My Hashim Family History
History of the Hashim Family name - Hashim is a male Arabic given name. It means destroyer of evil; one who attracts women; this title Hashim was given to Amr Alola bin Abed Manaf whose decedents later are to be named BANU Hashim - the sons of Hashim; Prophet Mohammad was one of his decedents. A MTDNA test done by myself which covers my maternal ancestry: my mom to her mom Edna to her mom Jamileh to her mom and so on. The oldest name we know on this maternal side is my gg-grandmother Farideh Uussif Zacca who was Jamileh Hashim's mother. The MTDNA for my Hashim/Zacca line is Haplogroup “X” subclade X2f: The Wanderers, haplogroup X, originated about 60,000 years ago. About 20,000 years ago Haplogroup X branched into subgroups: X1 and X2. X1 is found mostly in northern and eastern Africa, while X2 originated in the Middle East about 12,000 years after the original group appeared. It is found heavily amongst the Druze population of Lebanon and Syria. X2f subclade shows some Caucasus ancestry.
My great grandmother Jamileh "Amelia" Hashim was born in Lebanon around 1880. From the stated birthplace of her sister Rettebeh I believe she was born in Kfarchima. Jamileh states year of immigration into the US as 1902, I haven’t seen an actual naturalization record for her; I believe she entered through Canada. She appeared to use different western names, she went by Amelia on most of the records I’ve seen in Raymond. Her death certificate lists her as Janile Shoucair with father’s surname as Hashim, aunt Donna says she called her Camille. Her actual name was Jamileh which is found on her marriage certificate and her 1900 Ellis Island document and would be a more common female Arabic name. This 1900 Ellis Island document shows the father Salim Hashim with 3 children: Jamileh, Batibe (which must be Rettebeh) and Isber, the ages match family records and they are en-route to British Columbia which is where they are found next. Some Hashim's had come to Canada and they are found in the 1901 Canadian census living in Vancouver. In this census the people in the home were - Solomon Hashim b1839 (should be Salim), Hashim Saleem Hashim b1878, Jane Hashim b1883 (Jamileh), Maria Hashim b1886 (I assume this is Rettebeh), and Sbeer (would be Isber?) Hashim b1889. Hashim appears to be the oldest and we know he was already there in the area by his documents, so I think Salim and the kids we going to BC to meet with Hashim. I do know that in 1905 Hashim Saleem Hashim entered the US and on his immigration form the person who vouches and signs for him is Salim Shoucair. Hashim settled in Tacoma where more Hashims are found in the dry good business, later in Portland Oregon and finally in San Bernardino CA. It makes sense that Salim would sign for him if he was married to his sister, and all the other people that I’ve seen Salim sign for were family and worked and lived with him. Hashim’s 1917 Draft Registration record lists his father as Saleem Joseph Hashim in Kfarchima. Hashim died in San Bernardino California in 1957 with his mother’s maiden name listed as Zacca.
Jamileh had a sister Rettebeh “Ruby” Hashim born around 1883, she lived in Los Angeles in the mid 1960s with my family till she died in 1968. Her birth dates don’t match the family photo, Amelia and Rettebeh look only a few years apart in age, and not 8 years like their “stated” birth dates were. Rettebeh had lived in Oregon and Australia with her first husband Abraham Saliba and later in Portland Oregon with her second husband Arley Townsend and she had no known children. Rettebeh's first marriage ended and she returned to Lebanon then Rettebeh came to Washington from Lebanon in November 1920 from a travel document (this is the same boat trip bringing Salim Shoucair, the sisters Olga, Matilda and Marie Dracobly, all en route to Raymond Washington). At that time Jamileh and Salim had been divorced for a while and Jamileh was living in Thurston Washington in a hospital, for what I don’t know but the 1920 census lists her as a patient then by 1923 she's living in Seattle on 11th St with occupation listed as a cook. Maybe this is where Rettebeh was heading. Rettebeh’s second marriage to Arley Townsend was around 1926 and they lived in Portland Oregon. I’m convinced that Hashim, Amelia, and Rettebeh were verified siblings from the death certificates of both Rettebeh and Hashim, both states the mother’s maiden name as Zakka. Jamileh’s death certificate doesn’t list mothers name only fathers name of Hashim and also from a christening record of Rettebeh where her parents are stated: Saleem Yussif Hashim and Farideh Uussif Zaka. I assume Sbeer and Marie would be siblings as they are all about the same age. We have an old family photo of the Hashims in Lebanon from the late 1890’s. In this photo you can clearly see that Rettebeh and Jamileh are close in age, Hashim is not in the picture and he's already documented in Seattle Washington as early as 1891 applying for US citizenship. This photo shows the “assumed” parents with 6 kids, Jamileh & Rettebeh in their late teens, a younger boy about 14yrs old (Sabir?), two younger girls about 10 & 7, and the youngest is a little boy about 4. No further records are found for any of these Hashims. We know that Rettebeh had a niece named Rhoda Hanna-Syufy, she arranged everything for Rettebeh’s funeral in Portland. There are other photos from Rettebeh’s collection of unknown family members. I have also heard that Jamileh had a relative living in Israel that worked with the Palestinians. Jamileh eventually came to California and she died and was buried in Ventura County in 1954, aunt Donna attended her funeral. I think there was a sister/relative, Ethel; she is seen in many of Rettebeh’s photos. Some of these photos are from her kids calling Rettebeh “auntie Ruby”.
There was also a family of Hashims from Tacoma that are possible relatives, they had a dry goods business called Hashim Bro's, their names are: Sumer Hashim, Said Hashim, Najib Hashim, Aziz Hashim, and a sister Wadia Hashim found in the 1891 Washington census. This family moved to California also, not sure of the connection here. There was also a Joe Hashim in San Bernardino who may be related. It appears that some of these Hashims settled in San Bernardino which matches many of Rettebeh & Edna’s old photos showing family gatherings, so there were at least a few other family members here, I don’t know if they were Hashim or Zacca family.