On Saturday, April 21, 2018, I was excited to be the speaker at an all-day Greek Genealogy conference in Portland, Oregon. Sponsored by the Hellenic-American Cultural Center and Museum of Portland, this was held at the Holy Trinity Cathedral, Fr. Elias Stephanopoulos Center. For those in the U.S. who know of the broadcast journalist, George Stephanopoulos, his uncle is the one for whom this Hellenic Center is named. In the early 1900’s, Greeks traveled across the U.S. and settled in Portland to work on the railroad. The present-day community is strong and closely knit. Many are descendants of the early Greek immigrants.

The hall was filled with about 80 enthusiastic people who were ready to dive into the “how-to’s” of research. From 9:00-5:00, we studied five major topics:

Session 1 – Getting Started
Session 2 – Using US Records to Prepare for Research in Greece
Session 3 – Passenger Ship, Naturalization, Alien Registrations
Session 4 – Civil Records in Greece, online
Session 5 – Church and Civil Repositories in Greece; Researching in Greece

The handouts for this conference can be found at the Hellenic Genealogy Conferences website here: Portland.  I uploaded many supplementary documents — please download and use all of these materials, and email me if I can be of help (spartanroots1 at gmail.com)

Portland Greek Genealogy Conference, April 21, 2018

I was so pleased when several people approached me to share what they were doing as researchers. Their stories were fascinating, and I invited them to share with the group.

l-r: Gus Chamales, Carol Kostakos Petranek, Chris Zervas, Portland, April 21 2018

Gus Chamales had become interested in the World War II military service of one of his church parishioners, and has expanded that to research the history not only of this person, but of his entire company. This interest is growing to conducting research on many more Greek-Americans who have served in the military.

Chris Zervas began researching his family in a small village outside of Corinth. He soon found his work expanding to include neighboring villages. Chris is engaged in what professionals call a “one-place study” as his research now includes every resident in his village and neighboring ones. His family tree currently contains 24,000 names and continues to grow!

The Hellenic Museum occupies a large room in the upper level of the Stephanopoulos Center. Its holdings are true treasures of the quality one would see in a museum in Athens. I could have spent several hours reading the inscriptions and examining every artifact, but I had to rush through during a 30-minute lunch break. I was told that the Archbishop said this was the most beautiful Greek museum in America. Here are just a few of the many photos I took.

No Greek event is complete without dinner and Greek dancing! I now have many new friends in Portland.

If your community would like to sponsor a Hellenic genealogy conference, let me know. It is fun to learn together — and, you may meet a new cousin!