image courtesy of Cengiz Kahraman
image courtesy of Cengiz Kahraman
Two views of the Barry family enjoying the seaside, probably Fenerbahçe peninsula with Moda Bay in the background, Constantinople, judging from the Edwarding style of clothing possibly around 1900-1920.
image courtesy of Cengiz Kahraman
Another summer outing, the young man with moustache in the middle is Albert Barry, the author of the diary below.
image courtesy of Cengiz Kahraman
23 Decembre 1917
Le journal que j’ai tiens depuis le mois de Juin, on a souvent peu bien l’aconique. Je suis decide aujourd’hui a lui annexer celles-la, que je destine aux fait le plus importants concernant ma personne et que ne pourratient etre contennus --- le prevenir.
Je suis …….. depui mon arrive de (vouz?) Hourmatu? Heureusement jai trouve asile chez Leloua?. Elle me soigne comme elle l’auraite fait, poeur son frere, ou son fiance peutetre n’importe. Hier elle etait un peu souffrante. Je lui ai fait prendre de…………
23 December 1917
The diary that I have been maintaining since June, is often one of reflections (?). I decided today to note these thoughts here, which I intend for the recording of facts that are the most important concerning my person and which I cannot contain --- the future.
I have ........ since my arrival from (you?) Fortunately I was able to find refuge at Leloua’s?. She looks after me like it should be done, her poor brother, or perhaps her fiance, regardless. Yesterday she had some suffering. I made her take ............
image courtesy of Cengiz Kahraman
... parler. Mais ce qui me plait le plus en elle c’est qu’elle ignore le judeo-espagnol.
Moyenne de taille, le visage regulies elle a le front baude de noir jusque a deux doigt du sourcil, ce qui fait ressortir son teint blanc et la douceur de son regard. Mais ce qui m’avait frappe des le debut c’etait les yeux. Elle ne les a pas grands, plutot le contraire, mais ils contiennent une douceur que je n’ai jamais rencontre en d’autres.
Son habillement la depase. Elle revet une sorte de chemise de nuit, qui lui desceunt jusqu’aux chevilles, chemise qui taile en ete devient flanelle en hiver. Par…….cela elle porte un genre de c…….
... talk. But what pleases me the most is that she ignores the Judeo-Espagnols [Sephardic Jews].
She is of average of size, a regular face it whose features were accentuated with two fingers length of black eyebrows, which emphasized her white completion and the softness of her glance. But what has struck me from the beginning were her eyes. There were not large, rather the opposite, but they possessed a softness which I never have met in others.
Her clothing surpasses this vision. She wore a sort of night-dress, descending down to her ankles, a style that can be worn in the summer and became a warming outer-garment in the winter. By ....... that it carries a kind of c......
image courtesy of Cengiz Kahraman
la quinine. Il fallait voir la grimace qu’elle faisait! En recompense elle m’a promit de preparer pour demain du yoghourt.
Lelona est une jeune fille juive. Son costume est sa religion ma font souvenir de l’Historie Sanite de Rebecca et de Rachel. En effet il n’y a rien je crois qui la distingue de ses sours d’il y a quelque mille ans. Elle parle hibreu couramment mais prefere s’entretenir en arabe. La facon dont elle parle le turc, qu’elle connait un peu, me fait souvent perdre mon serieux. Il semble que le mots soient trop grands pour sa bouche et qu’elle veuille s’en debarasser au plus tot. Elle a surtout un petit ton trainant et musical qui….
... the quinine. You should have seen the grimace she did! In recompse she promised to prepare for me yoghurt the following day. Lelona is a young Jewess. Her costume and religion makes me compare to the history of the Sanits de Rebecca and of Rachel. Indeed there is nothing I believe that distinguishes her from the saints from a few thousand years ago. She speaks Hebrew fluently but prefers communicating in Arabic. The manner in which she speaks Turkish, which she knows a bit, often makes me lose my seriousness. It seems that the words are too big for her mouth and that she wishes to be rid of them as quickly as possible. Above all she has trailing tone and a musical...
According to research (Oliver Jens Schmitt) Barry family are ‘Persian’ Catholics in origin, Armenians escaping persecution in the East, later changing allegiance to the Catholic Church and so entering the French cultural and language sphere, ‘the protector nation of Latins in the Levant’, and with branches in both Constantinople and Smyrna. Above a section of a diary written by Albert Barry during the turbulent times of 1917-18. According to the Cervati Almanac of 1883 a J. Barry was a mechanic in Rue Linardi off La Grande Rue de Pera, suggesting some members of this family were in engineering industry, whereas the Smyrna branch under ‘Barry Freres’ (Nalpas listing) they were engaged in the export of dried fruit - former Barry house in Bornova.
image courtesy of Cengiz Kahraman
Joseph Barry (father of Albert) and family, location unknown.
image courtesy of Cengiz Kahraman
An unknown Levantine party group, possibly in one of the private Moda gardens.
image courtesy of Cengiz Kahraman
A Barry family group meal, possibly Büyükada [Prinkipo] island, 1919-20. This may have been the family summer residence?
image courtesy of Cengiz Kahraman
Albert Barry family group meal, location unknown.
image courtesy of Cengiz Kahraman
Barry family group at Büyükada [Prinkipo] around 1910-12, Albert Barry is possibly the photographer here as he is not in the group.
image courtesy of Cengiz Kahraman
Albert Barry (on the left) with a friend enjoying the view of the Bosphorus, possibly Çırağan Palace Gardens.
image courtesy of Cengiz Kahraman
Barry family group, possibly Göksu, with the paternal grandmother of Albert Barry on the extreme right.
image courtesy of Cengiz Kahraman
Barry twins at the pier for Göksu, eastern shore of the Bosphorus. The magazines seem to be English ‘Home Notes’ etc.
image courtesy of Cengiz Kahraman
An unknown person, but suggesting the Barry family had an interest in the trade of culinary snails, with sorting tables in the Eminönü area (Galata area clearly viewed in the opposite shore), possibly prior to being salted to be exported to France?
image courtesy of Cengiz Kahraman
image courtesy of Cengiz Kahraman
Unknown members/friends of the Barry family at the ‘Skating Palace’ in Pera, opened in 1908, operated by the Levantine partners A. Saltiel and H. Artidi who lost the premises to the state under the punitive wealth tax of 1944. This building continues to serve as the Emek movie theatre.
image courtesy of Cengiz Kahraman
image courtesy of Cengiz Kahraman
Edgard Barry’s graduation diploma from St. Joseph Lycee, Kadıköy, 1906.
image courtesy of Cengiz Kahraman
The Albert Barry tomb in the Feriköy Latin Catholic cemetery in Pangaltı, Istanbul.