THE TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF PANAYIOTIS AND GIANNIS SEITANIDIS by Stavros Stavridis published in The National Herald May 16, 2020 The National Herald has given HellenicGenealogyGeek.com permission to post articles that are of interest to our group. -------------------------------------------- An Australian Pontian friend of mine, Peter Seitanidis heard that I am a historian specializing in the history of Asia Minor covering the years 1919-23. He contacted me wanting to tell me the stories of his grandfather and great uncle. Peter stated that his elderly father recounted the family story of escape, survival, and deportation from Pontos. His ancestors were originally from the city of Kerasounta (Giresun) on the Black Sea coast. The family story passed down to Peter has gaps that can be filled from other sources. Finding specific information about Kerasounta hasn't been easy but I pieced it together from scattered information.  Before delving into Peter's account, I will provide...

PONTIAN CLAIMS AT PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE 1919, TOYNBEE'S COMMENTS Published in The National Herald, July 29 - August 4, 2017 Issue Authored by Stavros T. Stavridis ------------------------------ I am excited to announce that  The National Herald  has given Hellenic Genealogy Geek the right to reprint articles that may be of interest to our group.  ------------------------------ ----------------------- In February 1919, Constantine G. Constantinides and Socrates Oeconomos submitted a memorandum on behalf of the Unredeemed Greeks of the Euxine Pontus to the Paris Peace Conference, claiming an independent republic along the shores of the Black Sea. They would have been influenced by President Wilson's 14 points, especially Point 12, which would allow minorities under the Ottoman rule to determine their own "autonomous development." The British were unimpressed with the Pontian claim. Pontus was once a part of the Byzantine Empir...

POST-BYZANTINE GREEK MERCHANTS OF THE FIFTEENTH-SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES By Andronikos Falangas Published in the Journal of the Hellenic Diaspora, Year 2007 Pages 7-21 ----- You can read the entire article for FREE by CLICKING HERE   "The centuries that followed the spread of Ottoman domination throughout the Greek world, which culminated with the fall of Constantinople, are generally considered one of the darkest periods in the history of Hellenism. Nevertheless, many historical sources from the sixteenth-seventeenth centuries reveal the beginnings and growth of a merchant elite of Greek origin, their economic and cultural development, and the emergence of a Greek patriotism within this same group." ----- ANDRONIKOS FALANGAS received his PhD from Paris I, PantheonSorbonne. He is the author of forthcoming books on the humanist and prince of Moldavia, Jacob Vassilikos, and on Greek-Romanian relations of the fourteenth-sixteenth centuries. He most r...