by hagop » 24 Aug 2007, 21:00
Princemishkin,
My ancestors didn't come from Hamshen but I know the following. The Armenians in Russia and Abkhazia who trace their origins to Hamshen know in general where they came from. For example they mostly know whether they are Jeniktsi (from Canik=Samsun Carsamba ilce), Orduetsi (from Ordu province), Trabzontsi (from Trabzon province) or a mixture of these. There are also smaller numbers of them fom Unye, Fatsa, Bafra etc. but hardly anyone from Rize itself. The reason being that all of these people arrived in the Russian Empire after living in the above mentioned places for 100-200 (i.e. 100-200 years after they left Rize). Those who remained in Rize had almost all converted to Islam by the 20th century. For the same period, only a few of the Ordu and Carsamba ones had converted to islam and along with maybe 60% of those in Trabzon.
Many among these people who left for the Russian Empire know which villages in those provinces they came from (especially the old people). But only in rare cases that people can trace themselves as far back as to their original villages in Hamshen (Rize province). But all of them aware that they somehow originated from Hamshen far in the past, even if they can't provide you with more details.
As for the surnames, as you know, many Rize Hemsinli preserve their clan names which is often based on an Armenian first name. Some of the the Hamshen people in Russia likewise preserve those and from the little that I know, there is some overlapping.