MyHeritage Adds Three Historical Record Collections From Greece

We are pleased to announce the publication of three important Greek record collections on MyHeritage: Greece, Electoral Rolls (1863–1924), Corfu Vital Records (1841–1932), and Sparta Marriages (1835–1935), comprising 1.8 million historical records. These collections are an invaluable genealogy resource for those researching their Greek roots.

Search the Greek record collections on MyHeritage

The records in these collections are rich in detail and contain scanned images of the original documents. For the first time ever and exclusive to MyHeritage, these indexes are now searchable in both Greek and English. 

The collections are a celebration of the diversity of religions and cultures within Greece. They showcase both the significant Catholic and Jewish communities as well as the Italian, French, and Russian influences at the core of Greek society and its progressive system of governance. 

MyHeritage’s Commitment to Greek Family History Research

The publication of these collections deepens MyHeritage’s commitment to Greek family history research. In one of our pro bono initiatives from 2015, our Founder and CEO Gilad Japhet personally traced the descendants of a Jewish family who were hidden on the small island of Erikoussa, just north of Corfu, during World War II. Emmy award winning writer Yvette Manessis Corporon, whose grandmother was among those who saved the Jewish family on Erikoussa, depicted these heroic acts in her books, ‘When the Cypress Whispers’ and ‘Something Beautiful Happened.’ The extraordinary story of the “The Secret of Erikoussa” culminated in the community of Erikoussa receiving the ‘House of Light’ award from the Raoul Wallenberg Foundation. 

Algorithms for Greek Genealogy Research

With Gilad’s hands-on experience with Greek research in tow, our team developed algorithms customized for Greek genealogy research for the new collections on MyHeritage.

For example, in Greece, a woman’s last name is the genitive form of her father’s surname, or  when she marries, of her husband’s surname. The new Greek collections on MyHeritage have been made gender-agnostic so that searches and matches will work for whatever format of the surname you choose to look for. 

This means that a search for the Jewish surname “Velleli” in the new collections on MyHeritage will also locate people named “Vellelis”, and vice versa. It is also possible to find these surnames by searching for “Belleli”, because the Greek letter beta is pronounced like the English letter V, but in some countries this distinction has been lost and Greek surnames are sometimes pronounced with the letter B, the way they are written in modern English. 

Our Global Name Translation Technology further ensures that when searching on MyHeritage in other languages, such as Hebrew and Russian, the results will also include names in the new Greek collections.

We recognize and thank Carol Petranek and Greg Kontos for their invaluable contributions to the publication of these new collections.

Here are more details about the new Greek collections:

Collection	Description	Number of Records	Link to Search
Greece, Electoral Rolls 1863–1924	An index of males who were eligible to vote throughout Greece from 1863 to 1924.	1,006,594 records	Search collection now
Corfu Vital Records, 1841-1932	Birth, marriage, and death certificates from the entire island of Corfu from 1841 to 1932.	646,807 records	Search collection now
Sparta Marriages Collection, 1835–1935	An index of marriages in Sparta from 1835 to 1935.	179,411 records	Search collection now

Greece, Electoral Rolls 1863–1924

This collection consists of 1 million records and indexes males ages 21 and up who were eligible to vote throughout Greece. It lists the voter’s given name, surname, father’s name, age, and occupation and is sorted by province, municipality, and town or village. Each record includes the individual’s name in Greek, as well as a Latinized transliteration of the name.

There are a few aspects to this collection that are unique to MyHeritage. In addition to including high-quality scans of the original documents, many of the occupations indexed in the collection have been translated from Greek to English. We’ve also expanded many given names, which are often abbreviated in the original records. This new collection is the most extensive index of Greek electoral rolls currently available anywhere.  

The records from the collection are from the Vlachogiannis Collection of the General State Archives of Greece. The collection consists of voter lists from 56 regions of Greece, and two male registers from another two regions. Though created for military and not voting reasons, male registers include the same information as voter lists, except that they do not mention the individuals’ occupations. 

This collection includes a record of the famous 19th century Greek painter, Nikiforos Lytras. Born in the Greek island of Tinos, Lystras moved to Athens, and then later Munich to study at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. In 1866, he returned to Greece to assume a professorship at the Athens School of Fine Arts. After his return to Greece, his style of painting focused on scenes from everyday life.

In the record below, you can see his entry, his age at the time of his voter registration, 35, and his occupation is listed as “painter.”  Also listed is his father’s name, Chantz Antonios Lytras.

Search Greece, Electoral Rolls 1863–1924

Corfu Vital Records, 1841–1932

This collection consists of birth, marriage, and death records from Corfu and is exclusive to MyHeritage. The records were collected by the civil authorities in Corfu and document the life events of all residents of the island regardless of their ethnicity or religion. They also include scanned images of the original documents.

Birth records from this collection may contain the child’s given name and surname, birthdate and place of birth, name and age of both parents, and the given names of the child’s grandfathers. 

A marriage record from this collection may include the first and last name, date of marriage, age, place of birth, residence, and the fathers’ names of the bride and groom. 

Death records include the name of the deceased, date of death, age at death, place of birth, residence, and parents’ names. 

The records in the collection are from the General State Archives of Corfu. They represent all of ethnic and religious communities throughout the entire island of Corfu.

This collection includes the death record of Charalambos Pachis, a famous Corfiot painter. While working as a servant for a wealthy family, Charalambos’s artistic talents were recognized. The family then sponsored his studies abroad in Italy. After continuing his studies in several European cities, he returned to Corfu to paint in 1870.

In the death record below, we see the date of death, February, 7, 1891, the age of his death, 48, and his father’s first name, Dimitrios. 

This collection also includes the birth records of the children of Savvas and Rosa Israel of Corfu. Savvas was a Jewish tailor who found refuge with 3 of his daughters and a young relative among the Christian community of Erikoussa during World War II.

In their daughter Victoria’s birth record, seen here, in addition to her name it lists her date of birth, October 27, 1921, her father and mother’s names, Savvatos and Roza Israel, and the years of their birth, 1876 and 1886, respectively. There is even a listing of Victoria’s grandfathers: her paternal grandfather, Solomon and her maternal grandfather, Zacharias.

Search Corfu Vital Records, 1841–1932

Sparta Marriages, 1835–1935

This collection includes images of the couple’s marriage license and their listing in the marriage register. The records in this collection list the full names of the bride and groom, the date of marriage, their fathers’ names, the birthplace of the bride and groom, and occasionally the names of witnesses to the marriage. The images in this collection were photographed, digitized, and indexed by MyHeritage from the original paper documents, in cooperation with the Metropolis of Monemvasia and Sparta.

In this collection is the marriage record of the parents of billionaire Greek shipping magnate, Stavros Niarchos. After their wedding, Stavros’s parents moved to the United States, but returned to Greece just a few months before Stavros was born.

In his parents’ marriage record, you’ll find the date they were wed, June 4, 1905, Stavros’s father’s name, Spyridon S. Niarchos, born in Vamvakou, along with Stavros’s paternal grandfather’s name, Spyridon Niarchos. The record also contains Stavros’s mother’s name, Evgenia Koumantarou, her birthplace of Voutianoi, and her father’s name, Stavros Koumantarou. 

Search Sparta Marriages, 1835–1935

Summary

The new collections position MyHeritage as an excellent resource for researching Greek roots. We plan on adding many more Greek collections, and improving the search and matching algorithms further to benefit our users, and make them useful also for users who have Greek roots, but do not read Greek.

Searching the Greek record collections on MyHeritage is free. If you have a family tree on MyHeritage, our Record Matching technology will notify you automatically if records from these collections match your relatives. To view these records or to save records to your family tree, you’ll need a Data or Complete subscription.

Yasou! Enjoy the new Greek record collections!