REMEMBERING THE OTTOMAN PAST   Published by the GreekNewsAgenda.gr on November 20, 2015 The Connsulate General of Greece in Istanbul is holding a series of monthly lectures entitled "Remembering the Ottoman Past in the Eastern Mediterranean", at the Sismanoglio Mansion. The series, which began last month, will run until May 2016.  The lectures are organized by Dr. Evangelia Balta, Research Director at the National Hellenic Research Foundation (Ottoman Studies Programme) and Richard Wittmann from the Orient-Institut Istanbul. The lectures will introduce the work of international researchers from different academic disciplines who study the rich ethnic and cultural diversity of the Eastern Mediterranean region.  They will discuss how the memory of an Ottoman past is portrayed in an enormously wide range of sources.  . . .  Dr. Balta, a historian and descendant of Greek refugees of the Turkish-Greek population exchange, is the author of numerous book...

GREEK EMIGRATION TO LATIN AMERICA:  1900-1950 By Alexander Kitroeff Published in the Journal of the Hellenic Diaspora, Vol 26/1 - Year 2000 ----- ALEXANDER KITROEFF teaches European History at Haverford College..  ----- From the article: There are currently about 50,000 Greeks living throughout Latin America, most of whom emigrated after the Second World War (Agapitidis, 1964; Katsomalos 1972). Earlier, emigration from Greece to Latin America, during the first half of the twentieth century, was so small it hardly seems worth the trouble examining. Only a few thousand people left Greece, or the Greekinhabited regions of the Ottoman empire, and settled in Latin America. By comparison, over the same period almost half a million Greeks emigrated to the United States. Between 1900 and 1945, even Canada witnessed the arrival of many more Greeks than any single Latin American country. Nonetheless, Greek emigration to Latin America, despite its small pro...

FROM FOOT SOLDIERS TO STATESMEN, GREEKS PLAYED A ROLE IN US CIVIL WAR Published in The National Herald, October 17-23, 2015 Issue Authored by Steve Frangos TNH Staff Writer ------------------------------ We are 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.  ------------------------------ CHICAGO - Official records documenting the direct and considerable involvement of Greeks in the American Civil War 1861-1865 continue to appear, in ever increasing numbers, with each passing year.  These records outline the manner in which specific Greeks took an active role in both the Union and the Confederate forces. The names and actions of these Hellenes are found in the ranks of the average foot soldier onward to a cadre of government statesmen in both the union and confederate governments.  Beyond even these two points of the spectrum ...

This book was written in Turkey, by people with Turkish sentiments.  Many in the HellenicGenealogyGeek.com group will find some things in the text and photographs offensive.  I am posting information about this book as a sometimes shocking look at the Ottoman Empire, which is of historical interest to those of us researching our Hellenic family history. ----- CAMERA OTTOMANA:  Photography and Modernity in the Ottoman Empire 1840-1914 Edited by Zeynep Celik and Edhem Eldem Texts by Zeynep Celik, Edhem Eldem, Bahattin Ozstuncay, Frances Terpak & Peter Louis Bopnfitto Copyright 2015 by Koc University Publications, Istanbul. FREE ebook available online through Academia.edu ---------- CONTENTS:: Note on Spelling, Transliteration, and Dates Acknowledgments Introduction Frances Terpak & Peter Bonfitto Transferring Antiquity to Ink - Ruins from the Americas to Asia Minor and the Development of Photolithography Bahatt...

GREEKS IN ASMARA: GUARDIANS OF CONTINUITY, AGENTS OF CHANGE By Marina Petronoti Published in the Journal of the Hellenic Diaspora, Vol 26/1 - Year 2000 ----- MARINA PETRONOTI, Social Anthropologist, is Senior Researcher at the National Centre for Social Research, Athens. She is researching immigration flows to Greece with emphasis on the impact immigrants' presence has on collective representations about cultural heterogeneity as well as their social and symbolic interaction with the indigenous population.  ----- From the article: The Greek Community in Asmara . . . .  this community was by no means socially or economically homogeneous. Despite its members' efforts to present it as stable, solid, and attached to traditional values, they often disagreed on vital issues and were stratified in terms of geographical origin (those who came from Egypt or mainland Greece were thought of as superior to islanders), occupational status (self-employed/...

TALES, RITUALS AND SONGS:  Exploring the Unknown Popular Culture of a Greek Mountain Village by Nikolaos Nitsos This book is about the village of Tsamantas, Epirus, Northern Greece.  Originally published 1926 in Greek.  Translated into English by Panagiotis League, Instructor of Modern Greek Studies at Hellenic College. Being sold by Holy Cross Bookstore and the Hellenic Press. Description "After the liberation of Epirus, I desired to return for a visit to my birthplace... and arrived in Tsamantas in the middle of 1914... The more I collected and studied, the more interested I became. I started to systematically analyze the relatively rich material having to do with the customs of the inhabitants, previous generations' way of life, the language and expressions, and in general to develop a tremendous interest in the folklore and history of our people"  —Nikolaos Nitsos, Dec. 1, 1925 This translation into English by Panayotis League o...

Obituary for Chris Tomaras 1937-2015 IMMIGRANT BECAME CHICAGO GYROS PIONEER by Graydon Megan Published Sunday, November 1, 2015 in the Chicago Tribune  ---------- Chris Tomaras was a poor Greek immigrant who founded Kronos Foods, which became a leader in supplying equipment and ingredients for the now-ubiquitous gyros sandwich. "He had a lot of failures along the way, went bankrupt many times," said longtime friend Tom Sotos. "He just kept fighting. His drive and motivation were just unmatched. There was no chance he wasn't going to succeed." Tomaras established the PanHellenic Scholarship Foundation to provide college scholarships to students of Greek heritage. "He wanted people to expand their intellectual horizons," Sotos said. . . . . Tomaras was born in Piraeus, Greece. He was 8 during the Greek Civil War when his mother was killed by stray gunfire. Tomaras grew up near Athens and studied for a time at what is now At...