May 2006
More than just a Website
The Kythera-Family.net website is much more than an online repository. Through it’s existence people have come together who might never have met, and projects have sprung to life which were inconceivable before we went online.
Many of you will be familiar with the Kytherian Surnames edition which was published in 2002. An 800 page historical record of all known Kytherian surnames – some dating back more than 1000 years – it was written by Emmanuel Kalligeros of Athens and Kythera and was published with the support of Nicholas Aroney Trust.
Through the synergies created by the website, this book is now being updated and translated into English by the highly respected translator, photo-grapher and curator John Stathatos who lives in Strapothi. On completion the book is to be pub-lished and distributed to bookstores in Australia, Athens and Kythera as well as made available through Kythera-Family.net.
The book is unique. Few communities – if any – have such detailed historical research on family names and we hope every Kytherian household will purchase a copy.
Another project of immense import-ance to the preservation of Kytherian heritage material is the cleaning, digitalisation and preservation of the Fatseas Collection of Photographic Glass Slides. These photographs, dating from the early 1920’s and numbering over 4,000, have been generously donated to the people of Kythera by the Fatseas family. We owe them a debt of gratitude for this unselfish gesture. The Kytherian Cultural Association in Hora, under the leadership of John Stathatos, recognised the value of the collection to us all and has pushed for the restoration as a matter of urgency before the images further deteriorate. John Stathatos has procured the services of several volunteers to assist in this major task.
The Fatseas Collection has now been recognized as one of the most important historical photographic collections in the whole of Greece and after restoration will presented on the website. A book of the collection will be printed at a later date.
Angelo and John Notaras of Sydney, who were instrumental in initiating and financing the Kytherian Surnames Translation Project, also recognized the importance of moving quickly to preserve the collection. They have therefore agreed to under-write the expense of the entire restoration project and to cover costs such as scanners, computers, special preservation papers, archival boxes, steel cabinets etc.
The Benaki Museum of Athens has also recognised the importance of this collection and has encouraged us in the restoration. The Museum, which is inter-nation-ally acclaimed for its magnificent collections (it recently toured Australia), has advised us that they wish to exhibit the Fatseas photographs at the Benaki Museum in January and February 2008. A great honour for all Kytherians.
Due to the large number of photos in the collection all Kytherians will have great pleasure viewing the photographs to find many of our relatives. The world-wide Kyther-ian Diaspora are indeed fortunate that so much of their histor-ical past is being discovered, or re-discovered, saved, translated, print-ed and placed on the website and made available for generations to come.
Our Kytherian website is indebted to all the volunteers and persons who assist in this continuous story of discovery of our lives past and present. Each and every one of us can help contribute by submitting entries about our families to the site.
James Prineas, Berlin. ( [email protected] )
