Would you like to join the Greece Project?

Question

           Welcome to the newly official
Greece Project,
part of the Global Project

If you have Greek ancestry or have a love for Greece, you are more than welcome to join us and help grow our global tree.  Our goal is to create a central space for sharing resources and building our skills in Greek genealogy.

Joining is easy:

1. Visit the Greece Project page to learn how you can help and to find some resources and other helpful information.
2. Add Greece to your followed tags.
3. Post an answer below expressing that you would like to join the project, introducing yourself, and stating your research interests.

WikiTree page: Greece Project

Answer 1

Hi all,

I got involved to research my family's history and roots, and I am willing to dedicate some time to help build up this community. I am aware of a handful of resources that could be of interest, a few facebook groups, some websites run by genealogists working on Greeks, the genealogy guidelines on Geni about Greek profiles. Happy to become a member of the project. I am also extremely willing on working on anyone possibly related to me, or from the same villages. I don't know what the best way to share this info is yet, so I am open to suggestions.

Looking forward to this!

P.S. I live in Athens

Comments

Hi Stelios,

Thanks for joining the Greece Project!  I will send you an email shortly.

Mark

Answer 2

Not going to be an easy one as the records in Greece were never well kept or were destroyed in WW2.

However I have some information on my family from Crete, though it is a little scant and there is no one left to help.

Difficulty will be in surnames, many parts of Greece the men and women have different surnames, the male ends with "S" and the female does not. An example is my mother Mastoraki, but her father was Mastorakis.

Sometimes the ending of the name denotes their origins, "Kis or Ki" is normally Crete. Afraid I don't know them all.

Main records are kept in local churches.

Added to this is they often cite their birthday date when it is their name day. The name day is quite often after a Saints day around their birth. Unless they are named after a relative.

Still let's see what we come up with.

Comments

Hi Richard,

Thanks again for joining the Greece Project!  And thanks for this great bit of information!

Mark

Answer 3

You can add me! My father was Greek and I have some limited information on his side of the family. I have lots of Greek DNA cousins but can identify my relationship with only a couple. I'm not sure I will get much further on my tree, but I keep my eyes open for potential clues.

Comments

Hi Jane,

Thanks for joining the Greece Project!  I will send you an email shortly.

Mark

---

Thank you, Mark!

---

Hi Jane, What area of Greece is your father from? I may be able to help steer you in a direction to find records.

---

Carol, his family was from the Ionian Island of Kefalonia. Any resources are appreciated!

---

Jane, try a search on the surname at GreekAncestry.net - - click on Search, and under Prefecture/Province, scroll down to Keffalinia. Another resource is the Greek collections at MyHeritage: https://www.myheritage.com/research/catalog?s=210681471&q=greece. Click on each collection and type in your surname. FamilySearch has a large collection of records from Kefallonia. You need to sign in, then search the Catalog for Cephalonia -- this link should take you there: https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/results?count=20&placeId=1929716&query=%2Bplace%3A%22Greece%2C%20Cephalonia%22. At the top of the page, click on "Places within Cephalonia" and the village names will appear. Click on the village of interest and the records for that village will appear. Some go back to the early 1800's, and amazingly, there are some village church records. You will need to go to a FamilySearch Center to view the records, which are in handwritten Greek.

Answer 4

My grandfather was from Vatousa, Lesbos. I learned that when you see the suffix “ellis” at the end of a name, it can denote English or Lesbos, Greece ancestry.

Comments

That's good to know.  Thanks for the tip, Susan!

Answer 5

I am very much interested. I have done extensive research on my own and I have traveled around Greece searching for facts. I am still trying to piece together my paternal grandmother's story since there is a huge secret there that noone talked about and took to their graves. I was fortunate enough to find a book of a local historian who had listed an event that I think might be the secret but I need concrete relations between people to find out if that event pertains to my family and hence it is the secret. Recently I did a DNA test and they could only trace my mother's family. My father also did a DNA test and some of his results pertain to the secret. My father has memories of specific places and conversations with his mother that point to some of the results of the DNA test. But my results, although only on my mother's side turned out to be extremely surprising!!! I need to track my genealogy in Greece!!! I need help

Comments

Hi Eleni,

Thanks for joining the Greece Project!  I will send you an email shortly.

Mark

---

Hi Eleni, You may need the help of a professional researcher. My colleague, Gregory Kontos of GreekAncestry.net gives free 1/2 hour consultations. You may consider contacting him at greekancestry@outlook.com to schedule an appointment. Do you have the village of origin?

Answer 6

I am very happy to learn about this Greece group and am delighted to join. I am a new OPS member, and have registered my village of Agios Ioannis, Sparta. I am Spartan on both sides of my family and continue to do extensive research in Spartan villages. Please let me know how I can assist in the region of Lakonia, Greece.

Comments

Hi Carol,

Thanks for joining the Greece Project!

Here are some pointers to get started:
1. Add your Greek ancestors to the project, and include the Greek Roots Sticker
2. Add at least one valid source to each of your Greek profiles.  The Resources tab on the Project page may help you find some sources.
3. If you have any additional resources that you would like to share, please feel free to let me know and I'll add them.

Mark

Answer 7

I would love to join this project. I have a brick wall for my ancestor who migrated from Greece to Wales. I have a greek name but I know no greek language and I don't know what part of Greece my ancestors came from, except maybe close to Cesme in Turkey.

Comments

Hi Jamie,

Thanks for joining the Greece Project!  I will send you an email shortly.

Mark

Answer 8

Hello, I would love to join the Greece project because I have ancestors in Greece. My name is Jarrett and I am from the USA. My main research interest's include the surnames Ariti and Gataki!

Comments

Hi J,

Thanks for joining the Greece Project!  I will send you an email shortly.

Mark