THE SPONGE DIVERS OF KALYMNOS by Willard Manus, published in The Athenian, August 30, 1974 - pages 19-21 "The young girls of Kalymnos sang their song of farewell, the wives and mothers wept as the diving boats left the harbor in slow formation, flags flapping in the breeze, newly-painted gunwales gleaming in the hard-white Aegean sunlight. And the whole of the ancient harbor resounded with the peal of church bells, and with shouts and cries and sobs: ‘Goodbye… goodbye!’ ‘Kalo taxithi… good journey!’ ‘Farewell, children… farewell!’ It was six days after Easter. A dozen tiny boats were putting out to sea, bound for the sponge beds of Greece and North Africa. Each boat carried from eight to twenty men — the famed sphoungarades (sponge divers) of Kalymnos. They would stay away for seven long months, risking death or paralysis to tear sponges from the bottom of the sea. Kalymnians have dived for sponges for as long as man can remember, but today that tradition is for the first time i...

John P. Dascoulias, a member of the Hellenic Genealogy Geek Facebook group, brought this to my attention.  The PappasPost.com posted the following article on June 17, 2019. TARPAN SPRINGS' CYCADIA CEMETERY ADDED TO NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES Florida Secretary of State Laurel M. Lee announced that Cycadia Cemetery in Tarpon Springs, Pinellas County has been listed on the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places. Florida Cultural Resources Director Tina Bucavalas was instrumental in securing this distinction after a lobbying and awareness effort that included gaining the support of prominent Greek Americans from the area, including support letters from U.S. Congressman Gus Bilirakis, Metropolitan Nikitas Lulias and Tampa’s Greek Consul General Dimitrios Sparos. “Cycadia Cemetery is a culturally and historically significant site for Tarpon Springs’ Greek community,” Secretary Lee said. “Artistic detail on many of the graves is associated wi...

THE GREEKS OF TARPON SPRINGS By Steve Frangos Published in The National Herald, February 28, 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.  ------------------------------ “Tarpon Springs’ by Dolores Kilgo is one of the many volumes in the Images of America series that features a section of its images on Greeks in the United States (Arcadia Press, Charleston, South Carolina: 2002). While visiting Tarpon Springs this past December, I can report, that Ms. Kilgo’s volume was to be found in virtually every tourist shop up and down Dodecanese Boulevard that runs the length of the city’s sponge docks. . . .  Let me stress that this volume is not exclusively about the Greek community of Tarpon Springs Florida. Of the one hundred and ninety five photographs, maps, and other documents seen in this volume only p...

Perikles Maillis: "Bahamians of Greek Descent" from Stephen Aranha on Vimeo . PERIKLES MAILLIS:  BAHAMIANS OF GREEK DESCENT Perikles Maillis: "Bahamians of Greek Descent: Our Story." (A Presentation to the Bahamas Historical Society, May 24th, 2007.) The presence and influence of Bahamians of Greek descent can be vividly felt in our country, their contributions cannot be denied. Yet generally, little knowledge about their history exists. Mr Maillis' lecture sheds some light on this chapter of our nation's genesis.