My Greek Ancestry

Look what I found at nanna’s house! Heaps of really, really old photos of my ancestors and relatives from when they were in Greece.

The one above is my favourite one. The older boy next to the woman is my great grandfather Vlassios. The man driving the oxen is my great, great grandfather and the woman at the front is my great, great grandmother.

These are my dad’s favourite ones. They are of his grandfather Vlassios in his Greek military dress uniform. The second one is him with his future wife, Anastasia, my great grandmother. I think it was taken in 1942.

He fought in WWII and got shot in the legs by a Turk. He would always mutter “bloody Turks” when telling my dad war stories.

There’s quite a bit of dark history involving the Turks. I know that my family used to live in Turkey but they were culturally Greek. They fled the Greek genocide in Turkey to Greece. I think it was specifically the Pontic genocide.

These are also of my great grandmother Anastasia.

That’s my nanna Paraskevi on the donkey when she went back to Greece with her mother for a wedding.

This is my great-grandmother Anastasia visiting her in-laws in Greece with my nanna.

Here’s my great grandfather Vlassios again. He’s standing in front of the White Tower of Thessaloniki.

I can’t wait until I get back to Greece so that I can see this Tower myself!