The Kaghakatsi Hagopian family paterfamilia, Hagop Hagopian,

and his wife Anna (nee Kevorkian), had for years lived in a house

in a large compound in the Armenian Quarter of the Old city.

Hagop, whose original family name had been Hovsepian before it was changed for unknown reasons, had two brothers as neighbors, one of whom was Vahan Hovsepian, the clan godfather. The house in which Hagop and Anna lived, and which they had inherited from his parents, was known as “Dar Bedour.” Where this particular appellation sprang from has never been satisfactorily determined, unlike many of the other clan names whose origins are patently clear: Dar El Hattiti, Dar El Basha, Dar El ‘Ajajez, etc. But it is just possible that we may now have found the answer, thanks to the relentless efforts of Kaghakatsi scion, Sona Hairabedian. ‘Going through the domar records, I've discovered more family links, and am in the process of figuring out where people fit into the family tree,” Sona says. She reveals that she has been told that the “Bedour” were wealthy merchants who settled either in Jaffa or Jerusalem--possibly they were the Baddour Brothers, the cigarette makers.” “According to a family account, somebody's sister Heghene was married to Murad Bedour, and after the couples' death, they bequeathed a jewel- studded bishop's crown to the Armenian Convent,” she adds. “This was in gratitude to God for Heghene's surviving a severe case of cholera. I haven't yet found a record of Heghene's or Murad's death in the register, which I hoped would pinpoint where she fits into my family tree. “ Sona has made another interesting discovery: she noticed that one of the photos ( on right ) in the "Foreign cast" section of the Armenian Jerusalem website, which shows. an old man tatooing a young lady in the street, is "Nerses the goldsmith", to whom her father’s uncle Alexan Mukhtarian was apprenticed, and whose shop he "inherited" after Nerses retired. “After Alexan retired, my father spent the years of WWII tattooing Australian and New Zealand soldiers in the same shop,” Sona adds.

Solving a mystery