Story:
This genealogical tree was made by a relative of mine a long time ago, a distant cousin that had been to Canada. He was a financial migrant, his movement wasn’t enforced, but he gave me a genealogical tree that he himself created, which was an invitation for me to search my family’s story.
Spyros explains that the genealogical tree goes back to 1760.
He has explored the various families, where you can really see many kids in each family, many kids disappearing, you see surnames which mean a lot. You can see here a sudden change, here a family with a boy named Thanasis, this family had the surname Ralli, he marries with one of the daughters of that family, which has the surname Pagkalou and, eventually, the man carries the surname of the woman, because they only had women, girls, and so that’s how my last name occurred and reached me in the form of Pagkalos, because it was probably passed from man to man and reached me.
He continues explaining that the surname Ralli, as well as his grandmother’s surname, Mponatsou, are Italian surnames, as well as that, through his research, he discovered that in 1542, after the occupation of Rodoupoli, a family with the last name Notaras left Italy and migrated to Trikala Korinthias.
Another element that really surprised me is that somewhere here there is a great-grandmother, I heard that she’s Turkish and that, after the revolution of 1821 she changed religion, apparently because she wanted to hide some personal information, and then got married to my great-grandfather and then the Pagkalos name carried on, so you see, there is a lot of history.
Spyros explains that the genealogical tree reached him through a sister of the relative who created it and that this is a photocopy of the original. He mentions that he has never personally spoken to the creator.
But you can make sense of it, I mean, he starts here with the first family, then goes on with the children and the marriages and then moves on further below.
Spyros, before reaching Moschato, used to live at Xylokastro, in a house that was there from his family’s descendants. He moved to Athens when he was accepted into the Chemistry department in Athens and, ever since, he has been a permanent resident.
I am in very good terms with the community in Xylokastro but I decided to stay here. I came here around 1978. The first year was a bit weird, but quickly, because at the university we were all from other places, for instance there were people from Karditsa and other areas, we became friends very fast and we integrated.
He tells us that his relative started working on the genealogical tree around 1995 and that he is now approximately 85 years old.
I’ve been thinking about transcribing it. I also have one from the other side of the family as well, from an uncle, that one goes back to 1850, with boxes and everything. What I tell my students, because I teach at a school, is that in my family there are people with Italian origins, with Turkish origins, that half my family are Arvanites and my grandfather is a Vlach and that the idea of purity is completely inconceivable.
