In May of this year , researchers from the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program's Ottoman Greeks of the United States Project will be conducting interviews with second and third-generation descendants of immigrants to the US from regions of the former Ottoman Empire which constitute modern Turkey . We will be visiting Austin, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Jersey City, Memphis, Orange-Connecticut, Philadelphia, and Toronto . If you know anyone who would be interested in being interviewed please have them contact me directly: (ogus0424@gmail.com 727-207-0623) Established in 2017, the Ottoman Greeks of the United States Project is a Big Data project whose goal is to preserve the stories of Ottoman Greek immigrants in the United States. With this goal in mind our researchers have collected over 250 interviews and over 20,000 images of photographs, two and three-dimensional objects, and documents and books in English, Greek (Demotic and Katharevou...

GREEKS IN WASHINGTON - read the following excerpt from article  "Firm, Fair and Friendly" Louis Lallas’ first employer told him he would be successful in both life and business if he consistently followed the three “fs”. These three words – firm, fair and friendly – have guided him throughout a successful career in education and life in general. Louie Tom (Thanasi) Lallas was born about three blocks from his present home in Bellingham, Washington, on February 11, 1932. His name should have been Louka after his  papou  (grandfather) Loukas; however, when baptized, he was named Louis and only later was he more commonly referred to as Louie. It is interesting to note that in Greece the Lallas name was spelled Lalas – with only one “l”; the second “l” was added to the Lalas name at Ellis Island by the immigration authorities. LOUIE’S FAMILY Louie’s maternal grandparents Louis (Lukas) and Stella “Stravroula” Raptis immigrated to Vancouver, British Columbia, ...

BALODIMAS-BARTOLOMEI:   RESEARCHING THE GREEK COMMUNITIES OF THE WORLD Article published on GreekNewsOnline.com on September 10, 2016 - New York - by Vickie James Yiannias " Chicago-born Greek American Angelyn Balodimas-Bartolomei (née Balodimas), has been fascinated with the cultural tapestry of the world since childhood, and with her Greek ancestry especially. Bartolomei’s “endless yearning” for knowledge about Greek culture has prevailed, as it did when as a young adult she moved to Greece to become fluent in the language and to become very familiar with the Greek people and their country.  She earned two undergraduate degrees in Greece—one in Greek studies and the other in Greek pedagogy. As she travels around the world writing, photographing and researching for her ethnographical studies on various ethnic groups around the globe, several of which have been published and presented at various conferences, one of the first things Bartolomei does is search p...

"After, before" - a Project that consists of archives of family photographs, interviews, and videos By Alexia Makridou http://www.alexiamakridou.com/after_before/videos The Project “On 13 August 1974, around 12:00 p.m, we have left our home in Famagusta without realising that we would not see it again for 40 years now; We left our lives in our house, our souls... We believed that once the initial violence calmed down we would be allowed to return... We knew that the 2nd invasion was about to happen... I was terrified. It never crossed my mind though that the particular evening was the last evening I was spending as an adolescent in my beloved town. We left and never returned back. And I am still waiting. It's like I have been living another life, a previous life; this is how I feel. Despite it sounding somewhat exaggerated, I feel that the invasion severed the cord to the life that I had once known". (my mum's words, April 2014). How...

ARCHIVAL RESOURCE: ORAL HISTORIES FROM THE GREEK-AMERICAN FAMILY PROJECT AT WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY This resource was brought to my attention on the Modern Greek Studies Association (MGSA) mailing list by Y. Anagnostou / George Paganelis Wayne State University, The Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs  Folklore archive that includes correspondence and many oral histories from the Greek-American Family Project. See the finding aid at  https://www.reuther.wayne.edu/files/UR001731.pdf .  The Reuther Library also has miscellaneous other Greek materials which can be searched on that library’s home page at  https://www.reuther.wayne.edu/ . Notably, the archive includes interviews with historian Dan Georgakas

Thank you to Paris Papamichos Chronakis, Visiting Assistant Professor at Brown University for posting this information on the MGSA-L  The  Database of Greek-Jewish Holocaust Survivors' Testimonies  is now also available in English. The database gathers for the first time data from 1,552 audiovisual testimonies of 1,091 Greek Jewish survivors of the Holocaust. These testimonies were collected in different time periods, languages and places and are today stored in several archives in Greece, Europe, the United States and Israel. The database catalogs data from all these scattered testimonies. It constitutes a guide to a "virtual archive" which is offered to the academic community and to every interested citizen. The database was designed and constructed by historians Rika Benveniste, Anthony Molho, Pothiti Hantzaroula, Yorgos Antoniou and Paris Papamichos-Chronakis and webmaster engineer Themis Dallas. The Greek-language ...

On December 18, 2013 the examiner.com published the article "Oral Family History Can Be Lost in Three Generations" . It is an interesting read.  Not anything we don't already know, but it does make you think about your own family stories.   Personal note -  I have discrepancies in my own family:  a great-uncle who supposedly died from being hit by a train, although I can find no record; a great-aunt that came to the U.S., married an older man who was cruel to her, she left him to return to Greece and supposedly died on the boat trip home.  On a much simpler level - if I didn't have documentation, I am pretty sure that I wouldn't be able to tell you the dates that my grandparents passed away.   As mentioned in the article - "It is important for genealogists to remember that family stories are just that, stories.  They are not facts unless there is a strong oral history or a document to back them up."

This notification came through the (MGSA) Modern Greek Studies Association - October 24, 2013 GREEK-AMERICAN ORAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS This is to announce the Greek-American Oral History Collections, a work in progress by Elaine Thomopoulos, a historian and a new member of the MGSA Transnational Studies Committee. Below is a preliminary list of Collections. Our committee invites  directors  of  modern  Greek programs,  researchers, librarians,  heritage activists,  staff in museums and preservation societies, as well as other  interested parties to share their knowledge of resources with us. W e would welcome not merely web links  to collections but, if possible, narratives and/or  lists that identify and describe the archive in detail. Please forward all information  to Elaine Thomopoulos ‎[ thomop@msn.com ]‎   Greek-American Oral History Collections [A Work in Progress] Q...

Interview - "Evanthea Keriazes - A Greek Mother" - 1938-1939  Living Lore in New England (New Hampshire) ------------------------------------- W.P.A. Federal Writer’s Project Greek-American Life Histories, Manuscripts from the U.S. Federal Writer’s Project, 1936-1940 ------------------------------------- (These life histories were compiled and transcribed by the staff of the  Folklore Project of the Federal Writers' Project   for the U.S. Works Progress (later Work Projects) Administration (WPA) from 1936-1940. The Library of Congress collection includes 2,900 documents representing the work of over 300 writers from 24 states. Typically 2,000-15,000 words in length, the documents consist of drafts and revisions, varying in form from narrative to dialogue to report to case history.) ------------------------------------- Spelling has been left as in original documents. ------------------------------------- TITLE A Greek Mother WRITER Evanthea Keriazes ...