My grandfather, Euripede Comninaki list his birthplace as Sterna or Myriophyto Restasis in Ottoman G
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I think the @Greece group may be able to help you!
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Due to space concerns, Sterna is a village in the Greek Orthodox Diocese of Myriophyto Restasis in Thrace.
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Were you able to get help on this?
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Last week received a reply about my grandparents' marriage in Norway but the document was in Norwegian. Through the process of elimination, I had a great grandfather from Piraeus. The only black mark was the Norwegian clerk needed penmanship lessons.
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Myriofito (Μυριόφυτο in Greek, Mürefte in Turkish) and Peristasi (Περίσταση or Şarköy) are two villages in the so called by the Greek Anatoliki Thraki (Eastern Thrace). They were mainly inhabited by Greek population until 1922, when the exchange between Greeks and Turks was held.
Most of the people you would find in FamilySearch, having as a birth place Myriofito, are from this village (except one named Ananias that is from Myriofito, Chalkidiki that I searched thoroughly). After 1926, there are also other villages named Myriofito in Greece, such as Myriofito in Kilkis, but that in Halkidiki changed into Olinthos. You could also try as a birthplace Ganohora/Ganochora, which was the name of the area of all these villages. Refugees from there also established the village of Ganohora in nowadays Pieria.
Many of the immigrants from Myriofito came after 1922 in Kavala, Thesaloniki, Didymoticho and a few near my place in Kokkalou, Thessaloniki. From Peristasis, they went to Peristasi in Pieria. Many immigrated to the US, and established the Cultural Assossiation of Ganochorites (Σύλλογος Γανοχωριτών Νέας Υορκης) in New York.
Here are some useful links. They are in Greek, so use the translator of your browser:
https://anaptiksi-thrakis.blogspot.com/2016/11/ta-ganoxwra-thrakis.html
http://www.arxeion-politismou.gr/2019/02/ellinismos-Ganoxoron.html
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As best I can display grandfather's movements Norfolk to New York to Norway to Alexandria, Egypt to somewhere in modern day European Turkey. If I can somehow pinpoint him in Alexandria I might be on the way to solving this riddle or hit a brick wall.
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When was your grandfather in Alexandria? In the Digital Library of the Greek Parliament, there is digitized the newspaper "FOS" of Kairo, at least the first pages of the years 1910-1939. Unfortunately, they are now "searchable", so you have to dig inside manually. There are multiple links for the newspapers, here is one for the period Jan-Jun 1910, just to understand what is all about:
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Recently I received a translation of my mother's christening in the Orthodox church in 1916. My grandfather's name as the father pf Moscha Violet is Syris Komninakis of Myrofytos. My mothe r was born in 1915. Grandfather was born in 1887 in Eastern Thrace in the Ottoman Empire. Sometime between 1908 and 1911 he was in Alexandria, Egypt. He married my grandmother in 1911. He was in Norway to buy codfish for Ramadan in Egypt. From there they came to the US.
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Syris or Syros (Σύρης, Σύρος) used to be a common name in Northern Greece (Macedonia, Thrace) in the old days, but not know. It has also survived in many surnames, such as Syropoulos, Syroplis (son of Syros). Unfortynatelly, I didn't find anything else... I will let you know, if by chance find anything else.
Have a nice day and Happy Holidays
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In 1923 an exchange of populatıon between Greece and Turkey was held. Many Greeks had already left then Turkey for Greece, even from 1913-1915. In 1928, a catalog was written with all the refugees' family heads, where they were from and where they were living at that moment, for rural rehabilitation. Comnenakis surname is pretty common in the villages around Raidestos (nowadays Tekirdağ) and around Didymotichon. I focused in Myriofyton, and I found a few with the surname Comnenakis who came to Greece:
- Komninaki Kyriaki (Κομνηνάκη Κυριακή), from the area of Ganohora, Myriofyton. As head of the family (maybe she was a widow), she settled in Tsimandreia (Τσιμάνδρια) of the island of Lemnos.
- Komninos Georgios, son of Haralambos, from Sterna, Myriofyto (Στέρνα Μυριοφύτου). He had initially settled in Palaia Kavala (Παλαιά Καβάλα), but he had arbitrarily left this village before 1928.
The others were 60 or more kms away from Miriofyto.
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My computer searches for the genealogy of my grandfather may have hit a brick wall or rubble. It seems an earthquake shook the area surrounding Myriophyto and Sterna. If any records survived where should I look? By then grandfather was in America (1912).
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Yes, I wrote you before about the earthquake. I don't think that any public records survived. Only family records could have being brought to Greece with family members. And the family members - at least the head of the families - from the villages you mentioned, that survived and came to Greece were those Komninaki Kyriaki and Komninos Georgios. I think now, you have the difficult part of finding their relatives in the villages/towns I wrote about...
From Palaia Kavala, many left for the city of Kavala. In Google maps I can see a few: a ballet teacher, a vendor machine owner, a plumber etc. Just write in Google maps "Καβάλα Κομνηνός" or "Kavala Komninakis" and try to send them an e-mail.
Good luck!
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After the 20 minute consult, Trisha recommended I get a DNA test and speak with a Ms Petraneck ( I may not have gotten the name right). Trisha seemed to think that person was more help. My grandfather has been a mystery to me ever since He wrote a state senator saying grandfather was an undesirable alien and should be deported from the nursing home. Or that was the rumor in family circles. Seems my grandfather listed his plave of birth as Sterna, Constantinople, or Mryriophyton. The last I'm leaning as the right place by sheer number he used. I have the copies of the forms. My grandfather lived in this country 62 years, untold number of years in Alexandria, Egypt, and the Ottoman Empire 20 years or less. He died at 87 and buried here.
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