Tag Archives: Brooklyn

Scanfest: Saving Yiayia’s Photos

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When Hurricane Sandy flooded Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn in October 2012,we worried about the water damage in our aunt’s basement and the reconstruction that would be required.

Gianna Doukas

Gianna Doukas

But, when my cousin’s daughter, Gianna, dashed to the house, she saw that something even more precious was in danger of being destroyed — my grandparents photo albums. She gathered up the water-logged treasures and spread them out on sheets and towels. She tried to separate the ones that had already begun to stick together, and to remove the ones that were in those awful “magnetic” photo albums. Although some photos were lost, thanks to Gianna, over 400 were saved.

My cousin, John, mentioned to me that he was concerned about the state of these pictures. Many had curled when they dried, some were getting black mold, and others were brittle. I offered to come to the house with a flat-bed scanner and digitize every one of them. Last weekend, I made the drive from Maryland to Brooklyn.

Verazzano Narrows Bridge linking New Jersey and New York

Verazzano Narrows Bridge linking New Jersey and New York

Our “scanfest” began on Saturday morning at the Sheepshead Bay home of my Aunt Alice Kostakos. When John retrieved the box of photos, it didn’t look like this would be such a big job, but it took 2 days and over 10 hours!

Kostakos family photos, rescued from the flood

Kostakos family photos, rescued from the flood

We set up shop at Aunt Alice Kostakos’ kitchen table and began by retrieving oldest  black and white photos.

Working hard! l-r: Marianne Doukas, John Stakis, Georgia Kostakos Doukas, Alice Kostakos. Kitchen of Alice's home, Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, June 11, 2016

Working hard! l-r: Marianne Doukas, John Stakis, Georgia Kostakos Doukas, Alice Kostakos. Kitchen of Alice’s home, Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, June 11, 2016

Thanks to Aunts Georgia and Alice, we were able to identify every person in every photo! We affixed post-it notes to the bottom of each, identifying people, dates and places. The photo and post-it note were then scanned as one image, ensuring that the information would not be separated from the picture. Over the coming months, I will crop each photo and add its identifying information into the metadata. This photo shows my grandparents sitting in front, Hariklia Aridas Kostakos and John Andrew Kostakos — surrounded by their children, grandchildren, and extended family members.

1953; Brooklyn; Kostakos home.

1953; Brooklyn; Kostakos home. My grandparents, Hariklia Aridas Kostakos and John Andrew Kostakos (front), surrounded by family.

Every photo tells a story, and thanks to our Aunts, we heard many great ones. My family moved from Brooklyn when I was five, and one great blessing to me was hearing about many of the relatives in these pictures whose names I had heard, but whom I barely knew. This photo is among the earliest we found, dated 1934: on the left is my father (age 17) and my godfather, Peter Aridas, age 50). You can see how the ink on the back of the photo bled through when the photo was  wet.

My father, Andrew Kostakos (left) and my godfather, Peter Aridas (right), 1935, Brooklyn, NY

My father, Andrew Kostakos (left) and my godfather, Peter Aridas (right), 1934, Brooklyn, NY

We worked for eight hours on Saturday, and even ordered in lunch so we would not have to take time to go out. We enjoyed dinner at a Greek (of course!) restaurant at the waterfront on Saturday evening, and on Sunday morning, regrouped for day two. This time, we set up shop on Aunt Alice’s dining room table which gave us much more room to spread out.

Day two at the dining room table. l-r: Georgia Doukas, Marianne Doukas, Carol Kotakos Petranek, John Stakis, Alice Kostakos. Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. June 12, 2016

Day two at the dining room table. l-r: Georgia Doukas, Marianne Doukas, Carol Kotakos Petranek, John Stakis, Alice Kostakos. Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. June 12, 2016

By using both a flatbed scanner and a portable Flip-Pal scanner, we digitized 400 photos. These raw and unedited images are now online in a private Flickr account, with links sent to all of our cousins. It will take time to crop and electronically tag each photo, but everyone now has access to what we accomplished.

I’m headed to Sparta, Greece, at the end of the month, with the hopes of finding additional documents on my family. My long-term goal is to create a family history book, incorporating many of the photos we scanned and the documents I obtained, along with some family stories. The next generations — Gianna and beyond — will not know their ancestors unless our generation does its part.

 

Papagiannakos in Lakonia

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For the past month, I have been researching Papagiannakos records in preparation for a meeting with Father Eugene Pappas (Papagiannakos), priest at Three Hierarchs Church in Brooklyn, and a “cousin” to my mother. Both his family and mine descend from two different Nikolaos Papagiannakos’ from Agios Ioannis (born in the early 1800’s), but we have not yet been able to go back far enough to find our common ancestor.  Hurricane Sandy derailed my visit with Father Eugene as Brooklyn is now under water, but my research continues.

After extracting Papagiannakos names from villages around Sparta in Electoral Rolls of 1872, Mitroon Arrenon, and other documents, I found that prior to 1900 in Agios Ioannis, there were two Ioannis’ and at least five or possibly seven Nikolaos’. I also found Papagiannakos in Therapni, Tsintzina and Zoupena.

I plotted all these families on a Google map. I put purple pins in each of the villages where a Papagiannakos family lived. Click on the pin and you will see a pop-up window showing the families in that village: 

Here is a list of the families I have found so far:

AGIOS IOANNIS:  1815-1941

1815-1900: Families (fathers and sons)

1.  Ioannis 4 had 1 son, Georgios born either 1875 or 1880

2.  Ioannis 5 had 2 sons: Spyridon born 1890/91 and Evvagelos born 1895

Nikolaos – There were at least 5 and possibly 7 families with Nikolaos as father:

  1. Nikolaos 1 (may be same person as Nikolaos 4, as sons are 4 yrs apart). His son was Panagiotis born 1841 (this is my great-grandfather)
  2. Nikolaos 2, married to Georgia Piperis; they had 8  sons born 1889-1910  (this is Father Eugene’s ancestral family)
  3. Nikolaos 3, born 1815 (may be same person as Nikolaos 1, 6 or 7, as he is 20, 22, or 26 when the sons were born)
  4. Nikolaos 4 (may be same person as Nikolaos 1, as sons are 4 yrs apart); his son was Ioannis born 1845
  5. Nikolaos 5 had one son, Theodoros, born 1901
  6. Nikolaos 6 had one son, Ioannis 2, born 1837
  7. Nikolaos 7 had one son, Ioannis 1, born 1835

1901-1941: Families (fathers and sons)

  1. Andreas, with 6 children born 1931-1941
  2. Aristedes, with 4 children born 1929-1940
  3. Konstandinos, with 6 children born 1927-1935
  4. Christos, with 2 children born 1901-1904

THERAPNI: 1867

Father: no name, son Dimitrios b 1867 (source: School Archives)

TSINTZINA:  1830-1840

Dimitrios had 3 sons, Ioannis b 1830, Georgios b 1837, Panagiotis b 1840

ZOUPENA:  1886-1891

Father: G, had one son, Ilias b 1886

Father: P, had one son, Christofos b 1891

Although I am grateful for the records that exist and have allowed me to research to this point, I am anxiously awaiting more information. Using several sets of records allows me to compare and contrast dates, names and locations at different times. Church records would be the golden key that ties families together. Perhaps there will come a day when they will be readily available in Greece as they are in other countries.

Now that I have finished looking in the general area of Sparta, I will look farther south in Lakonia and perhaps into Messinia, into the Mani region, to see if, when and where the Papagiannakos name appears. I’m looking for migration patterns. Meanwhile, I will keep looking for additional records to help me sort out the Nikolaos’, and be able to go back another generation or two to find the common ancestor.

Then, I’ll start on another surname! This work is never done 🙂

 

 

My Grandparents

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I have added Family Group Sheets and basic information about my grandparents and their children under the heading, “My Grandparents.” I am truly blessed to have been able to know each of them, except for my maternal grandfather, Louis Pappas, who died before my mother was married. I have fond memories of happy times in the home of Yiayia and Papou Kostakos in Brooklyn. It was a large, sunny home on a lovely double-lot in Brooklyn,with many nooks and crannies for my cousins and me to explore. In her later years, my maternal grandmother, Angelia Eftaxias Pappas, divided her time between my parents’ in home in Kensington, Maryland, and my Aunt Bertha & Uncle Nick Pouletsos’ home in Pt. Jefferson Station, Long Island, New York. I am looking forward to adding family stories, histories and photos of these wonderful people whom I love dearly.

Getting Started

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This is the home village of three of my grandparents.

This is my first post on my new blog! My name is Carol Harriet Kostakos Petranek, and I am of Greek-American ancestry. I was baptized Hariklia Kostakou (Χαρικλια Κοστακου) after the traditional Greek naming patterns: as the first child, I named after my father’s mother, Hariklia (Aridas) Kostakos. Although Hariklia is a beautiful Greek name, my mother was not enamoured of its English translation, Harriet. I had the good fortune of being born on Christmas Eve which gave my mother the opportunity to name me Carol. However, my dear grandparents called me Hariklia until the day they died.

I was born in Brooklyn, New York, and lived in a predominantly Greek neighborhood. My grandparents and other family members were within walking distance, and my earliest years were spent surrounded by family. When I was five, we moved to a small town in New Jersey and when I was 13, we moved to a Maryland suburb of Washington, D.C. I have always felt a strong love for family and this has manifested in a passion for genealogical research.

My purpose in writing this blog is to preserve a path of my Greek genealogical research, and to share what I have learned with others. This is not an easy road to follow. Records are not readily available and the Greek language can be a barrier to many people. However, we can keep learning and progressing, one step at a time, in reaching a worthy goal — to discover, preserve and share our family history with others.

Please join me on this exciting journey! And don’t hesitate to contact me at anytime. I’m looking forward to making many new friends, and — hopefully — finding many new family members!