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    The Acropolis and Mount Hymettus.
    The Acropolis and Mount Hymettus

    Greece is a country with a rich and ancient history that dates back to the Neolithic period. Its location in the eastern Mediterranean has made it a crossroads of civilizations, and as a result, it has been inhabited by a variety of peoples, including the Minoans, Mycenaeans, and ancient Greeks. Greece is widely regarded as the birthplace of Western civilization, with its legacy of democracy, philosophy, literature, and art. Ancient Greece produced some of the most remarkable thinkers and writers of all time, including Homer, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. In addition to its contributions to the arts and sciences, Greece also played a significant role in the development of Christianity and the Byzantine Empire. Today, Greece remains a place of great historical significance, with numerous archaeological sites and museums dedicated to preserving its past.

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    The peripheries of Greece

    Greece is administratively divided into 13 regions (peripheries) and one autonomous monastic community, Mount Athos:

    1. Attica
    2. Central Greece
    3. Central Macedonia
    4. Crete
    5. Eastern Macedonia and Thrace
    6. Epirus
    7. Ionian Islands
    8. North Aegean
    9. Peloponnese
    10. South Aegean
    11. Thessaly
    12. Western Greece
    13. Western Macedonia

    Each of Greece's 13 regions is made up of multiple municipalities, each with its own local government.

    Greek history

    A Roman copy of a marble bust of the philosopher Plato.
    A Roman copy of a marble bust of the philosopher Plato

    Greece has a unique place in world history far above its rather small geographical size and its relatively peripheral place amongst the world’s more powerful nations today. In ancient times, a great culture emerged here which is seen as the roots of many aspects of western civilization. This was primarily during the Classical Period of Greek history between the sixth and fourth centuries BCE, although elements of Greek civilization began to emerge as early as the Late Bronze Age in the middle of the second millennium BCE. During the Classical Period modern disciplines such as philosophy, drama, tragedy, comedy, history, geography, anthropology, biology, physics and political science were all founded through the writings of figures such as Plato, Aristotle, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Thucydides and Herodotus. New architectural forms, which are still mimicked in the construction of civic buildings such as courthouses and city halls across the western world today, were also first built in the hundreds of city states like Athens, Corinth and Thebes which made up the Greek world during the Classical Period.[1]

    Greek culture was spread far and wide across the known world in ancient times, first as the city states of mainland Greece sent out colonists all over the Mediterranean, eventually settling regions as far afield as southern Italy, Sicily, southern France, the Crimean Peninsula and parts of northern Libya. Then in the 330s and 320s BCE, the Macedonian king, Alexander the Great, conquered the Persian Empire and ushered in the Hellenistic era.[2] While the Roman Republic soon began conquering the Eastern Mediterranean, even as Roman arms defeated the Greeks, the Greeks defeated the Romans culturally and the Roman Empire was as much a spreader of Greek culture as anything else, though Greece itself was reduced to a fairly powerless province under Roman rule.[3]

    Following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, Greece continued as a province of the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantine Empire down to the final conquest of that polity’s great capital, Constantinople, by the Ottoman Empire in 1453. It would remain a Turkish province until 1821 when the Greek Revolution broke out, eventually resulting in the establishment of the Kingdom of Greece in 1832. This lasted for nearly a century. During the First World War, the country attempted to remain neutral, but was eventually forced into the conflict on the side of the Entente as Bulgaria and other nations violated its territory even during the period of neutrality.[4]

    In the aftermath of the war, Greece became embroiled in the Turkish War of Independence that broke out as the Ottoman Empire collapsed. The monarchical government in Athens hoped to gain from the conflict by seizing parts of the coast of western Turkey which historically had been colonized by Greece as far back as the second millennium BCE and which had a large Greek community. However, Greece suffered a series of disastrous military reverses in the early 1920s and this contributed substantially to the collapse of the monarchy and the establishment of the Second Hellenic Republic in 1924, though this too was short-lived and the monarchy was restored in 1935.[5]

    Although it is often overlooked, in the dark days of 1940 and early 1941 Greece also stood against Nazi Germany alongside Britain during the Second World War. Thereafter the country was occupied by the Axis forces, though an intense resistance movement was maintained down to the liberation of the country at the end of the war. In the aftermath of the conflict Greece went through numerous political fluctuations, including a military junta between 1967 and 1974, but the Third Hellenic Republic emerged thereafter and Greece became a member of the European Union in 1981.[6]  

    Greek geography

    The Isthmus of Corinth.
    The Isthmus of Corinth

    Greece has a complex geography. It is broadly divisible into three distinct zones.[7] The first of these is the Peloponnese, the large peninsula in the south of the mainland which is only attached to the rest of mainland Greece by the Isthmus of Corinth, a narrow neck of land which is just over six kilometers wide at one point. A canal, built in 1893, runs through the Isthmus today, effectively turning the Peloponnese into an artificial island. To the north is northern Greece, a region which incorporates the Attica Peninsula and then the plains of Thessaly, as well as the more mountainous regions to the north towards Albania and Macedonia. The third region is the Greek islands of which there are several thousand spread across the Aegean Sea and Eastern Mediterranean.[8] In terms of its human geography, Athens is the paramount city, with over three million of Greece’s ten and a half million people living in the metropolitan area. Thessaloniki, the second largest city, is home to nearly a million people in the metro area.[9]

    Family history and genealogy

    According to legend the first census was carried out in Greece in the sixteenth century BCE by Cecrops, a semi-mythical King of Athens. However, despite this and the country’s very complex and sophisticated history, the first modern census was not carried out until 1828, considerably later than in many other European countries. A major census was undertaken of both the Greek population and landholding in 1861, records which are invaluable for the family historian and genealogist. Today, there are two major libraries in Athens which are the center of such research.[10] The General State Archives in Athens was founded in 1914 and contains much of the country’s statistical data.[11] The National Library of Greece is the foremost public library in the country. Founded in 1832, shortly after Greece acquired its independence from the Ottoman Empire, the library houses one of the world’s foremost collections of Greek manuscripts and research material on the ancient Greek world.[12]

    Researching family history in Greece

    There are several records of genealogical value for Greece, including church records, civil registration records, and census records. Among these records are membership lists, baptismal registers, marriage records, and lists of deaths and burials. Maiden names, ages or dates of birth, and relatives' names can also be found in these records. By using these resources and understanding the types of records available, you can make significant progress in tracing your Greek family history. Here are a few helpful resources to begin your research:

    Greek ethnicity

    Traditional dancers in the Monastery of Hosios Loukas
    Traditional dancers in the Monastery of Hosios Loukas

    Greece has a diverse population, with various ethnicities and cultural influences. The majority of Greeks are ethnically Greek, but there are also significant populations of Albanians, Bulgarians, and Romani people. Additionally, there are smaller communities of Armenian, Jewish, and Turkish people. Due to Greece's geographical location and historical connections with other countries, the population has been shaped by a range of cultural and linguistic influences. As a result, many Greeks identify with another regional or local culture in addition to their Greek identity. The diverse mix of ethnicities and cultural traditions in Greece contributes to its rich and varied cultural heritage.


    Greek surnames

    Greek surnames were not established until the 19th century, and the adoption of surnames was not universal until the mid-20th century. As a result, surnames in Greece can provide important clues about a person's family history, including their ancestral village or region, and can help to connect individuals to their broader family tree. For example, the surname "Papadopoulos" means "son of a priest," while "Katsaros" means "curly-haired." Many Greek surnames are also indicative of the occupation or trade of an individual's ancestors, such as "Pappas" (priest) or "Koulouris" (baker), and may contain valuable information about their family's economic and social status. However, due to the complexity of Greek naming traditions and the prevalence of variations and changes in surnames over time, it's important to approach surname research in Greece with patience and attention to detail.

    See also

    Explore more about Greece


    References

    1. ↑ Ancient Greece. World History Encyclopedia
    2. ↑ Alexander the Great. Livius.org
    3. ↑ Greek Influence on the Roman Empire. Owlcation
    4. ↑ Greece under Ottoman rule. Encyclopedia Britannica
    5. ↑ Greece profile - Timeline. BBC
    6. ↑ GREECE. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
    7. ↑ Geography of Greece
    8. ↑ Greece Geography. CountryReports
    9. ↑ Greece: The largest cities in 2021. Statista
    10. ↑ Hellenic Statistical Authority - ΕΛΣΤΑΤ
    11. ↑ Our History. General State Archives of Greece
    12. ↑ National Library of Greece
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    Contributors

    Main contributor: Yael Assouline
    Additional contributor: Maor Malul