Greek Ancestry
Discover your Greek ancestors
Search Records
Services
Guidebook
Education
News & Articles
Are you ready for the International Greek Ancestry Conference?
The International Greek Ancestry Conference, held from January 29th through the 31st, will be a landmark event for our field of Greek family history and genealogy! 2020 has been a challenging year for us all. However, perhaps one of the few things 2020 was a good year...
Greek Ancestry’s Year in Review
Greek Ancestry was founded in January 2020 and will be celebrating its one-year anniversary soon with an International Greek Ancestry Conference scheduled for the end of January 2021. Of course, 2020 has been a tough year for everyone. However, our passion for our...
Traditional Greek Dances – An interview with Nikos Bariamis
By Alexandra Kiritsy & Gregory Kontos Alexandra: Yiayia & Me is all about encouraging and helping Greeks around the world to get involved with family history to whatever degree they’d like! We know and appreciate how people connect with their family heritage...
Traditional Greek Costumes – An interview with Nikos Bariamis
By Alexandra Kiritsy & Gregory Kontos Alexandra: Yiayia & Me is all about encouraging and helping Greeks around the world to get involved with family history to whatever degree they’d like! We know and appreciate how people connect with their family heritage...
Greek Ancestry joins forces with Greece 200 on its “Your Story” project
Today, Greek Ancestry is excited to announce yet another collaboration, this time with Greece 200 on its amazing "Your Story" project! Greece 200 is a Diaspora initiative which aims to compile, promote, and share all things related to the 200th anniversary of the...
Let’s discover their stories together!
Tales of the Park Manor Sweet Shop: A Greek American Experience
By George Zimmar In 1953, my parents purchased a luncheonette on the corner of 75th and South Park Avenue (later named Martin Luther King Drive) in Chicago for about $7000. Actually, for the residents in the neighborhood it was a more than just a place to eat: It was...
Child abductions during WWII
Maybe Aspasia or her descendants are among the readers of this article. Maybe not. What is certain is that this archival material gives hope to anyone trying to discover more about family members and ancestors who were abducted during the dark times of the Second World War.
A Review of “The Greek Revolution: 1821 and the Making of Modern Europe” by Mark Mazower
Two hundred years have passed since twenty-year-old Anagnostis Zymaras, my great, great grandfather, joined the company of Kapetan Kostas Katsikas along with other peasants to overthrow the Ottoman tyranny in Peloponnesus. Little did Anagnosis envision that two centuries later the eminent historian of the Balkans, Mark Mazower, would chronicle the revolution that followed, concluding that the independence of Greece had far-reaching effects on nationalist movements throughout Europe.
Services
Consultations
Greek Ancestry provides free Greek genealogy consultations. Book yours now!
Document Translation
Is it all Greek to you? Do you need help reading old Greek documents? No worries! Let us know how we can help!
Research
When family history research requires professional assistance, contact us. Let’s build your family tree together!
Guidebook
Sign In
Explore
Sign Up
Upcoming Events
unique family records!
Let's get in touch
Καλωσήρθες! Welcome to the Greek Genealogy Guide!
Here you can learn everything you need to know about Greek genealogy and family history.
Written by
Gregory Kontos
and
Carol Kostakos Petranek
Hellenic ancestry is a source of extraordinary pride and unique identity. Learning the country’s history and understanding the life of its people is a continual journey of knowledge and discovery. Perhaps this is most evident in pursuing the study of one’s Greek family history. Fostering a connectedness to family can stretch beyond the living to include the departed, but only when information about them can be ascertained. What were the names of our second or third great-grandparents? How many children did they have? What were their occupations? And, most important—how do I even begin to access records about them?
Prior to now, answering these questions has been challenging. But the doors of Greek genealogy have now opened to reveal a new era in research. The work being done by Gregory Kontos of Greek Ancestry is groundbreaking and exciting. With the advent of online translated, name-indexed and searchable records from Greece, finding one’s ancestors is not only possible—it is highly probable!
By consulting this Guide, one can navigate the complexities of Greek genealogy and find the correct resources to both access and request relevant documentation for his or her ancestors. It is the beginning of an exciting journey of discovery—and love.
Carol Kostakos Petranek
January 31, 2021