Greek Ancestry Newsletter
June 2022, V.I Issue 4
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?
George Zimmar, "Tales of the Park Manor Sweet Shop: A Greek-American Experience"
For immigrants like my parents, Peter and Sophia, owning a retail business was the road to an independent income and some control over their family’s destiny. We were the only family in the Park Manor neighborhood with Greek roots, a different religion, a distinct cuisine, and who spoke two languages.
New records released
Over 1,000 records from the 1901 Business Directory of Karditsa were released on Greek Ancestry this month!

A Business 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 Karditsa? Search in our database to access thousands of family records!
Research Tips
Carol Kostakos Petranek & Georgia Stryker Keilman

Proving or Disproving a Family Story - We all have family stories passed down by our parents, grandparents or other relatives. Because they are told by those who love us, our tendency is to assume that they are both factual and accurate. And they may be. But if they are not, our attempt to prove the story can cause us to ignore records that don’t support what we think is true.

This happens all too often to many of us, whether we are seasoned researchers or beginners. It happened to our colleague, Georgia Stryker Keilman, as she attempted to prove the following story about her maternal great-great grandmother, Marigo Fousketakis:

My great-great grandfather, Ioannis Fousketakis, was from Hania, Crete. He was conscripted into the Ottoman Empire military. During his service, in what is currently Turkey, he met a young woman (Marigo) and fell in love. She sewed gold coins into the hems of her clothing and ran off to be married. They ended up in Sparta, Greece and had four sons.

Such a fascinating, intriguing and romantic scenario! Who wouldn’t love this as part of their family history? But was it true? Click here to read Georgia’s account of how she proved/disproved this story and learned the truth about Ioannis and Marigo.


Georgia Stryker Keilman

Resources from the Hellenic Genealogy Geek Website - The 261 libraries in Greece are some of the most underutilized resources for those of us doing family research on our Greek ancestors. This link is to the Greek Libraries Network. It offers a map and a list of all the local and municipal libraries including email contact information for each location.

If you are lucky enough to be going to Greece, make sure you stop in and check if there are any local histories on your villages of interest. Now that everyone has a mobile phone with a camera, make sure you take the time to photograph each page for your future research needs.
Announcements
Two surprises awaiting - The next month is expected to be fascinating for Greek Ancestry's followers! A huge collection is going to be released adding over half a million new records to our database, while technical developments are about to create a unique research experience on our website... Stay tuned!