Photos of Sparta from 19th century - included in the presentation "The Genesis of the New City of SPARTIS" by Giorgos Giaxoglos - April 2023 Link to Power Point presentation -  CUT-ΑΝΙΔΡΥΣΗ ΣΠΑΡΤΗΣ-ΟΜΙΛΙΑ-ΠΕΣ-ΑΠΡ-23.pptx from Sparta Architecture blog  

  "The Greeks of Raleigh, NC" by Foti Jean-Pierre Fotiu, article published in The National Herald, February 25 - March 3, 2023.   ----- Hellenic Genealogy Geek would like to thank The National Herald for giving us permission, many years ago, to reprint articles that would be of interest to our genealogy community. ----- In 1895, Mr. Constantine Vurnakes departed his native city of Sparta, Greece. No one knew what brought Mr. Vurnakes to Raleigh; like so many other of his fellow citizens, he pursued the American dream, a dream which brought immigrants from all parts of Europe to discover a better life. Greeks were among the first immigrants who crossed the Atlantic to get their first glimpse of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, the customary landing and processing point for incoming immigrants from Europe. With great ambition, they brought varying degrees of introductory knowledge to the new world, for they were here to build their livelihoods. So why did Mr. Vurnakes co

  "Legend of the Lynched Greek" by Steve Frangos, article published in The National Herald, March 4-10, 2023.   ----- Hellenic Genealogy Geek would like to thank The National Herald for giving us permission, many years ago, to reprint articles that would be of interest to our genealogy community. ----- As best I can remember, the first time, I heard ‘the legend of the lynched Greek’ I was a teenager. Since, that time the tale of this youth has been told to me many times. As this legend goes, the so-called lynched Greek was an immigrant from the 1880 to 1920 waves who was hung by the Ku Klux Klan. The way the story always unfolded was the Greek-American speaker had himself/herself been told a Greek youth had somehow offended or challenged the Ku Klux Klan and so had been hung. But the teller of this tale never really knew much more. I was always reassured that I could and should learn more about this fallen and forgotten hero. And I tried. But it was a huge circle. First eithe

  Nisanyan Yeradlari Project is to document all the place names that have been used in the past within the border of the Republic of Turkey and neighboring countries. Do the automatic Translate to English function.  You can zoom in and click on the section of the map that pertains to your research.  A box will pop up that contains the place name changes.

  MyHeritage.com has a new database titled " Australia, South Australia, Royal Adelaide Hospital Admissions " that includes 55 people born in Greece.   This collection contains admission records to the Royal Adelaide Hospital in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia, between the years 1902 and 1925. Records typically include the name of the individual, birth year and place, residence and admission date, marital status, and occupation. Some records include discharge dates, death dates, and the name of the ship by which the individual arrived in Adelaide. The Adelaide Hospital was established in 1841. Evolving from the Colonial Infirmary that existed since 1837 was in fact South Australia’s first hospital. In the first year, it operated from a tent and subsequently became a hut. The hospital was renamed the Royal Adelaide Hospital in 1939. The records in this collection are © The Government of South Australia.

I recently attended a webinar, hosted by author Peter S. Giakoumis, regarding the Balkan Wars.  I decided to go back and review his book “The Forgotten Heroes of the Balkan Wars:  Greek-Americans and Philhellenes 1912-1913”, (available at most online bookstores).   This book contains hundreds of American newspaper articles about the Balkan Wars, published by big city and small-town newspapers.  I realized that many of these articles contained names and stories about Greek immigrants who were returning to Greece to fight in the war, and those men who returned to the U.S. after the war.    717 GREEK NAMES MENTIONED IN NEWSPAPER ARTICLES in “The Forgotten Heroes of the Balkan Wars” by Peter S. Giakoumis (Note:  Many of the names were misspelled in the articles.  I transcribed them as printed.) Abariotes, Stephen Aemodius, Vinnias Ageletos, Angel Agriostathi Agriostathis, John Agristathis, John Alekopoulos, Andrew Alex Alexanders, Nick Alexapulos, Grigorios Alexopoulos, J. (Rev.) Alexopo

  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