What does it mean to belong?

For more than a century, Syrian and Lebanese families have made homes across the American South. These communities — often overlooked in broader national narratives — built lives, opened businesses and raised generations in cities and towns from Mississippi to Michigan. Their stories are rooted in migration, resilience, adaptation and the quiet power of everyday life.

While many may associate Syrian and Lebanese history with coastal enclaves or urban immigrant hubs, the truth is more expansive. In regions like Dearborn’s Southend or the working neighborhoods of Birmingham, Alabama, Syrian and Lebanese families carved out their own space — building churches and mosques, opening shops, learning new languages and passing down culture in kitchens, classrooms and places of worship.

And yet, much of this history had gone unrecorded. 

In 2014, the Arab American National Museum launched the Family History Archive, our digital collection that shines a light on the lived experiences of Syrian and Lebanese families in the American South and Midwest. This archive isn’t just a database — it’s a living document of stories passed down, photographs preserved and voices that haven’t always been heard.

With more than seventy oral histories, collected at community conventions across the region from 2014-2022, the Family History Archive offers an intimate portrait of Syrian and Lebanese American life. These are stories told in first person — rich with detail, emotion and a sense of place. Stories about the smell of food in grandmother’s kitchen. About learning English in classrooms full of hope. About labor on factory floors, childhood games in neighborhood alleys, and the small triumphs and challenges of building a life between two cultures.

Through a curated collection of photographs, documents and recorded interviews, the archive makes history feel personal. Black-and-white snapshots of weddings, storefronts and community centers offer windows into the past — moments that feel at once distant and deeply familiar. You’ll find images of union workers in Detroit, families celebrating Eid in Alabama, children posing proudly for school portraits and handwritten letters from parents to children across the ocean.

These everyday artifacts tell extraordinary stories.

They tell of perseverance during periods of political tension, of holding on to cultural identity while navigating assimilation and of preserving heritage in places where community sometimes had to be built from scratch. They also tell of joy, solidarity and celebration — evidence of a community that has not only endured but flourished.

The Family History Archive isn’t about famous names or singular events. It’s about honoring the legacy of people whose stories might otherwise go untold — people who made dinner, marched in protests, ran small businesses or simply showed up for their neighbors. These are the stories that shape our collective memory.

Preserving History 

The launch of the archive in 2014 and its maintenance arrived at a moment when the preservation of community memory was more important than ever. As generational knowledge risks being lost, and as dominant narratives often erase or flatten our identities, it’s critical that institutions like AANM create space for reflection, education and representation.

The Family History Archive allows us to learn not just from historians, but from our elders, our parents and our neighbors. It centers voices that have long been on the margins and invites all of us to consider what history looks like when it’s told from the inside out.

This archive is also part of AANM’s broader commitment to collecting, preserving and sharing our stories across the nation. Whether through exhibitions, artist residencies, oral histories or educational programming, the Museum continues to serve as a hub for cultural connection and storytelling.

This is Southern history.
This is Lebanese and Syrian history.
This is family history — in their own words.

We invite you to explore the Family History Archive today. Dive into voices from the past. Witness the evolution of a community. And rediscover what it means to belong.