Over 2,500 records from the 1911 City Directory of Volos were released on Greek Ancestry this month!

A City Directory record includes an individual's given name and surname, his/her occupation, and sometimes his/her father's initial! This is a very interesting type of record, as it allows us to reconstruct the street, the village or the whole town where our ancestors lived!

Do you have family from Volos? Search in our database to access thousands of family records!

We are excited to welcome four new projects to our VHPI family! Shanna Crump Balamis has started working on the family trees of Kiveri, Argolida; Dorothy Stavros is exploring the genealogy of the families of Pallantion, Arcadia; Drakata and Ano Meria, Kefalonia, have found their genealogy speciliast in Dyann Haritatos Nashton, while Peter Nemtsas will soon launch a website on the family histories of Levissi, Asia Minor!

We urge everyone interested in their village genealogy and history to connect with our VHPI members or launch a project on 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. To see and access current VHPI projects, click here.

Follow the Records! - Trying to accurately identify one’s Greek family immediately after the Greek Revolution and during the establishment of the modern Greek state is extraordinarily challenging! Despite our years of research, Georgia Stryker Keilman and I have difficulties in identifying some of our ancestors. The combination of scarce records, inaccurate information, name changes/double names, family relocations and difficulties in transcribing old Greek handwriting contribute to our research woes.

But we are always optimistic and rejoice when we have success! In this post, “Follow the Records, Part One” Georgia shares the strategies she used to resolve a common research question: What was the given name of her great-grandfather’s father?

Resources from the Hellenic Genealogy Geek Website - Are you planning a trip to Greece this summer? Don't forget to visit the local Folklore and Specialty Museums. Step back in time, and gain a better understanding of how your ancestor's lived and worked in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Here is a link to over 50 Folklore and Specialty Museums throughout Greece. This list is just a portion of the local museums available. When you arrive, ask if there are any additional places you should see! If you can't make it to Greece in person, go online and look at the websites for these museums, as most of them have photographs of their exhibits.