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Debbie Sideratos - Petrides
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My initial intention was to research and share a basic family tree that would include all 16 of my 2nd great-grandparents and the journeys of their descendants to the present day. I soon realized that there was no reason to limit my research to 2nd great-grandparents at all. I discovered several 3rd great-grandparents as well, which in turn, led me to further discoveries, thus giving a more vivid picture of the life of these early families. There are many amusing stories and a record of migration tracing to Egypt, Australia and the USA. Our familes experienced Chios from the early 1800's just after the Ottoman massacre, through the tremendous earthquake in 1881, Greek unification in 1912, the mass exodus that took place from the village in the early 1900's, WW1 and WW2 and the changes that took place in more modern times. But through it all we maintained a very strong tie with each other and the land of our ancestors. We were farmers, animal breeders, dress makers, soldiers, restaurant owners and members of the clergy. The monastery of Nea Moni played an important part in the lives of our early ancestors and of course, each family's welfare and way of life was a direct result of the politics of the time. Tremendously large families were common and marriage within the village to 2nd and 3rd cousins was the rule rather than the exception. But the most fascinating fact that I've discovered is that much of modern day Dafnonas is descended from a handful of people. Fortunately, there remains a significant amount of written history in the form of dowries, wills, land grants available which helped in my research. Along with this, there exists a collective oral history that I took advantage of by interviewing family members before this history vanishes, as it otherwise would if not properly preserved. UPDATE June 19, 2009 - translated and incorporated into project 26 wills! - discovered http://www.koraeslibrary.gr/dam and am collecting newspaper articles - our 4th G-grand Stephanos Casanova DID escape the Chios massacre of 1821 and ended up in the UK educated by the British and Foreign School Society at Borough Road! - land documents of 4th g-grand Petros Begakis photographed and waiting for my impatient little eyes to read them - John Perdikakis on Kalamaras line had a huge arson trial in 1933-1934! - birth certificates found at municipality of Kambohora, will request more soon - about 80 new people added since last September - various grandmothers added; Maria Koukouris, Kali Papanikolakis and Maria Kontou, although am not certain Koukouris and Kontou sound right - will try to link our Casanovas with the Casanovas in Argenti's Libre D'oro and then the fun really starts! My ultimate goal is to reach all 128 5th great grandparents but due to pedigree collapse (google it I can't explain) there are likely only about 60 5th great-grandparents... |
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