Tiberian / Mardirosian

Yervant was born in Constantinople in May 1896 to Khachig Tiberian (who was employed as a food taster for the Sultan) and his mother Markarit. The Tiberian family included Yervant’s sister Araxie and brothers Setrak (who owned property in Spain and France), and Arshag.

Like many Armenian men in the Ottoman Empire, Yervant traveled more than one time to the United States, with his first voyage as a single man in July 1914 to the port of New York. He found employment in New York and later moved to Detroit in 1917 where he worked at Ford Motors. As a single man, his next move was to Whitinsville, MA where he began employment as a iron molder for the Whitin Machine Works in 1917 earning $40 a week, retiring in 1960.

During this period in Whitinsville, at age 28, Yervant began his citizen application process. On October 27, 1923, Yervant filed papers to bring his brother Arshag and his wife Shenorhig, then residing in Constantinople, to come to Whitinsville and reside with him. (Arshag had resided in Worcester previously for nine years and had begun his citizenship process there.) Yervant himself became a naturalized citizen in 1928 and lived on 18 East Street and later on Willow Street. Armenouhi was born in Banderma, Turkey, in July 1909 to Yerem Yeremian (who later changed his last name to Mardirosian) and Zarouhi Seropian. The family lived in an Armenian village on Banderma Island in the Bosporus. Armenouhi had two sisters, Takouhi Ohanian and Elise Davidian, and a brother Mardiros. In the midst of the genocide, Yerem and Zarouhi left Banderma with their family and traveled on to Greece. Yervant traveled to Greece where he married Armenouhi in Kavalla in 1931 where their wedding celebration lasted three days. From Greece, the newlyweds Yervant and Armenouhi traveled to the United States in August 1931, transiting through Cherbourg, France and on to New York, on the President Roosevelt with their final destination of Whitinsville. The couple first settled on Brook Street, later moving their family to Elm Street.

Yervant and Armenouhi started their family with the birth of their first child, a daughter named Markarit, who died at birth. In 1935, Yervant and Armenouhi were blessed with a second daughter, who they also named Markarit. The family grew with the addition of two more daughters, Zarouhi, born in 1937, and Araxie born in 1945. Armenouhi was a member of the Garmir Khach (Armenian Red Cross) and the Dignatsmiyoutyun (Ladies Guild) of the Soorp Asdvadzadzin Armenian Apostolic Church of Whitinsville, MA. Yervant became a US citizen in 1928 and his wife Armenouhi became an American citizen in 1949. Markarit, Zarouhi and Araxie Tiberian presently reside in Whitinsville.

Yervant died in 1970. and Armenouhi died in 1999; they are buried together at Pine Grove Cemetery.