URSAVAŞ FAMILY

This all started with stories of Derin Kirişçioğlu’s school project on family. I thought fourth generation barely know about our family, so why not write something about us and turn this into family history page.

History of Ursavaş family, that I know of, started when Naime and Ibrahim had gotten married around early 1920s. The stories told that, Naime, was an orphan and had gotten married around puberty right after the new Turkish Republic has been founded. Their story might not started as a love story, but the gentle giant Ibrahim and Naime loved each other dearly. I mean they had 10 children in total..

I did not get to meet with grandpa İbrahim, but storied told are that he was a kind, loving, caring and considerate person. Whomever I ask, they do not reflect nothing but love.

Naime, the young bride, was a tiny woman. When I mean tiny, I mean around 5 foot and very thin. I never figured out how she had so many children. My memories of her are very slim as she passed when I was 4 or 5. She played dolls with me and I remember one particular day where we played hide-and-seek. She hid in a mid-size cupboard and I couldn’t find her. Imagine how freaked I was 🙂 Naime was playful and funny, and I still love her dearly.

The storied around grandma Naime is that she was particular in the ways she wanted things to be done. Naime had a knack for cooking, managing household and keeping everything in line. With surviving 8 children, I guess you had to.

For more information on the couple, the new task is to interview with their surviving children and daughter-in-law. I suppose we can give this job to new generations. Hatice, Nursel, Ahmet and Nuran are the ones to interview. (19.01.2020)

Children of Naime&İbrahim

Now, this is the tricky bit. After writing this part of the column, I will be uploading some of the pictures I have from the past. However, I have a limited archive. Any photos I have are either in Izmir or I just don’t. With this noted, Dilek Varol and Hatice Ursavaş are the holders of the family archive as photos. They are talented at that. So if I leave anyone out in pictures, then I am so sorry.

The details of the children of Ursavaş couple will be told later so bear with me. You will get to learn about them in detail.

Surviving Children in order:

Müzeher 1927

Mehmet 1929

Ali 1931

Müyesser 1933

Gülümser 1935

Gülten 1937-1937 

Hatice 1939

Unknown boy (not much information about him)

Nursel 1945

Ahmet 1947

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Müzeher (Ursavaş) Varol

Müzeher Varol, the eldest daughter of Naime and Ibrahim. She was a young mother’s first daughter and semi-mother to her youngest siblings. She had blue eyes and was called “Gök gözlü” as it was like a sky.

She gotten married to Mustafa( with him in the picture above) and had a daughter, Dilek. I suppose the most important thing for her is her daughter Dilek.

Müzeher I remember was elderly, but she was always loving. She hated that I kept my hair loose and always tried to put it in braids or ponytails, but I was warned 😃She tied the hair of her nieces so tight that they basically had a facelift 🤣 So I kept running away from getting her tie my hair.

She loved to play the game “okey” with her sisters, neighbours and sister in law. Their rivalry was always about not helping each other out and being actual “rivals.” It was a funny scene as they kept talking about why one failed and faulted the other. At the end of the day, they all had tea and ate cookies. I was a participant of this as well, since I was in pre-school and my grandma (Müzeher’s sister in law) and I kept going to her house.

One funny story about her is, when she played “okey” she hated that her chips were counted because she believed it was a bad luck. I was 4-5 years old and learning to count, so I kept trying to count and pass time as bunch of 50+ women played a game. If she was winning ahead, I was always allowed to count her chips ’cause why not? She was winning. However, if she were losing…Oh dear. If you get near her chips, she had the power of 10 tigers.

Another thing I so fondly remember is that these women loved knitting and lacework. She made many masterpieces and I am fortunate to have some of them. I am sure we all do.

Mehmet Ursavaş

He is my grandfather that I never met. Naime and Ibrahim’s second child, the tall green eyed loving man. I sadly do not know enough about him, but I will tell what I was told by my mom and by others and rarely by grandma. I don’t have many photos of him as well and I will explain why.

My grandfather was a tall handsome man, who had a plentiful beautiful women fawning over him. As the oldest son, he dealt with work on the winery and was a kind man. He and his younger brother, Ali, were close. Apparently they were quite look alikes as well.

He gotten married in 1955-1956 with Tuncay, a beauty nicknamed as “Güzel Tuncay.” (Müzeher ve Tuncay)

They had 2 children, my mother, Neslinur and Ibrahim. Unfortunate for them, first due to traffic accident Mehmet spend a year in prison and then when he came back he had pneumonia. He passed away around 1970s.

My mother and my uncle were very fond of him as he seems like he spoilt them rotten. It’s not just them though. He spoilt my grandma so much that when he died and she was widowed at my age, she was heartbroken. She never reconsidered to remarry and barely were able to talk about my grandpa because it hurt her too much.

Ali Ursavaş

Ali Ursavaş…I do not know where to start. He was living in Istanbul and we were living in Izmir, so I got to know him later in life. He was a funny man and he loved his tv. When I knew him, he kept conversing with you but never turned his tv off. He worked hard in life and struggled financially at times, but he had amazing blue eyes like his sister Müzeher and he had a wonderful family.

He wasn’t one to marry at early age, he waited for the right person and Nuran Ursavaş came into his life. They had 2 children Aslı and Tansu. I guess one thing I can say clearly about him is how proud he was of his children.

Müyesser (Ursavaş) Doğan

Müyesser Doğan was a brilliant woman. I somehow saw her as the epitome of strength as she was tall, broad shouldered and sparkly eyed. I do not know much about her early years, however one interesting topic about her youth is the man she married. Talat Doğan was Mehmet Ursavaş’s (her older brother’s) best friend, who fell for her so hard that he risked his friendship to marry her. In the end, who is better than your best friend forever to get your sister to marry right? 😉

When they married, they had 2 sons. Family’s first grandchild, Nejat, and his younger brother Nevzat.

Müyesser was a kind woman and always were sentimental. I liked that she was a bookworm. I loved the chats we had. She had 4 grandchildren and all of them were so dear.

Gülümser (Ursavaş) Çetin

In her youth, Gülümser was a legend. They keep telling me how amazing she was and how men were shocked of her beauty. However, the gossip is she was a picky person. She liked things in particular way, like her mother I suppose, but also had a flare for fashionable and beautiful things.

She has gotten married to Galip Çetin. We cannot say it was the match made in heaven, but she had 2 biological sons Kazım and Kerim and mothered Galip’s son from previous marriage.

Hatice Ursavaş

Haha…I have so much stories about her that if I put into writing people might get offended 🙂 When I was growing up, she was a stubborn and funny woman. She liked rallying people up and pushing their buttons, it just made her laugh and sometimes offended others.

She has never gotten married, so she lived with Naime (great grandma) until she passed away. After that, she had lived with her siblings or on her own.

Like Gülümser, Hatice was also a looker. I personally think she was the most beautiful among the sisters, but sshh..Don’t tell anyone.

Nursel (Ursavaş) Çömek

Now Derin, this is a page I created for you mostly. I will expand this site for the others as I learn more and have more time to detail it. But when you have time, I would love for you to learn what you can about each member of the siblings of grandmother and take a note of them.
Also,I would love for you to be the one to write about your grandmother. This should be your section. Love, Ezgi.
(Nursel&Ayça)

(Nursel&Kazım Çömek wedding)

Ahmet Ursavaş

Ahmet Ursavaş is like a glue that holds the family together. He talks a lot. He is loud and also funny, he likes to pull on people’s legs and he is a bit of a wild card. Whenever one of us is in need, 70 year old Ahmet Ursavaş runs to help. He is relentless on helping people to a fault. He believes in people and sees the best in them.

His eyes, like many of his siblings, are blue. Apparently, he looks like Mehmet the most and he was a looker as well. He gotten married to Berrin and has 2 daughers: Özge and Müge.