Tracing Ancestry

Hello,

I have been told a dozen times by countless people that I look Moroccan, lately I asked my grand-father about that, and he told me that our family lineage can be traced back to Morocco, although to which part I am unsure.

My family name is Nassar, and I was told Al-Turjuman also predated that name.

We moved to Egypt, originally.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hello Legacy :)

Hope that members soon provide you with info on your ancestral roots.

Good luck.

Regards,
Sheetul

ok so just yesterday as i was out buying some things here in Kuwait, i met a shop keeper who asked whether i was from Morocco or Tunis, he didn't believe me when i said i was egyptian, as he himself was Egyptian too.

so this has reignited my passion to wanting to trace my roots, which i took to this forum earlier and, its been 5 years and not a single response.

come on people of Morocco! A helping hand or at least point me in the right direction :P

I hope you get some answers.
It's so interesting. I think allot of the culture is oral. You have to ask the oldest living person in any village ur city about history.
What you maybe also can do is geographic DNA reasurch. They use male DNA and than they can tell you 4 generations back were you ancestral are from. Here in Holland they do the test. I wish you so much luck and hope you get you're answers

Many thanks :D atleast someone read my diatribe.

I will have a sit down eith my grandfather and learn more of our exact origin, atleast a place to look initially. He did mention a place called raml or sand in arabic, couldn't find it tho.

The person in question is his grandfather.

You're welcome.. ASAP you have to sit down with you're grandfather to get more information.
Maybe atlas/dessert area because raml is indeed sand.

Hello! Tracing ancestry can be interesting but also can be a very long and tedious process.
I'm not sure if this info can help, but might give you a hint.
The majority of Moroccan surnames which begin with 'Ait' are derived from Berber (Amazigh) tribes. Having said that, there are Berber names which dont include 'ait.'
The thing is Moroccan society is very mixed; there have been a lot of intermarriages in the past and still going on until now. One may claim they are originally Arab or Berber, but the reality is, they can never know. You find Arabs who speak Berber and vice versa.
Your last 'name sounds like it could be originally Arab. If you could get some more info regarding the region your ancestors lived or traveled from, that would pave the way to knowing whether it's Arab or Berber.
Good luck!
Zineb

I do not want to disapoint you here but i gotta be honest and tell you that we moroccan do not even know where we do come from ... our history subject we were taughts in primary schools turned to be just some nice story to calm the nation.
many moroccans are confused themselves some say they are berber and other say they are arabs and continue...
like our sister here Zaynabou has mentioned in her text that we are very mixed here , we moroccan are attracted to other cultures and we have lot of intermarriages in the past and still on going.
i just remember something really funny that 5 years ago some people started to claim that they are from (charefaa) family and they start to  put a sticker in the car probably to earn respect from the peple or from police. but in few months  time all moroccans started  making their own family trees and claiming the same lol  that shows that they are very confused people , it is like a child does not know who are his parents , they grow up unbalanced and disturbed mentally , they do not know who they are and where they come from.
some say berber reef are the real native of morocco , some say souss berber are the real native and other say amazigh berber are real native ....veryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy confusing.
so for moroccan to give you a proper advice , it will be wrong for them to do so specially in this subject.
it is very sad topic for us as moroccans not to be able to trace our family trees and know where we do come from.

as for you if you were told that you look moroccan then just take it as compliment because moroccan women are so beautiful ..but it does not mean your heritage comes from here , i do get told always i look jew or itlaian or spanish and i am not even from those countries ... i even met lebanese that looks exactlly like me and we were told if we were twin lol but it does not mean i come form lebanon.

Here in morocco we do not have family tree system that u can trace and find out ...if u go to the authorities regarding this matter like that u will get no infor because they do not even have infor about us locals here lol

TO CONLCUDE this with little real example,  my mother did not have date of birth , she does not know what day or what month she was born in  until recently they chose for her a new date lol which is 01 january ....

regarding family name trace , my dad had chosen his family name so was not passed on by other generation and many moroccan did the same when they started the identifications.

i know is not something that you want to hear but it is the truth.