I always enjoy talking with the priests who pop in and out of the room where I am working. Many are young and will spend a couple of years at the Sparta Mitropolis before they are assigned to a church. Others may spend a lifetime in service there. One of the longest serving priests in the Mitropolis is Papa Georgiou. For 50 years, he has daily and faithfully fulfilled his responsibilities and served five different Bishops. His eyes are kind, he is gentle, and he has maintained the Orthodox tradition of not cutting his hair or beard after being ordained a priest (today, priests can choose whether or not to follow this pattern).

One day when Papa Georgiou stopped by to say hello, we talked (using lots of hand gestures due to my broken Greek) about the importance of the digitization project — to preserve marriage records and eventually make them available to researchers around the world. Amazingly, my message was understood and his eyes lit up. With much enthusiasm, he began talking rapidly about his family and the research he had done. I had a hard time following him and must have looked a bit confused. He said he had something to show me.

He left the room, and returned with a scroll. As he began to unroll it, I could see he needed help. I held one end and continued to move backwards until it was fully unwound. I was truly speechless when I realized the scroll documented his family history research, and it stretched about 20 feet!

Papa Georgiou unrolls his family tree scroll, June 2018

Papa Georgiou has worked on his family history throughout his life. Yet, even though he has access to any and all records that are available in Sparta, he could go back no further than his great-grandfather, Konstandinos Blathras born 1790, died 1881. That’s about the time frame where most of us are brick-walled as well.

Papa Georgiou did not limit his research to Greece. He has family in America and traveled there many times to visit and gather the names of his kin. I was surprised to see that the data was typed in English. He explained that his nephew in America entered all his research into a computer and had the scroll printed. A perfect blend of old and new (a pattern I see everywhere around me in Greece).

To say that Papa Georgiou is proud of his family history research is an understatement. This is one of his crowning achievements. Just look at the joy in his face! My goal is to follow his example and leave such a legacy for my posterity.

Family history brings us joy!