a airbnb, then onto Eskisehir by train.

Wish us luck! I'll post updates and pictures.