All names, dates and locations here come from census, immigration, Ellis Island, naturalization, marriage, birth, obituaries, and death certificates and most importantly family lore and birth dates will vary. We had grown up hearing that we had Syrian roots in the family so I must note that at the time all our family was coming here Lebanon wasn’t used on documents, all immigrants put down Syrian, or Turkish nationality. This is due to the Ottoman control in the area and the back and forth struggles that was forcing so many to flee, so everyone from the area was considered Syrian. The naturalization documents will state many times that they are renouncing “Mehemmed VI Emperor of the Ottomans”. Lebanon didn’t become independent until 1943. I’ve seen no records of any births or connections to any cities in Syria, only the Beirut area. The main city mentioned in documents is Choueifat, one source for Souk El-Gharb, and two sources for Kfarshima, all suburbs of Beirut. The Shoucair surname has many different spellings, Shoucair is a westernized version. Other spellings I’ve found are: Choucair, Choukair, Chkeir, Shkeir, Showkeir, Showker, etc.
Salim Khalil Shoucair was born in Lebanon on Feb 12 1873 the son of Khalil & Nedah Shoucair. Salim emigrated to America around 1890 and became a US citizen in 1896 in Seattle Washington. He went by SK or Sam which is the English version of Salim and he spelled his name Saleem. All documents for this family point to Choueifat as the hometown, although I haven’t seen a document for Salim actually stating his place of birth other than Mt. Lebanon so it is assumed to be Choueifat like everybody else. The story I’ve heard for other Lebanese immigrants of the Northwest is that they came to this area in the late 1880s during the Alaska Gold Rush and worked their way down into Canada, Washington and Oregon etc. In 1903 Salim married Jamileh "Amelia" Hashim also from Lebanon and their first child Edna Helen was born June 28 1906 in Seattle Washington They lived in Raymond, WA, right at the time Raymond was becoming a city, it was officially incorporated in 1907. They had two more children, Carl George who was born in Portland Oregon in 1907, and George Paul who was born in Raymond 1910. Many marriages in the Lebanese community at that time were arranged by families with old ties and I don’t know if the Hashims & Shoucairs knew each other in Lebanon. Salim was a dry goods merchant like so many other Lebanese immigrants, he set up a dry goods business in Raymond and soon after many family members started coming over. They sold door to door and also had a store called "La Vogue" selling clothes and all sorts of goods on 1st St.
The Dracobly family, Haddad, Saba, Bitar, and Bardawils were families that the Shoucairs were connected with. Salim’s older sister Zelpha had married Richard Bardawil in Lebanon and came to Raymond in 1912 as a widow with her son Charles Bardawil. Charles and Elias were nephews from different sisters of Salim. Elias Dracobly's mother was Shalala Shoucair, father was Ferris Dracobly. Story is that Elias Dracobly left Lebanon and first went to Cairo, then Jamaica, then Mexico, they stayed in Mexico working for a while until he were wiped out by Poncho Villa and then they came to Raymond Washington in 1914. Noted: in Jamaica at that time the Shoucair and Bardawil family were known to be there already, and they created booming businesses to this day in Jamaica with Department Stores, documents state that some of those Shoucairs were also from Choueifat: Elias Dracobly had 3 known sisters - Olga, Matilda, & Marie, and another brother Naseeb Ferris. Matilda had received a PHD from Sidon University in Lebanon, Olga married Ed Khoury and a death certificate for a Marie Dracobly in Washington lists her parents as Shalala Shoucair/mother and Ferris Dracobly/father. The death certificate for Olga Dracobly also names the same parents. Elias married Josephine Bitar, who was the daughter of Salim Antonious Bitar the man who bought out Salim Shoucair’s business when he moved to California. Elias built a chain of Dracobly Department Stores in Washington and there’s a Dracobly building still in Raymond Washington today. Charles Bardawil married Olive Saba and ended up in Redlands, San Bernardino California.
We don’t actually know how many siblings Salim had and I’ve heard is that the father could have been a professor at Beirut University. The known siblings would be sisters Zelpha and Shalala, and brother Michael. They were Greek Orthodox Christians according to their documents though they could’ve been originally Maronite Christians prior to coming to America. Since there were no Maronite Churches in those days here most immigrants joined the Orthodox Church, at the time of Salim's death he was a member of the Presbyterian Church. Other travel documents from Rettebeh Hashim and a few Dracobly’s list a D Shoucair as an uncle again from Choueifat, possible brother to Salim. The stated fathers of Khalil H Shoucair, and brothers Faheen and Resheed Shoucair of "Shoucair Selah Shoucair & Habib Shoucair" could also be brothers or cousins of Salim. They don't have the middle name of Khalil so I lean toward thinking they would be cousins from the traditional naming pattern.
In 1919 Salim sold his store to SA Bitar and he left soon after for Lebanon and Armenia to find his family. He hadn't heard from them in a while and was worried about them after WW1 and the famine that struck Lebanon at that time. Salim was able to locate some family and brought them back with him in 1920 and said that many of his family members had died being killed by Turks in the war. Some relatives he brought would be the Dracobly sisters of Elias Dracobly, they all arrived in November 1920. Read original newspaper clips here. Salim Shoucair moved his family to Riverside in 1921 and then to Santa Monica California in 1927 and they are found in the 1930 Santa Monica census and he was running a "Ready to Wear" clothes store and Edna and George was working with him. Soon after Edna married Niels Peter Jensen from Denmark and they have four children: Niels Peter Jr., Sandra Lee (my mother), Donna Ann, and Ronald Wayne. Edna and Niels retired and moved to Mexico and Edna died in California in 1979. Carl George Shoucair moved to Orlando Florida and married Ellena Ingram and they have one child, Carl George Jr. Carl Sr died in Florida in 1987, he was an inventor, artist, and published composer. George Paul Shoucair has only one marriage on record to Sally Augistine, he had no known children and lived in Gardena California, he died in 1976. Not much is known on the half sister Alice's childhood but she was around for a while in the 40's and early 50's then the family didn't see her again, she had a daughter and died in 2001 in California. Salim died in Los Angeles in September 1933 and his obituary said he was a 32nd degree Mason. From what I’ve heard Salim could have bought property on Wilshire Blvd in Santa Monica but decided instead to invest in some vineyards, which didn’t do well and he lost his money in the depression. He said “who wants to buy a patch of bean fields”; little did he know what Santa Monica on Wilshire Blvd would become.