Looking for info on my paternal great-grandfather's family from Samos, Greece
I'm looking for any information on my great-grandfather and his family. I have very minimal information. What I know:
His name was Yanis/John Themosticles/Thomosticles Stephanides/Stefanides/Stefanidou and he was born either on 11/11/1877 or 11/1/1878 in Port Nathy, Samos, Greece.
I believe his parents were Yanis Themisticles Stephanides/Stefanides and Theano Constantineou. He had many siblings - Aristotle, Calliroe, Elephteria, Stephanos, Maria, Arsinoi, Orestes, and Michiou. I believe his father died in 1899.
He came to America in 1897 and changed his name to John T. Stephens. He eventually settled in Pascagoula, Mississippi, where he married my great-grandmother, Lillie Frederic. He died 7/10/1931 or 1932.
His sister, Arsinoi/Arsinoy married a Viron Peter Vaky in Samos on 9/17/1909 and they settled in Corpus Christi, Texas. Arsinoi died in 1960.
I know this is not much to go on, what with the different name spellings and lack of information, but I have to at least try. My family has been trying to find out about our Greek ancestry for so many years that anything we can discover will be much appreciated.
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Hello:
After reading your post, I took a moment to learn more about the island of Samos. I thought this was a great article: "The Fascinating history of the island of Samos" https://www.greeknewsagenda.gr/topics/culture-society/7304-the-fascinating-history-of-the-island-of-samos-2
It seems like it would be important to understand exactly who was in charge of civil registration at the time your ancestor was born, if the records exist, and how they can be accessed. Do you feel like you have good answers to those questions?
This article https://www.archives.com/genealogy/family-heritage-greek.html "In Greece, prior to 1925, the local priest was responsible for recording and maintaining vital records, since the major life events revolved around the church. In 1925, the Greek government established a civil registration department that was supposed to record and maintain vital records, although civil registration wasn't fully enforced until 1931."
There is a lot of information to absorb in the familysearch wiki about these records. Have you already read these articles?
Greece Civil Registration: https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Greece_Civil_Registration
Greece Church Records: https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Greece_Church_Records
Samos County, Greece Genealogy: https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Samos_County,_Greece_Genealogy
Have you thought about writing for the record?
I noticed that someone posted a response to your query on Hellenic Genealogy Geek saying the Samos records are online. I have not found them online yet...have you? I do not see the records you are looking for in the familysearch catalog.
Good luck!
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Have you watched this webinar? “Research on Greece’s Borderlands” by Gregory Kontos (1/31/21) - YouTube
He talks about the records available for Samos
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Good afternoon
The register books of Vathy in Samos island, have been digitized and are available via General State Archives, but you have to "dig" inside page-by-page, because you cannot search by name... Actually, I did a real quick search for the surname Stephanidis, and I found nothing in Vathy. I searched for the dates of birth you mentioned, but I have also found nothing.
Then, I had an idea to also search (not thoroughly) in the registers of Limani Vatheos or Malagari (Harbour of Vathy. I didn't find your great-grandfather's birth certificate in the dates you mentioned (I didn't have the time to search all of them, I'm sorry), but I found the death certificate of his father, Themistocles Stephanidis (Θεμιστοκλής Στεφανίδης)! He died at home, on Monday 7th of June 1899 and buried in the public cemetery. His house was in the neighborhood (parish) of Agios Theodoros, in Limani Vatheos, Samos. He was 60 years' old (b. 1839) and he was a lawyer. My suspicions of being of "high status" were confirmed seeing his kids' ancient Greek names (Orestes, Arsinoi), in contrast to "common" ones like Giorgos, Dimitris etc.
The link is http://arxeiomnimon.gak.gr/browse/resource.html?tab=tab02&id=480577&start=80
Click on the Take #099, and the second record (in the bottom), is your ancestor's death index.
Limani Vatheos, or Malagari, or Yalos or Kato Vathy, was initially the harbour of Ano Vathy, which was not in the seashore. After 1832, it became the administration center of the island. Between 1834 and 1849 it was named Stefanoupoli and after that, took again its old name. In 1958 the name changed to Samos (town). For the town of Samos or Limani Vatheos see this (use your browser's translation, because the Greek edition of wikipedia is more thorough):
https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%A3%CE%AC%CE%BC%CE%BF%CF%82_(%CF%80%CF%8C%CE%BB%CE%B7)
It was an enjoyable and interesting journey! I learned a few things about Vathy, Samos and its Harbor. I hope I was helpful.
Have a good afternoon.
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Hello. Thank you! I apologize for taking so long to respond but I just now checked on my post and saw just this morning your response.
Wow, you did A LOT of research for me, thank you! But how frustrating it is that there still is no information on my great-grandfather. I just cannot get past my ggrandfather's parents. I am not allowed to open or download attachments at work so I cannot open or d/l the death index that you sent the link for. I will have to wait until I get home. I'm assuming it is in Greek so I will not be able to read it. But by any chance do you remember if it listed Themosticles' parents??
Again, THANK YOU so much. You have found some information that I did not have and I'm very appreciative. It's quite interesting that he was a lawyer. Did the death index indicate his occupation? In the US, many death certificates list occupations and parents, so I was just wondering about those in Greece.
So many questions......
Have a good day!
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Hi Mimi
Unfortunately, in this Death index, the names of the parents of Themistocles are not written. The priest K. Karachristodoulos certifies, in front of the registrar of Limani Vatheos, mr. Dim. Kefalopoulos, that Themistocles Stefanidis, lawyer, 60 years of age, had passed away at home in the parish of Agios Theodoros, on Monday, the 7th of June 1899, and had been buried in the Municipal Cemetery. The death certificate was signed in the 11th of June 1899 by the archpriest Konstantinos Karachristodoulos, the registrar and Gr. I. Protopapas, probably another archpriest. Basically, that's the translation of the whole record, so don't worry about other missing information.
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Well, darn. I spent quite a bit of time last night trying to download the death index, and for whatever reason it would not download. I was hoping that I could find someone to translate it for me if it did have names. I'm glad to know I'm not missing anything. Thank you so much for your assistance. I have been trying to research this part of my history for so long. I'm not ready to admit defeat. I want so badly to know the Greek side of my family. Maybe one day...
One quick question - was his wife's name listed - Theano Constantinou? Or maybe an informant as to Themistocles' death, which is sometimes a family member? You didn't mention any other names so I'm guessing not, but I had to ask.
Again, thank you so much!
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Well, I had more free time, so I took a look in the archives of Samos. Themistocles D Stefanidis (D could stand for Dimitrios, I'll inform you) was a Notary public and Magistrate in the Notary Office #1 of Karlovasi, from 1862-1864. There are plenty of contracts, in which Themistocles was the Notary Public:
In the folders #14, 15, 17 ,18, in every contract, there is your great-great-grandfather's signature:
I'll come back soon with more details.
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I did a thorough research in the registry entries, from 1870 till 1885. Here is what I found:
Your great grandfather could have been born on the 8/9th of November 1875. There is a birth certificate, of a son - not named - of Themistocles Stefanidis and Theano. He was born in Limenas Vatheos. His christening is not mentioned. The first third of November is right, but the year is 2 years earlier. Here is the link:
Open Take #051 and save the whole page.
Other relative records are these:
- Birth certificate of Orestes (b. 8/5/1879), son of Themistocles Stefanidis and Theano, in Limenas Vatheos. He was Christened in 24/6/1879, in the church of Agios Theodoros, Limenas Vatheos.
- Birth certificate of Arsinoe (b. 8/11/1881), daughter of Themistocles Stefanidis and Theano, in Limenas Vatheos.
- Marriage of Heracles Stefanidis and Ourania P. Michalitsanou (m. 29/6/1883), in Limenas Vatheos. They could be relatives of Themistocles.
- Birth certificate of Ioannis (b. 29/11/1884), son of Heracles Stefanidis and Ourania, in Limenas Vatheos.
- Death certificate of Ioannis (d. 24/12/1884), son of Heracles Stefanidis and Ourania, in Limenas Vatheos.
- Birth certificate of Dimitrios, son of Themistocles Stefanidis and Theano (b. 27/9/1885) in Limenas Vatheos. He could be Mitsios, a brother of your great-grandfather that you have mentioned.
I haven't seen the records after 1885, where there probably is the rest of the siblings.
Well, I need a break... See ya!
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Update
- Stefanos Them. Stefanidis is mentioned as godfather of Aikaterini, daughter of Dimitrios Michael Glyfos (chr. 21/11/1886).
- Birth certificate of Panagiotis (b. 27/2/1887), son of Vassilios Athanasiou Stefanis and Paraskevi, in Limenas Vatheos. He was Christened on 19/4/1887, in the church of Agios Nikolaos, Limenas Vatheos. Could be relatives, because Stefanis and Stefanidis are similar.
- Birth certificate of Dimitrios-Aristotelis (b. 31/8/1887), son of Manouel Athanasiou Stefanis and Vassiliki, in Limenas Vatheos. He was Christened on 23/1/1887, in the church of Agios Nikolaos, Limenas Vatheos.
- Birth certificate of Marigo (b. 18/10/1887), daughter of Heracles Stefanidis and Ourania, in Limenas Vatheos. She was christened on 10/11/1887, in the church of Agios Theodoros, Limenas Vatheos.
- Marriage certificate of Calliroe, daughter of Themistocles Stefanidis, and Lambros, son of Vassilios Stavros (m. 6/12/1887), in the church of Agios Theodoros, Limenas Vatheos.
From the birth of your great-grandfather Giannis in 1875 and going back until 1868 (that I saw), no traces of your family in Limenas Vatheos. They were probably elsewhere, maybe in Karlovasi, where Themistocles was a notary public (1862-1864). The archives have been digitized, but the handwriting is a little bit messy. I bet that the rest of the kids have been born there, or somewhere else in the island. Your great-grandfather could have been born in Vathy or the other place, because his record has missing information, like his name or his christening. All the other records have names and christening dates, except from your grandfather's!
Also I didn't find any death indexes of the parents of Themistocles or any other Stefanidis (1868-1889). This makes me think that Stefanidis family could be from another place in the island. He could have come to Limani Vatheos before 1875 as a lawyer, because Limani started to become the administrational center of the island. We also cannot connect them for sure with the Stefanis family, but I just mentioned them. Stefanis is a surname that comes from a given name, Stephen in English. So it could just be a coinsidence. But I have to say that, literate people, used to add the ending -idis, -adis, -iadis in their original surnames, to give more prestige, reminding a little bit ancient Greek names.
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Holy cow that's a lot of info! Wow, thank you!! The birth date of Arsinoe matches up to information I was given about her so yay, you are finding the right people. Wow. Curious as to why there are so many discrepancies in the birth date of my ggfather. And how neat to see my great-great grandfather's signature. That's cool. Thank you again soooo much for this information!!!!
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Did Orestes and Dimitrios travel to the US too? On the 14th of November 1914, Dimitrios and Orestis reached New York. Dimitrios, an advocate himself, was
marriedsingle and his closest relative was his brother Aristotelis in Vathy. Orestis, was a married clerk, and the closest relative was his wife Lili in Vathy. They were going to Atlanta, Georgia, where Orestis had his shop. Orestis first came to America in 1900, as mentioned.Here is the link: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9TX-W9C1-R?i=109&cc=1368704
And here is the passengers' list of Orestes, back in 1901 (not 1900):
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