“At the time of Heranuş’s [Hranush] childhood, Habab [Arm.: Havav; today Ekinozu] was a large village of 204 dwellings, situated within the boundaries of Palu and the district of Ergani-Maden. The village boasted two churches and one monastery.
Heranuş was the second child to be born to Isguhi and Hovannes’ Gadaryan. (…) Heranuş’s father Hovannes was the third of seven children and one of six boys. (…)
Heranuş’s grandfather, Hayrabed Efendi, was a highly respected teacher who was known and loved throughout Palu and its environs, as well as Ergani-Maden, and Kiğı. He was known as a good man; people listened to what he said. In those days there were colleges in Ergani-Maden and Kiğı to which children went to study after finishing primary school. Hayrabed Efendi taught in these colleges. He was a trustee of the church and served as its choirmaster. It was said that his brother, Antreas Gadaryan, was a distinguished teacher who was even better known than he. If people had trouble reading old Armenian texts, they would take them to him. No matter how difficult it was, Antreas would decipher it in no time. In his book entitled Palu and its Traditions: its education and its intellectual life [in Armenian; Cairo, 1932], Father Harutyun Sarkisyan wrote these words about him: ‘The educator Antreas Gadaryan was a child of Anatolia… he was short and spoke very little, but under his thick eyebrows, his bright eyes shone with an intelligence that impressed all those who met him from the moment they made his acquaintance.’”
Excerpted from: Çetin, Fethiye: My Grandmother: A Memoir. London, New York: Verso, 2008, p. 5f.