Greek Ancestry Newsletter
March 2022, V.I Issue 1
We love our Greek Ancestry community and want to keep you up to date!
Besides, who does not need company in their family history journey?
What happened this month?
G. Zimmar, A Review of The Greek Revolution: 1821 and the Making of Modern Europe
Two hundred years have passed since my g-g- grandfather, joined the war against the Ottoman tyranny in Peloponnesus. Little did he 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.
New records released
Over 2,000 Male Register records from Arcadia were released on Greek Ancestry this month! They include the villages of Kounoupia, Mari and Tsitalia in the area of Kynouria in southern Arcadia.

Do you have family from Arcadia? Search in our database to access thousands of family records!
Research Tips
Carol Kostakos Petranek

Paratsoukli and Double Names - One of the stumbling blocks of Greek genealogy is a family’s use of more than one name. This is a common practice in villages where there are often several people with the same name. Thus, a nickname or paratsoukli was used to identify a specific branch of a family. Although all the villagers will know a family’s “real” name and the paratsoukli, you may not. Therefore, while you are diligently searching for your Giannakos grandfather, in actuality, his “real” surname was Gkokas. His family may have adopted the paratsoukli, Giannakos (son of Giannis or Ioannis), to differentiate themselves from other Gkokas lines.

When you begin your research, always ask if the family used a different name. That question can save you hours of time and much frustration! This post, “How Do They Call You?” provides more information on double names and provides several examples that I uncovered in my personal research.


Georgia Stryker Keilman

Resources from the Hellenic Genealogy Geek website - The following links will take you to resources for Greek Diaspora Communities in Russia and Ukraine:
Village History Projects Initiative (VHPI)
On March 12th, the VHPI held its second virtual meeting. We had the opportunity to discuss many of our projects and welcome new members. We are very happy that the VHPI community is growing (currently including 22 projects) and expanding into new areas of Greece, with Kozani being our newest addition! We urge everyone interested in their village genealogy and history to connect with our VHPI members or launch a project of their own, if their areas are not represented yet! Joining the VHPI is free and comes with privileges, such as the quarterly VHPI grant by Greek Ancestry and discounts on the Greek Ancestry website. To join us, click here.
Did you miss any events?
RootsTech 2022 - Carol Kostakos Petranek and Gregory Kontos of Greek Ancestry presented "Greek Genealogy: Exploring Digital Records" at this year's RootsTech conference! You can watch the two presentations for free by clicking here.

Greek genealogy meet-Up - On March 10th, Carol Kostakos Petranek and Gregory Kontos welcomed fellow genealogy geeks at the Washington D.C. Family History Center for a free consultation session.

Greek genealogy workshop - On March 12th, Carol Kostakos Petranek and Gregory Kontos joined a virtual Greek genealogy workshop sponsored by the Greek Heritage Society of Southern California and Loyola Marymount University.
Announcements
New! Greek Ancestry Discussion Group

Would you like to learn more about the lives of your ancestors? Greek Ancestry is pleased to announce its newest initiative – a discussion group with the purpose of examining and discussing published articles that explore life in the modern Greek state. We will focus on topics which will help us understand our ancestors’ times and circumstances: culture, customs, family and social relations, village life, history, language and geography. To keep information relevant to our genealogical research timespan, the time period will be limited to the years 1700 to 1950.

This group is open to all. To enable worldwide participation, we meet via Zoom bimonthly on the first Sunday of the month at 1:00 PM Eastern time. We will begin on May 1. Each newsletter will have information for the next discussion group. Additional posts will be on the Greek Ancestry User’s Group and the Hellenic Genealogy Geek Facebook pages.
We are excited about this new opportunity to learn together. Please Join Us!
Date: Sunday, May 1 at 1:00 PM EDT

Article: “Early Modern Greece: Liquid Landscapes and Fluid Populations,” by Hamish Forbes. Article explores the evolution of surnames, naming patterns, nicknames and population mobility. Click here for link to article on JSTOR. Register for free account. On page with article, in right-hand column, click on Alternate Access Options for Independent Researchers, then click on Read Online. For Zoom link, click here.


2nd Int'l Greek Ancestry Conference

We are glad to inform you that all the presentations of the 2nd International Greek Ancestry Conference have been made available on Greek Ancestry's YouTube channel! If you missed a presentation or want to refresh what you learned, click here. Feedback and recommendations for next year's conference are more than welcome!
Greek Ancestry