Short overview of the Bato family

1. Descent (origin)

The Bato family originates from the city Midyat. In this city there is a mountain that carries the name Taaua Bato. The Taaua is a large forest tree. It was so large that it overshadowed the foot of the mountain. This mountain was named after our family. This shows that our family was deeply rooted in this country. The members of the Bato family were also numerous.

2. Designation of the family

The name of the family BATO goes back to one of their ancestors (grandfathers) whose name was BOTRUS. Over the decades this name was changed into the name BATO. The name of our family and many other Arameans (Suryoye or Syrian)* families in Bethlehem was changed from the Arabs to the name Al-Syriani, since the Arabs call the Arameics Al-Syrian. That’s how the name Al-Syriani arose. But the genuine name of our family is and remains for us BATO.

3. Emigration of the family

At the beginning of the 20th century, approximately in the year 1905, some members of the family fled the persecution of Christians, namely Issa Bato (* 1902, † 28, 04, 1987) and his brother Suliman Bato, who immigrated to the Holy Land. There they lived in the city of Bethlehem. Issa Bato remained in Bethlehem, but his brother Suliman Bato left Bethlehem, in order to live in Amman (the Jordanian capital). After the partial occupation of Palestine by Israel in the year 1948 Issa’s family consisted of five children (Hanna, George, Nasri, Ellen and Nakle) among them one daughter. Suliman’s family consisted of seven daughters and four sons (Botrus, Elias, George, Simaàn, Azize, Helane, Mary, Rooz, Vicktoria, Katarina und Naiema). A part of Suliman Bato’s family lived in Lebanon, others in Sweden, and others in the Arab Gulf States. One does not know where the remainder of the Bato Family became dispersed into this large world after the emigration from Midyat (Turabdin). One assumes that some of the members of the Bato family, after they had left Midyat, went to Syria, or to Iraq, or to the USA. We, the members of the Bato family in Bethlehem (Palestine) would like hereby to know, where the remainder of our Bato family lives, and would be very glad if we could receive information on that matter. This was a short overview of our Bato family, of which only few things are known.