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.