Tuesday, September 29, 2009

History of Normart

So for the past few months I have been researching my family history and how the name Normart came about. I am of mixed heritage of German,Swedish and Armenian. Most Armenian names end with-ian. Well the story goes: In Armenia in the late 1860's much turmoil was going on. There were growing problems between the Armenians and the Turkish government. The "Armenian Genocide" in which over a million people were killed happened around 1915. My Great-great grandfathers brother Mardiros Yanikian was escaping Armenia because of the wars and turmoil and traveling down this road he witnessed many Armenian women being crucified on crosses. He witness many more atrocities of war while fleeing his homeland country. This account was in his journal of how he came over to the USA. He was very sick on the boat ride over suffering from small pox and when he landed in Philadelphia he was so grateful to be free from oppression he made the comment "I feel like a Nor mart which is Armenian for "New Man". So when he went through the immigration process our family name was changed from Yanikian to Normart. He visited the Fresno area in 1874 and since it reminded him so much of his homeland he praised the Fresno area when he went back to the East Coast. This started a migration of many Armenian families to Fresno which has quite the Armenian population today. He decided to move there himself along with other family members in 1885.
My grandmothers maiden name is "Avakian" and there is an interesting story of how her side of the family came over too, but that will be in my next post...