In October 2012, Hurricane Sandy flooded the streets of Brooklyn, New York. Among the damaged homes was that of my Aunt Alice Kostakos. Two of my cousins rescued hundreds of photos and many albums which were floating in the mucky water. In 2016, my cousins and I digitized these photographs, which I described in this post.

These pictures formed the basics of this family history book which documents the lives of my paternal grandparents, Ioannis Andreas Kostakos and Harikleia Aridas, both of Agios Ioannis, Sparta. Combined with family stories and many documents from the U.S. and Agios Ioannis, the book came together easily.

I loved every minute of working on this project. It enabled me to better understand the lives of our grandparents and their ancestors, and to truly appreciate my heritage. A pdf version of this book can be accessed here.

It is time to get information out of my computer and into the hands of family and relatives. With the multitude of documents I have accessed during my research trips to Greece, there are many more books to write about all of my family lines in various villages of Sparta. I have only just begun.