Category: Education
International Greek Ancestry Conference (Jan. 29-31, 2021)
Save the date – spread the word – join us!
Thessaloniki – La Madre de Israel
By Alexandra Kiritsy & Gregory Kontos When Jewish colonists were brought to the newly founded city of Macedonia around 315 B.C., no one could have imagined that Thessaloniki’s history would be closely associated with Jewish …
“My Big Fat Greek Ancestry Summer” Webinar
Despite the pandemic, the past summer was very productive for Greek Ancestry: new collections, new research tools, new analyses and a brand new platform! We would like to share all our news with you this …
Statistics Meet Genealogy: Male Aging Patterns in Lakonia (1910s-1930s)
In June 2020, a special article presenting statistics on naming patterns in the prefecture of Chania, Crete, was published on Greek Ancestry. That analysis was based on our database of Male Register records of approximately …
Parish Voter Lists
By Gregory Kontos To dive into family history, you need to understand your sources. This has been quite often noted in Greek Ancestry articles and webinars, yet it has to be repeated until it becomes …
Reflections Of My Homeland: The diary of a man from Palaia Fokaia, Asia Minor
By Alexandra Kiritsy Geia sas, everyone! We are very excited to bring you another article about life in Greek villages around the turn of the century. This week’s piece takes us to Asia Minor, where …
Statistics Meet Genealogy: Naming Patterns in Chania, Crete (1850s-1910)
By Gregory Kontos Your grandfather was born in a village close to Chania, Crete in 1902. His name was Antonis, and you are wondering how common a name that was back then. His surname was …
Reflections Of My Homeland: An Account of Village Life in Geraki, Lakonia
Foreword by Alexandra Kiritsy I have always found imagining the world of my Greek yiayia, say, around the turn of the 20th century, to be a difficult task. Looking back at old black-and-white photographs of …
The great importance of “little” source citations
By Gregory Kontos A source citation is a little note of a relatively standard format which indicates where a piece of information was found: the archive, the collection, the folder, the subfolder. Such notes are …
Introducing “Yiayia & Me”
By Alexandra Kiritsy Geia sas and welcome, everyone! Thank you for checking out our first “Yiayia & Me” article! Read on to learn more about this new platform! What is the goal of Yiayia & …
Asia Minor Ancestry
After the great interest expressed in this during the first Greek genealogy webinar of April 25th, 2020, we decided to share this story and information. Some time ago, our team was at the General State …
Greek Ancestry Education, #2: Using US records to find your ancestors’ surname and village
In this video, Carol Kostakos Petranek, a pioneer of Greek genealogy, will teach you how to use US immigration, naturalization and alien registration records to find your Greek ancestors’ original surname and village of origin.
Greek Ancestry Education, #1: Two things you need to know before starting your research
This video discusses the two things you need to know when starting your research: the family’s original surname and the family’s exact place of origin.
Ten years Hellenic Genealogy Geek: An assessment of last ten-year developments
In a few days, on April 16th, Hellenic Genealogy Geek celebrates its anniversary. When it was created ten years ago, in 2010, no one would have imagined the developments that were to follow in the field of Greek genealogy.
Retrieving lost connections: from Greece to Romania
After 100 years a family is reunited, retrieving lost connections: from Greece to Romania