GREEK IMMIGRANT CAFE OWNERS LEFT THEIR MARK IN AUSTRALIA by TNH Staff published in The National Herald April 25, 2020 The National Herald has given HellenicGenealogyGeek.com permission to post articles that are of interest to our group. -------------------------------------------- QUEENSLAND, Australia – The Greek immigrant experience is especially associated with restaurants and cafes around the world. Wherever Greeks went, their traditional values of philoxenia and philotimo went with them. This was also true for the Lathouras brothers who immigrated to Australia from Alatsata in Asia Minor in 1906, the State Library of Queensland noted on its website.  By 1923 Jannos (Jack) Lathouras and his brothers, Michael and Mark, had opened two cafes in the main street of Bundaberg, Bourbong Street. Bundaberg was a thriving provincial Queensland town during the 1920s.  Jack Lathouras worked in several locations, including Melbourne, Brisbane and Ingham before joining his cousins, John...

JOHN THE GREEK IN THE WILD WEST by John Sitilides Published in The National Herald - October 26, 2019 ------------------------------ I am excited that  The National Herald  has given Hellenic Genealogy Geek the right to reprint articles that may be of interest to our group.  ------------------------------ Earlier this year, my koumbaro and dear friend Angelo K. Tsakopoulos drove me to Duke’s Diner in Olivehurst, CA, about 35 miles north of the state capital region of Sacramento where Angelo has achieved so much in shaping over the past half century. We stopped for a 6:30 AM breakfast en route to a tour of Angelo’s growing complex of walnut orchards in one of the most beautiful farm regions in the country.  We sat down for an eye-popping breakfast of eggs, corned beef hash, grits and fresh-baked biscuits seeping with thick, creamy gravy. But even more enticing than the sumptuous meal before us was the story that was shared by the resta...

WHEAT SONGS:  A GREEK-AMERICAN JOURNEY Non-Fiction book authored by Perry Giuseppe Rizopoulos and William A. Meis Published by Academic Studies Press, 2018 Description: Wheat Songs  is a memoir of two interconnected Greek-American journeys―an actual physical journey for the grandfather, Pericles Rizopoulos, and a philosophical quest by the author, Perry Giuseppe Rizopoulos. When the grandfather, Pericles Rizopoulos, a proud old man, tells his fascinating, tragic and true stories of the Nazi occupation of Greece during World War II and the following Greek Civil War, to his twenty-something grandson, Perry Giuseppe Rizopoulos, Perry’s philosophical reflections on his grandfather’s stories along with his own memories of growing up in his extended Greek/Italian/American family in the Bronx combine to create an enduring story about the strength created by a tightly-knit family and the powerful values passed down from generation to generation. Available on...

THE GREEK AMERICAN COMMUNITY OF ESSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY Authored by John Antonakos Published 4/21/2010 This book is available on Amazon in paperback and as a Kindle ebook.   I purchased the Kindle ebook for $3.99. Description This book is about the first Greek immigrants to the United States and their children.   These immigrants were pioneers because they were of the first Greeks to venture out into New Worlds.   They had to be very daring to leave their homeland.   To decide to leave, they had to consider relatives, friends, and even the beautiful climate of Greece. This book is composed of the histories of the pioneer immigrants and/or the histories of their children……. Contents The Greek American Community of Essex County, New Jersey Thoma and Kanella Anagnostopoulos Charles and Mildred Andresakes George and Louise Andresakes Spirithon and Flora Antonakos John and Eva Antonakos Kosma and Matina Larres Nicholas and Evelyn...

Greek Immigrant "Tex Louis" Gotsis: King of the Singing Cowboys By Steve Frangos Published in The National Herald, November 18, 2017 ------------------------------ I am excited that  The National Herald  has given Hellenic Genealogy Geek the right to reprint articles that may be of interest to our group.  ------------------------------ Louis Gotsis' role in American popular culture while undeniable, is inexplicably largely ignored. Looking back on the Greek immigrant promoters who have significantly altered popular American culture, Gotsis' role may seem relatively insignificant in comparison. Nonetheless, “Tex Louis” was a unique figure in the history both of American popular music and the state of New Jersey. What follows are only the highlights of a much more involved and far reaching tale. Louis Gotsis was born in Greece on February 3, 1939 and did not arrive in the United States until 1957. In a 1988 interview with the Asbury Park ...

THE ROLE OF THE GREEK-AMERICAN KAFENEION IN THE HISTORY OF U.S. CRIME By Steve Frangos Published in The National Herald, September 13, 2014 ------------------------------ I am excited that  The National Herald  has given Hellenic Genealogy Geek the right to reprint articles that may be of interest to our group.  ------------------------------ CHICAGO- Donald Mellet had just parked his car in the garage. Arriving home a little after midnight, Mellet stepped out of the garage walking toward the kitchen door. Shots rang out with two killing Mellet immediately and several others peppering the kitchen door. His wife and two daughters barely escaped injury or death as the stray bullets traveled through the house.  The July16, 1926, assassination of Mellet was one of the most publicized crimes in the 1920s. Mellet, the crusading editor of the Canton Daily News, had embarked on an anti-vice, anti-crime campaign in editorial after editori...

THE GREEK ROGUE OF THE AMERICAN WEST Part Three By Steve Frangos Published in The National Herald, January 10, 2009 ------------------------------ I am excited that  The National Herald  has given Hellenic Genealogy Geek the right to reprint articles that may be of interest to our group.  ------------------------------ PART THREE  After all that I have written about Peter Attias, one of the most successful Greek immigrant confidence men of the American West, many will say this man’s life was simply an aberration. Why look at rogues? Clearly the vast majority of Greek sojourners who arrived in North America between 1870 and 1924 were law abiding individuals who only wanted to find an honest job. It is Dr. Attias’ nearly two years in and around Salt Lake City that demands our attention. For it is between 1904 and 1905 that Peter Attias challenged Leonidas Skliris as chief labor leader for the Greeks in the American West. ...

THE SOURAPAS FAMILY OF SEATTLE: A TOAST TO FAMILY, FRIENDS, AND WORK By Steve Frangos, TNH Staff Writer Published in The National Herald, February 17-23, 2018  ------------------------------ 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.  ------------------------------ A Seattle Greek Immigrant Family's Soft Drink Business, by Steve (Stavros) J. Sourapas with Rosanne Gostovich Royer, is a complex story that immediately catches the reader's attention and keeps it throughout. This tale encompasses three generations of the Sourapas family as well as offering a detailed but clearly rendered account of the daily trials, long-term tribulations and deep lasting satisfaction of maintaining a soft drink business. Researchers, the world over, dream of finding such detailed narratives of any successful confectioner, restaurateur or ...