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A Brief History of the Pira,
Bit-Abram & Taimoorazy Families
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– Baker/Williams Genealogy
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The ancestral homeland of the
Pira, Bit-Abram and Taimoorazy families is in northwest Iran, west of Lake Urmia,
in Azerbaijan
Province. They were part of the people
sometimes referred to as the Urmian Assyrians.
Mishail
Pira was born 28 July 1892 in the village
of Chamakie
near Urmia,
Iran. His
father was Benyamin Verda, a carpenter, and his
mother was Rebecca Pira. In the oral history of the Pira family it is said that
Benyamin used the surname Pira from Rebecca’s family as requested by her
father, Shamasha Pira, a church elder or deacon.
Benyamin
Verda died young. His son, Mishail
Pira, left the village of his birth at an early age; possibly as early as 1905,
and with the blessing of his mother he went to Tsarist Russia. He probably went
to live with an uncle in Tiflis (Tbilisi)
but we do not know the details. Mishail developed his
skills as a businessman and merchant trading goods between Russia and Iran
and is said to have “prevailed and flourished” in Russia. It was most likely in
Tiflis (Tbilisi)
that Mishail became friends with Freydun Bit-Abram.
Through that friendship he met, and in 1920 married, Freydun’s sister Judat Bit-Abram.
Judat
Bit-Abram was born in 1901 in the village
of Charbash,
near Urmia,
Iran. Her
father was Yacob Bit-Abram and her mother was Insoph Taimoorazy. She was raised and educated in Russia. The
Bit-Abram family migrated to Russia
when Judat was an infant, probably about 1902. The
Taimoorazy family might have left Urmia for Russia about
the same time. It is apparent that the Bit-Abram and Taimoorazy families
settled in Tbilisi, Georgia,
then known as Tiflis, which was under Russian rule and was latter part of the Soviet Union. The name Taimoorazy was known as Taimoorazof in Russia. The Bit-Abram family
photograph from circa 1918 includes three Taimoorazy women. Insoph
Taimoorazy is the wife of Yacob
Bit-Abram and two of her sisters are included in the family group. Insoph Taimoorazy Bit-Abram’s
father was Taimooraz Taimoorazy, or Taimoorazof in Russia.
{Bit-Abram
Family Photograph}
Soon
after they married in 1920 Mishail and Judat Pira crossed the border into Iran. When they
attempted to return they found the border crossing closed and they were not
allowed to return. To the best of my knowledge they did not attempt to return
to Russia after that
experience but stayed in Iran.
In Russia Judat had obtained a medical degree. In Iran Dr. Judat Pira began her rather
remarkable career in obstetrics. The remainder of her life was dedicated to her
family and to her medical and humanitarian work. She worked in different areas
of Iran including Tabriz, Maku, Zanjan and Tehran.
Judat established medical clinics and received honors
from the government and even from the Shah of Iran. She is remembered by her
family as being dedicated to her work and compassionate toward the women that
she cared for and the babies that she helped bring into this world. Judat Pira died 6 April 1964,
barely six months after immigrating to America.
{Pira
Family Photographs}
Due to
the great dangers and hardships experienced by Christians in Iran, a goal of
the Piras was to have their children leave Iran when
they came of age for continued education and hopefully to live elsewhere. It is
said that Judat envisioned the day when many
Assyrians would leave their homeland due to a repressive government as occurred
in 1979 when Ayatullah Khomeini came to power. One at a time, beginning with
Ben in 1948, the children left Iran.
The parents were the last to leave and arrived in America in September 1963. Ben,
Sourmi, Lili and Lida became American citizens and
Tony (Sardar) became a citizen of Germany. Mishail Pira became an American
citizen in 1969.
Many
other friends and family members immigrated to America as well, including the
Taimooraz and Atlantida (Allichka)
Oushana Taimoorazy family. I will not name them all
but below is a link to the Descendants of Taimooraz Taimoorazy.
{Descendants
of Taimooraz Taimoorazy}
Richard W. Baker