April 2004
The Kytherian Family Tree
The most ambitious and technically difficult part of the website is at last online: the family tree section. Up until the middle of the last century, Kytherians predominantly married Kytherians, even after they emigrated. Just one family tree going back a few generations probably includes relatives of hundreds, perhaps thousands of us, so just imagine what a wealth of family knowledge will be at all of our disposal when the dozens of Kytherian family trees already documented by the genealogists amongst you become visible on Kythera-Family.net? The potential is limitless: on a private level we will be able to discover unknown family branches from the investigations of distant relatives; as a community we will better realise the interconnections which link us all at a family level; and the consequent revelation of the migration patterns and age statistics of an entire island will tempt academics to focus on Kythera and thus hopefully inspire other branches of research of our wonderful island.
It’s easy to create a family tree on the website, either from scratch, adding one relative after another, or, for those of you who have already created a digital family-tree on your PC, you can simply upload your tree (in GEDCOM format) straight to the site. In both cases simply click on “People” and then “Family Trees” in the navigation bar.
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Selected Recent Entries:
Caravousanos Folk !
submitted by Tony Caravousanos 03.03.2004
Hi - My name is Tony Caravousanos. I live in Dublin Ireland. My great grandfather came from Livadi in Kythira and went to the USA around 1900. My wife’s name is Ola and we have 2 children – a boy Keith and a girl Ria – after Kythera! Any Caravousanos folk out there - I would like to hear form you.
Best wishes - Tony.
Reply - Caravousanos Folk !
Submitted by Mary Conomos 09.03.2004
Caravousanos folk,
a Mr. Caravousanos owned the Athenian restaurant in the Sydney business district during the 1950's and was well established before that. He specialised in Greek cuisine, his clientele being Greeks and a few cluey Australians. Mr. Caravousanos was a popular destination for Kytherians from country towns visiting Sydney. Try the Sydney white pages telephone directory which is online, for descendants. Good luck. Mary Conomos.
Vlantis - the African family branch
My grandfather, M. Vlantis, emigrated from Kythera to 'Rhodesia' in the early 1900's and married Emerenstia. He had five children: Menalos, Calliope, Cleo, Hester and Christian. I am Alexander Vlantis, the eldest son of Christian Vlantis. All seven of these members had the surname Vlantis. I would be very grateful for any information about this extended family. Submitted by Alexander Vlantis 26.02.2004
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Email of the Month:
“This site has been a revelation. I found both of my grandfather's arrivals on your site. Both headed for northern NSW late 1890's & 1906, so I contacted Peter Tsicalas, by email. He is a gem!! He was able to provide copies of naturalization certificates & other documents &
information. The site serves a great purpose. Keep up the great work.” Vic Panaretos
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Submitter(s) of the Month
Imagine the shock I got awaking one March morning to find 80 new entries on the site. Was it a virus playing havoc with our website? Or was it a hacker uploading frivolous snaps of his teddy-bear as a joke? Neither. They were real entries. 80 new modern photography submissions. Fantastic shots of Kytherian beaches, churches, festivals, fields of Spring flowers, and even one of the famous Kytherian Marching Band. All taken by one man, our submitter of the month, Stephen Trifyllis of Brisbane. If you don’t often miss Kythera, take a look at his pictures, and you surely will wish you were there. Thanks Stephan for bringing us all a little closer to our island with your truely beautiful pictures, even when we are continents away from it.
Special thanks also goes to submitters James Gavriles, Peter Tsicalas, Petros Kominos, Kiriaki Orfanos, Panayioti Samios, Eleni Harou, Karlie Vagias, John Sofios, George Camaris, Sofia Katsouli, Nena Parkes, Tony Caravousanos (from Ireland!), John Fardoulis, Rowan Parkes, Mary Conomos, Rosemary Gialamas (Venardos), Mick Castrisios, Anne Levonis, Lee Lontis, Alexandra Biggs and our own lead-collator George Poulos for his half-dozen fascinating “nickname” entries.
We hope to hear from all of the family historians out there - the family tree section awaits you!
James Prineas, Website Team Leader Europe
