Person: Joseph Abdy

Joseph Abdy

Name:
Joseph Abdy

Occupation:
General storekeeper and hawker/dealer

Religion:
Catholic/Melkite

Birthplace:
Zahle, Syria/Lebanon

Arrival In Australia:
1898

Years Lived In Brisbane:
1909 - 1933

Date Of Naturalization:
29/11/1913

Year Of Birth:
1883

Place Of Death:
Brisbane

Date Of Death:
16/09/1933

Residential Address

  • Type of Location:
    Address: 19 Ernest Street South Brisbane

Spouse

  • Marriage Date: 9/08/1905
    Birthplace of spouse: Abbilias or Zahle Mount Lebanon
    Heritage of spouse: Syian/Lebanese
    Place of marriage: Brisbane

Story

When he applied for naturalization in 1913, Joseph Abdy was 29 years old and had lived in Australia since May 1902. At the time, Joseph and his family lived at Russell Street South Brisbane. In the mandatory police report regarding an applicant for naturalization, he was described as a person of ‘good character’ and not ‘a coloured man’. It was also reported he had been a general storekeeper at Woodford until 1909 when he came to Brisbane and was currently a horse dealer.

Understanding that as Asians, Syrian/Lebanese were excluded from naturalization, Joseph stated his birthplace as Constantinople. The police reported that while Joseph could not produce any documentary evidence to support this, Salim Azar, ‘a native of Turkey, since naturalised in the Commonwealth’, knew Joseph well and confirmed that his parents resided in Constantinople. As was the case with both Salim and Joseph, claiming a European birthplace was a successful strategy used by many Syrian/Lebanese to circumvent their racially defined exclusion from citizenship.  In 1941, when Joseph’s son, Michael applied to join the RAAF and needed a copy of his father’s naturalization papers to be accepted, the family stated Joseph was born in Zahle, Mount Lebanon.

References

Courier-Mail (Brisbane), 18 September 1933, p. 13, viewed 10 September 2021, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1120350

NAA: A659, 1941/1/2467, Abdy, J – Naturalisation.