Find Ancestors

Looking for information about the surname Saif, have been looking for many years and believe it is from the middle east. Does anyone know if there are any places to find people born in these areas around the year 1890's.
Thank you in advance, have been looking for about 25 years.

Go to www.familysearch.org, the Mormon site


Enter Saif and nothing else in the search boxes on the first page


You will get loads of Saif names .... many seem to be in Germanny


Be warned a lot of the information on that site is not to be trusted ........ the data has been entered by members of the church without any backing documentation, and some of it has been shown to be false.

Really trustworthy information on that site are the censuses and the EXTRACTED records on the International Genealogical Index


Hope this gives you some leads




sylvia

There's a Louis Saif on the 1901 census who was Austrian, his wife Bertha was Swedish.

Good Day,
Thank you for the answers that I have received. I have tried the site that Sylvia suggested and have not found anything connected. I know when this gentleman died and where he is buried but apart from that have been unable to find when he arrived in the UK or from where. He was at sea and have found where he was onboard when the ship called in the USA but do not know where he was born. Could be Oman, Muscat as someone who knew him said they used to call him Muscat.
Does anyone have any idea how to find out where he was born, do not know if his parents lived in UK or stayed in Oman. The gentleman was born in 1895.
Best Regards

googled and it appears to occur mostly in Muslim countries - Asia - India, Pakistan etc

what was his full name?

There are quite a few Saifs on the Ellis Island site, from Syria, Beyrouth and Zalitch Danoin (wherever that is).

The Gentleman's full name was Salem Saif but at one time on some documents it was recorded as Chef but not when he died in 1963/64 in Anfield, Liverpool. Know this, as a very nice man found the plot number of the site in the Anfield burial site.
Have to agree that Syria is one of the possible places but no records as far as I know from any of these countries.

There's a tree on Ancestry that has Salem Saif born 1894, married Elizabeth Maud Law, 1922, Wales and died 1965 Liverpool.

Thank you, that is part of my family although it is not my tree. I found most of the details of this gentleman but not been able to find where he was born. The man who runs that tree has given up on him and left it up to me again. I started looking for him 27 years ago so maybe I will hit gold one day.

An update on Salem Saif aka Chef, it seems we were right on track twenty eight years ago when we started looking. Beleive this gentleman was born in Yeman and joined a ship in Aden as many young men did. Still trying to find records about him, have tried looking at the National Archives site where I believe there is information but living outside of UK it is not possible to make a visit. The information is not avaiable to download so may have to wait a long time to find out what is there. Thank you everyone for your input.

Update on Salem, I now have his naturalization paper from the UK Archives and he was born in Oman in 1895. Seems the only way to find more information is to the area where he was born or find someone who goes there. I feel so good to have come this far so maybe .........

Just wondering if the British (or which ever) Embassy could help? They probably couldn't in an official capacity, but might be able to put you in touch with an ex-pat or interested National who could.

Thank you any help would be great

Salem's father was Salem and his mother was called Asia, do not know if he had any siblings so if anyone comes across any of these family names from Oman would love to hear

Wow Caroline, it's taken you a long time to get to this point but so pleased you seem to be getting there bit by bit.

You must be very determined and extremely patient. Hope you eventually manage to crack it. <3