Help/fact Checking For Novel

[Saramelkonian]

Hi everyone I hope this is the right place to post this, but I'll jump right in:

 

I've started writing novel that is loosely based on my grandparents' escape from the genocide - it will be a combination of personal stories interspersed with some detail of political events as they unfolded. Unfortunately, both grandparents are long since dead, as are any relatives who might be able to tell me what life was like back then. I've been ordering lots of history books and personal accounts (eg some of the oral history series, Morgenthau's diaries, etc), but I was wondering if there is any one out there will detailed knowledge of this period who would be willing to answer questions when they pop up? (for example, how homes might have been furnished, common sayings... I remember my grandmother used to tell me these "there was and there was not" stories, but I can't remember them now). And translating the odd phrase into Armenian could be useful too (for example, my father always used to say something that he translated as "your brains are flying around the room" - when our last Armenian-speaking relative died, he stopped speaking Armenian, and so I've forgotten the phrase... and now he's dead, so I can't ask him any more, so...)

 

Anyone able and willing to help?

Edited June 1, 2007 by Saramelkonian

[Saramelkonian]

Actually, maybe it would help if I gave a few specific examples? (but I have loads more questions than this, if anyone is patient enough to answer a few of them )

 

So, for example, I was thinking of having the novel starting with a wedding, (say June 1912?). This would be a wealthy family with a very big house (I'm thinking of placing them in Tokat). Some questions I have are:

 

1. would they have a reception after the wedding, like we do these days? If so, who would be invited - just close family, or would hundreds of people come? If they were friendly with Turks (well, in the survivor stories I've read some Turks actually hid Armenians during the deportations, even at risk of being executed themselves, and did not agree with what the government was doing at all - so I gather that not all Armenians and Turks hated one another), would they have come to the wedding, or would it just not be the done thing for a Moslem to enter a church?

 

2. Did the bride wear white? Did she take her husband's name? (my grandmother did, put I didn't know if that was common, or if she did that later)

 

3. Are there any foods that are specific to weddings?

 

4. Any particular blessings or sayings? Any specific rituals of the time? Any fables or folk tales that relate to weddings?

 

I know it's a lot (and more where that came from), but I'll be so grateful to anyone who can answer even one of these questions

 

just thought of a couple more:

 

5. How formal were people? At what point would people use first names rather than calling each other equivalent of "Mr" and "Mrs"? Did class matter? (ie would say a doctor refer to a farm worker by his first name, but expect to be called "Sir"?) Did gender matter? (ie, perhaps men could never call women by their first names unless they were married or their daughters or something like that?

 

6. And what were the equivalents of "Mr" and "Mrs", "Sir" and "Madam" anyway?

 

Thanks

Edited June 1, 2007 by Saramelkonian