Nerme Fereshetian was the daughter of Melkon and Surmalou Fereshetian of Arapkir, Turkey. Her listed birth date of July 4, 1882, though the date she used, was not her actual birthdate because birth dates were not kept track of accurately where she came from and any records were lost. Her brother Sarkis used the November 3 of the same year as his birth date, and seeing as Nerme and he shared a mother this also indicates inaccuracy. Nerme's parents both died around 1910 during a flu epidemic there according to one account, or in the Armenian Genocide of 1915. Nerme was a well-known teacher in Arapkir and the principle of a school until 1915 when the Armenian community there was destroyed due to the Armenian Genocide. She escaped, eventually getting to Beirut from where she was able to sail to Ellis Island in July 1923 to joined her brothers in Arlington, Massachusetts. It was a hard adjustment from her to go from being a respected professional in Turkey to her new life in America as someone who cleaned houses and did other such jobs to survive. She took this very hard, but yet also would not accept charity from the many people who had been her students and respected her. This fall from a high position, along with the horrible things she saw in the genocide, caused her to become reclusive in her later years.
Nerme Fereshetian was the daughter of Melkon and Surmalou Fereshetian of Arapkir, Turkey. Her listed birth date of July 4, 1882, though the date she used, was not her actual birthdate because birth dates were not kept track of accurately where she came from and any records were lost. Her brother Sarkis used the November 3 of the same year as his birth date, and seeing as Nerme and he shared a mother this also indicates inaccuracy. Nerme's parents both died around 1910 during a flu epidemic there according to one account, or in the Armenian Genocide of 1915. Nerme was a well-known teacher in Arapkir and the principle of a school until 1915 when the Armenian community there was destroyed due to the Armenian Genocide. She escaped, eventually getting to Beirut from where she was able to sail to Ellis Island in July 1923 to joined her brothers in Arlington, Massachusetts. It was a hard adjustment from her to go from being a respected professional in Turkey to her new life in America as someone who cleaned houses and did other such jobs to survive. She took this very hard, but yet also would not accept charity from the many people who had been her students and respected her. This fall from a high position, along with the horrible things she saw in the genocide, caused her to become reclusive in her later years.
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