Brick Wall: Great-Grandfather from the Ottoman Empire
I am researching my partners family tree and I have hit a brick wall with their maternal great-grandfather. I am looking for any information at all, but finding his parents would be the ultimate end goal. I have listed what we do know below.
- His name was David de Taranto, born around 1878 in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire/Turkey. He chose the Greek nationality.
- By 1908? he was living in Alexandria, Egypt and was married to Regina Eliezer (1880 - 1964). If a marriage certificate can be found that would be great. As Regina is from Egypt, I think this is where they were married.
- David and Regina had 5 children between 1908 - 1917 - Gabriel, Victor Donald, Rosa, Clarissa and Maurice David (my partners grandfather).
- David served in the Zion Mule Corp in the British Army in WW1, we have the corresponding medals so are confident these records are him.
- David worked as the Director of Health in the Alexandria Municipality (stated on Maurice's marriage certificate in 1947) and the Sanitary department is noted as the address on his medal roll record for WW1.
- David died on 5th March 1934 in Beirut, Lebanon.
- A "D Taranto" is listed as "1909- Founder of Bikour Holim Society in Alex" in database of Jews in Egypt prior to 1938. We do not know if this is the same person.
- Given the surname and the link to the Zion Mule Corps, we are confident David came from a Sephardic Jewish background. Maurice had a religion of Jewish on his birth certificate too.
Often people dropped the "de" from the surname, so "David Taranto" could be the same person as shown in the Zion Mule Corp records.
There is a Joseph Taranto who was also a member of the Zion Mule Corps, we do not know if this is a relation.
Both Ottoman and Egyptian records are next to impossible to access, so I have been really struggling. The Israel State Archives did give me the Palestinian naturalisation files for both Maurice and Regina, but these did not help with with David's research. Maurice later became British but The National Archives has lost his naturalisation file.
This is the link to David's Wikitree profile David de Taranto - WikiTree Profile
Any help anyone can give would be amazing!
Thank you