While I was told by my grandfather the last time I saw him that my great grandfather came from the village of Aintoura, I didn't think there would be two villages both named Aintoura and both a bit north and a bit east of Beirut.
In my first week here I had been making my introductions stating that I was both a visiting professor at AUB and on a bit of a family ancestral exploration. And that is how it came to pass that there were indeed TWO villages of Aintoura, one slightly higher than the other. I knew there was a "school" there...and I knew it was in the mountains. It turned out that BOTH fit those descriptions. One new faculty member from the "higher up" Aintoura asked what my family name was, and with authority, insisted that I was not from her village. I still wonder what tipped her off? Must be the ears.
And with further research I found that the Aintoura the family is from is indeed from the lower Aintoura village, laying within the area of Kesrouane - I found an envelope in my grandfathers basement with that as the return address.
Aintoura is less than 20 miles from Beirut. A short drive if there wasn't such maddening traffic and if I had a car. I actually manged to take a bus through the village, and found it hilly, filled of stone houses and indeed a beautiful regional high school. Click here to see it in Google Earth
The most amazing thing is that a man on that bus (the Sunday hiking group) was also from that village and KNEW the name Ghosn, and thinks he knows the family, the story of them going to the US...and has invited me up to help investigate...He even thinks there might be some left over land...?
Time to get up there...this will for sure, be continued...
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