published in CretanBeaches.com During the Venetian era, according to oral tradition, there were three rich nobles from Sitia that  moved to the west end of Lasithi, in the province of Mirabello. They founded three small villages, one for each of them. Noble named Fiorentzis built the current settlement of Fioretzides by Lakonia. Demetzos (De Metzo) founded the village Agia Pelagia. Katrinis built Lousestro. Lousestro or otherwise Agios Ioannis gets its name after the hill Loutsi near the village which is taken after the Latin lux, meaning light. Lousestro belongs to the former community of Limnes and is currently almost deserted with only two elderly residents. Almost all villagers were named Katrinis after their founder. The second name, St. John comes from the village temple dedicated to St John Chrysostom. Shortly after the temple at the entrance of the village we meet one of very common cisterns of the area of Pano Mirabello for storing rainwater. In the same area we ...

The digital collections of the Greek State Archives offer a wealth of information to those of us interested in Greek genealogy.  As part of their online collection is the "Election Material From the Collection of Vlachoyiannis" .  This includes "General Election Lists" for each Municipality; recorded by community (city, village, settlement, etc.). You can view a scanned copy of each list, printed in the Greek language.  This is a GREAT resource, but very difficult to navigate for those who do not read Greek.  Each row includes:  Line # -  Given Name, Surname - Father's Name -  Age - Occupation. I have translated these pages and made them available in both Greek and English, doing my best to transcribe the information accurately.  I would always recommend viewing the original scanned copies (link below).   - To the best of my knowledge, these lists include all Males who were eligible to vote in the elections.   ...

The digital collections of the Greek State Archives offer a wealth of information to those of us interested in Greek genealogy.  As part of their online collection is the "Election Material From the Collection of Vlachoyiannis" .  This includes "General Election Lists" for each Municipality; recorded by community (city, village, settlement, etc.). You can view a scanned copy of each list, printed in the Greek language.  This is a GREAT resource, but very difficult to navigate for those who do not read Greek.  Each row includes:  Line # -  Given Name, Surname - Father's Name -  Age - Occupation. I have translated these pages and made them available in both Greek and English, doing my best to transcribe the information accurately.  I would always recommend viewing the original scanned copies (link below).   - To the best of my knowledge, these lists include all Males who were eligible to vote in the elections.   ...