Background of AbiEzzi family

Deep History

From the book of Genesis:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ...

And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. ...

Then God said, "let the land produce vegetation and living creatures, ... the water teem with living creatures, ... "

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, ..."

Modern science clarified the details of these events as follows:

The three creations that we know about:

God's creation of the visible universe - matter, energy and physics

13 billion years - The big bang launched the universe, virtually from nothing, and created physics. The universe marched forward according to the laws of nature (physics) and along the axis of time, never looked back.

The stars created chemistry through billions of years of nuclear fusion. From the basic element of Hydrogen all the complex elements of the periodic table were born.
4.6 billion years - formation of the solar system centered around the Sun (an average sized star) including our planet Earth from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud, in an unremarkable location of the average sized Milky Way galaxy.

Creation of life on earth - mother earth created biology

3.8 billion years - the earliest life form/organic matter appears
2.5 billion years - first microscopic organisms to utilize oxygen
600 millions years - first multi-cellular beings appear
500 million years - first vertebrates appear
(240 million years - dinosaurs appear - not in our line of ancestry)
220 million years - small mammals appear
125 million years - placental mammals appear
65 million years - large mammals including primates appear, most likely expedited by the extinction of the dinosaurs
7 million years - first hominids appear, genetic separation with the chimpanzees
3 million years - first full bipedal hominids (Lucy) appear in the Rift Valley of Africa

2 million years - Homo Erectus appear in the Great Rift Valley . Human like: taller (6 feet), slimmer, significantly bigger brain at 900 cc (chimps & Lucy at 400 cc). First use of stone tools and weapons, hunting large mammals, first use of controlled fire. Leaves East Africa and spreads throughout Eurasia, survive until 50,000 years ago in pockets in East Asia.
200 thousand years - homo sapiens appear in East Africa, characterized with a larger brain (1,400 cc)
150 thousand years - Mitochondrial Eve in East Africa, most recent common female ancestor
60 thousand years - Y-chromosomal Adam in East Africa, most recent common male ancestor. Homo sapiens leave Eastern Africa, all non-Africans carry the M168 mutation. Estimated number of homo sapiens is ten thousands (what fits in a small town today!).

Man's creation - technology, science, art, religion, etc. through intellect

13 thousand years - the J haplogroup (M304 mutation ) immerges in the Middle East/Fertile Crescent and its members initiate farming by domesticating plants and animals, which leads to the social evolution from nomadic hunter-gatherers into settled agriculturalists, which in turn leads to the first civilizations.
5500 years - first large civilizations in Mesopotamia and Egypt, first writing systems, invention of the wheel, first organized armies/wars, etc

3900 years - Abraham's time and the start of monotheism
3500 years - the Phoenicians immerge along the eastern Mediterranean coast and excel at ship building, sea faring, settlement development and trade throughout the Mediterranean. They invent the linear alphabet, a profound innovation that was adopted by the Greeks and the Hebrews. They established the first world-economy surrounded by empires. Recent studies show that they belong to the J2 haplogroup (M172 mutation), a descendent of J.

2000 years - Jesus' teaching of love and forgiveness ushers the Christian faith which is now adopted by more than two billion people
Fifth century AD - Saint Maroun, the patron saint of the Maronite Catholics, lives in the coastal mountains of Syria during the Byzantine era

Seventh century AD - the Maronites take refuge in the mountains of Lebanon and convert the local population to Christianity

Sixteenth century AD - Lebanon falls under Ottoman rule
around 1820 - the first AbouEzzi, a Maronite Lebanese, adopts the last name and settles Kherbit-Qanafar in the Bekaa valley of Lebanon.
1910 - Michel Salim AbiEzzi is born in Kherbit-Qanafar and ends up with the "AbiEzzi" variation of the last name due to a typo on his ID card.
1920 - Lebanon and Syria are placed under a French mandate
1943 - modern Lebanon is born, independence from French colonial rule
1970 - Joseph Michel AbiEzzi is Michel's son and the first AbiEzzi to immigrate to the Boston area to study at the University of Lowell. He paved the way for his siblings and their families to follow in the eighties and nineties.
1977 - Michel Antoine AbouEzzi is the first of the grandchildren to start university education in the USA. Completed a Master's degree from MIT with focus on solar energy, made grandpa proud!
1980 - Salim Samir AbiEzzi, Michel's second oldest grandson, joined his cousin Michel for university studies. His DNA testing later on indicated the J2 haplogroup and hence Phoenician ancestry.
2002 - Ashley, Sophia & Andrew AbiEzzi are born to proud parents Laurie and Salim in the Seattle area of Washington state. They are among a whole new generation of AbiEzzis and AbouEzzis who are born in the USA; thus in a few decades a whole family lineage immigrates to the new world after thousands of years of localized living in the Middle East. East Africa, Middle East and now North America; the journey of man continues!