Website dedicated to Greek village draws over 45,000 descendants across the globe

Stelios Hagias and Dimitri Katsambis of the Family Trees of Southern Parnon website will be two of the panellists discussing their work in building up the family histories of their ancestral village during the International Greek Ancestry Conference starting on Saturday.

The search began in the early 1990s when Dimitri Katsambis, a resident of Adelaide since childhood, wanted to find out more about his grandfather who was born in Karitsa, a village in the Parnon Mountains in the southern Peloponnese.

Giannis Gavriil

It was a difficult enough quest in the days before the internet but, over the years, Mr. Katsambis’ original inquiry has grown into a website that includes the stories of other families in the cluster of villages of Southern Parnon with more than 45,000 entries from descendants spread across the planet.

Those early efforts have evolved into the Family Trees of Southern Parnon website (and on Facebook) which was launched in 2002. The team now includes Mr. Katsambis, Stelios Hagias (coordinator) based in Adelaide, Giannis Gavriil, and Gregory Kontos in Athens, as well as Thanasis Stamatopoulos and Nikolaos Kalkanis in Geraki and Kremasti respectfully.

Antonis Katsampis

“The village is a community that is spread throughout the world. We are getting information about the village from the UK, USA, Germany, South Africa, and Australia,” said Mr. Katsambis, a retired teacher. Along with his role on the website, he is also the editor of the blog Karitsiotika Nea.

Mr. Hagias, a retired research chemist, is the website coordinator whose family also came from Karitsa. He looks after the family trees on the site. He also grows olives in his grove near Adelaide.

“Mr. Hagias is very analytical; he is able to visualize elaborate patterns and has a very good grasp of their interconnectedness. It is a very intricate process to be able to draw such connections,” said Mr. Katsambis.

Thanasis Stamatopoulos

In Greece, Giannis Gavrill plays an important part in the information-gathering process, said Mr. Katsambis.

The group still maintains connections at the village itself (it has a population of 220 people) and an invaluable assistant to any local query is the retired agrofylaka (rural policeman) Andonis Katsampis, aged 92, who will check through the local church records.

“Stellios visited the village some years ago and helped to bind the records and put them in order. Our contacts with the village are strong,” said Mr. Katsambis.

Gregory Kontos

“A lot of information has been lost. We cannot, for example, locate the register of female births; it has not been seen for a long time.”

The website also receives a lot of photographs that have no dates or captions so that help is often sought from people across the diaspora. The photographs offer a rich source of information about life in the village.

“We have also begun researching and recording anecdotes. There are many anecdotes that shed light on the lives of the people, their humour, and thoughts that come from sources around the world.

“We have achieved a critical mass where people have made connections to the village through the website that in many instances go back over seven generations,” Mr. Katsambis said.

Nikolaos Kalkanis

The work of the Family Trees of Southern Parnon has drawn the attention of ancestry groups around the world. Their work will be highlighted at the International Greek Ancestry Conference, the first international online conference focusing on Greek ancestry, a three-day affair that is free and open to all that launches on Saturday afternoon.

Mr. Katsambis and Mr. Hagias will be part of the panel discussion entitled “Under the Village Tree” that will begin at 1.10pm AEST on Saturday. Each of the panellists has created family trees that encompass their ancestral village and beyond. They will discuss their work and what they have learned along the way.

♦ For more information about the conference timetable, topics and speakers, visit the International Greek Ancestry Conference website.

Please be aware of the time differences: The International Greek Ancestry Conference is set to start at 7.45pm Friday, 29 January (US Eastern Standard Time EST) which is 11.15am on Saturday 30 January in Adelaide. If you are in Adelaide, add 15 hours and 30 minutes to US EST times quote on the conference timetable.

Reproduced from "Neos Kosmos"

Greek newspaper published in Australia,

Columnist Alex Economou,

January 28, 2021

https://neoskosmos.com/en/184167/website-dedicated-to-greek-village-draws-over-45000-descendants-across-the-globe/

Grateful Acknowledgements 

The project owes its phenomenal success on numerous contributors around the world and we take this opportunity to gratefully acknowledge and sincerely thank them for their support at different stages: 

Georgakis Christou Antoniou "Loulos", Pat Antoniou, Konstantinos Batsakis and Dimitris Pragalos (coauthors “Giotsali and Agios Dimitrios”, a local history which proved invaluable in documenting the traditional ties among the neighbouring villages), John Crist Brown, Apostolis Chagias, Asimina Chagias, Diamantis and Katerina Chagias, Giannoula Konstantinou Chagias (Stathis), Thelma Chagias, Marina Charamis, Gkikas A Chardouvelis (research; Kolias; Chardouvelis, Rozos, Pakiotis and other Poulithra families), Nikolas Christakis, Lampros and Vasiliki Drounganis, Cathy Elliott, Martha Farley, Susan Forsythe, Larue Foster, Patricia Gatlin (Georgantonis), Christos and Katigko Georgostathis, Dimitrios Georgostathis, George Gerakos, George Nicholas Giannes (Jonson), Maria Grammatikakis (Grammas - Velotas), Michael Grammatikakis (Grammas), Deborah Hayes (Swanger),Terri Hornick (Chagias), Sofia Jonson (Kalomoiris), Nikolaos Kalkanis, Perry Kalogiannis, George Karampas, George Karellas, Theodoros Katis (from Leonidion archives)Alexandra Katsampis, Antonis Konstantinou Katsampis, Christos Katsampis (Katsambis – UK), Christos Dimitriou and Kanella Katsampis, Eleni Dimitriou Katsampis (Antoniou), George Louis Katsampis (Katsampes), Giannis Dimitriou Katsampis, Konstantinos Dimitriou and Dimitroula Katsampis, Kristine Katsampis (Katsampes-Libby), Paul Leslie Katsampis (Katsampes), Sofia Katsampis (Catsambis), Yvonne Katsampis, Barbara Kerasiotes, Caron Kilkenny, Tom Kokkoris (main source in this website for families from Riches, Sykea, Kremasti, Ierakas etc), Carol Kostakos-Petranek (Research on the Aridas, Papagiannakos, Eftaxias and Kostakos families), Tom Kotsonis, Athanasia Koutsoukos, Mary Kritikos, Georgia Lamprinos (Tountas), Dimitra Lampros, JoAnn Lampros-Pavlostathis (Research on the Kamarinos, Lampros, Tsakonas, Koumoutzis and other families from Tsintzina, Gkoritsa, and Zoupena), Athanasios Leos, Athanasios Stavrou Malavazos, Chris Malavazos (Malas), Giota Malavazos, James C Malavazos (Malas), Manolis and Vasilo Malavazos, Maribeth Malavazos (Papuga), Michalis Ioanni Malavazos, Panagiotis Malavazos, Stephanie Malavazos (Malas), Theodora Malavazos (Mahoney), William E Malavazos, Louise Marie Manoukian (Andresakis), Christos Nikolaou Maroudas, Georgia McDaniel, Dorothy Meeks, Katerina Mitris (Vlachos), Nick Mitris, Stratigoula Mitris, Nick G Mourtzikos (Morris), Dimitra Panagakos (Chronis), Bella Pantazopoulos (Tsempelis), Betty Papadopoulos (Piliouras), Mary Pappas, Father George Pappas, Pauline Pavlakos (Chagias), Lori Potter,Timothy Poulemenos, Alexis Profyris, Jo Profyris (Proferes), Nick Profyris (Proferes), Michalis Rigas, Paula Roe, Margaret Sarris, Katerina Rozaklis (Malavazos), Jason Tsempelis (Jebeles), Leigh Tsempelis (Sempeles), Manuel and Florine Tsempelis (Sempeles), Mike Tsempelis (Rolles), Patricia Tsempelis (Jebeles), the late Dimitris Tsolomitis (Marriages of Kosmas), George N Rempelos (Revelos), Georgia Schweiger (Hayes - Chagias), Panagiota Skevis, Eftychia Sorolis (Malavazos), Dawna Stevens, Anastasis Tountas “Charoulis”, Anastasis Tountas "Eliouras", Anastasis Lamprou Tountas, Bill Tountas, Bob Tountas, Georgios Panagioti Tountas, Nikos Tountas, Petros Manoli Tsagklis, Georgios Panteli Tsempelis, George Tsempelis, Konstantinos Tsempelis, Ted Tsempelis, Eleni Tsolomitis (Chagias), Sofia Vaughn (Lampros), Dimitra Vega (Profyris), Cynthia Zoumpoukos (researcher on the Zoumpoukos family). 

Transliteration of Greek names in Family Trees of Southern Parnon

When writing Greek names in English, the policy of Family Trees of Southern Parnon is to transliterate in line with the current international method mandated by the National Hellenic Passport Centre. Though at times this may vary from the longstanding and preferred spelling of some names, it is deemed necessary in order to maintain consistency and avoid past practices of having the same name represented in multiple ways. To see your Greek name transliterated into English, click the Passport Centre Translator (http://www.passport.gov.gr/elot-743.html), use the left column and enter your name in Greek.

This Project is supported by the Pan-Laconian Society of South Australia "Leonidas" as well as the Karitsa Community of South Australia.