Boston Little Syria Project
Nicholas and Evelyn Haddad Family Collection
Detail from:
Lace doily
This collection contains lace work created by Selma Courie Haddad and Rachel Skeirik Haddad. It is not known who created each piece.
Selma Fadoul Courie (1892-1939) immigrated to the United States in approximately 1910 from the village of Souq-el-Gharb on Mount Lebanon, which at the time was still part of Syria. Her birth family originally settled in North Carolina. It was while she was visiting one of her brothers, a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, that she met her future husband, Abraham Haddad. They married and both worked in Abraham's Middle Eastern grocery store at 65 Harvard Street in Boston's South Cove neighborhood. Together, they had six children. Selma's lace work was discovered in her daughter Evelyn's hope chest many years after Evelyn had passed away. Evelyn, who kept prodigious notes about family life, made reference to her mother’s lace work in the hope chest.
Rachel Skeirik Haddad was a very close friend of Selma's and lived in Boston’s South End. While Rachel's exact birth and death dates are not known, she was a contemporary of Selma's and was most likely born in the 1890s, living into the 1960s. Rachel became the godmother for all six of Selma's children. She was a profound lace maker. Since Rachel had no children, it is very likely that her lace ended up with Evelyn, her oldest godchild, after she passed away.
Selma Fadoul Courie (1892-1939) immigrated to the United States in approximately 1910 from the village of Souq-el-Gharb on Mount Lebanon, which at the time was still part of Syria. Her birth family originally settled in North Carolina. It was while she was visiting one of her brothers, a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, that she met her future husband, Abraham Haddad. They married and both worked in Abraham's Middle Eastern grocery store at 65 Harvard Street in Boston's South Cove neighborhood. Together, they had six children. Selma's lace work was discovered in her daughter Evelyn's hope chest many years after Evelyn had passed away. Evelyn, who kept prodigious notes about family life, made reference to her mother’s lace work in the hope chest.
Rachel Skeirik Haddad was a very close friend of Selma's and lived in Boston’s South End. While Rachel's exact birth and death dates are not known, she was a contemporary of Selma's and was most likely born in the 1890s, living into the 1960s. Rachel became the godmother for all six of Selma's children. She was a profound lace maker. Since Rachel had no children, it is very likely that her lace ended up with Evelyn, her oldest godchild, after she passed away.