Greek Ancestry has repeatedly expressed its commitment to assisting Greek adoptees to find their biological families, trace their roots and share their stories... The time has now come for us to fulfill this commitment in the best way possible!

On August 29th, Greek Ancestry and the Greek Branch of the International Social Service inaugurated their collaboration to digitize the vast and invaluable archival collection of the ISS! Covering the years from the 1950s up to 1985, our project aims at preserving this archival treasure and the history of Greek children who were adopted by families abroad. At the same time, a special database will facilitate the work of the ISS in providing adoptees with precious information and documentation, faster than ever!

As more announcements and updates about this project will be released soon, make sure you stay tuned!

Carol Kostakos Petranek

Beyond the Basics: Εφημερίς της Κυβερνήσεως, The Government Newspaper - Sometimes we need to dig into “out of the ordinary” resources to find new historical and genealogical information. One such resource is the Εφημερίς της Κυβερνήσεως, the Government Newspaper, printed by the National Printing Office.

Published weekly since 1833 (yes, from the beginning of the modern Greek state), its issues, known as Φ.Ε.Κ. cover all laws, decrees, appointments and judgments of the Greek government. Supplemental issues containing lists of men eligible to serve as jurors and those who were called to military duty have also been published. All the Φ.Ε.Κ. issues have been digitized, and are available to view and download at this link. There are digital copies of the Φ.Ε.Κ. for the years 1826-1864 published by Google Books and available at this link. To learn more about using and accessing the Φ.Ε.Κ., please read this article published on Spartan Roots.

Georgia Stryker Keilman

Resources from the Hellenic Genealogy Geek Website - Do you have ancestors from Arcadia who may have fought in the Greek War of Independence? In 1995, George Papatheodorou wrote a book titled “Arcadia: A cultural history book” that was published by Deca in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. On the Hellenic Genealogy Geek website you can find lists of the names of those who are recorded as having fought! To find the lists, follow this link.