Actors in a North Danube Greek tragedy
Why tragedy ?
Because at the beginning people care about others and after years they really don't care or there is no more surviving people to care about the past.
I noticed that every family has a person who knows the oral history of the family.
When this person disappears, the whole oral history disappears.
Young people generally don't care about these elders who tell old stories only good to got asleep.
Why Greek ?
Because in the past Braila, port on Danube, had a big Greek community. This was a result of being a free port. There were Greeks, Armenians and Jewish merchants there, but Greeks were the sailors.
Braila was a Turkish RAYA until 1829, see here: RAYA - link !
After the treaty of Adrianopolis the navigation on Danube became free and the Turkish trading monopoly was abolished.
As consequence, Braila port became a cosmopolitan city.
I think this port has fallen after 1877 when Romania got Dobrudja and king Charles I asked Anghel Saligny tobuild the port of Constanta @ Black Sea.
Even now you see in Braila the old houses of the Greeks, Armenians and Jews on streets paved with cubic stones, now with weight limit of 1,6 tons because these were designed for other time...
How did our kinship with Greeks start ?
Which is the link with the Danube and free navigation and trading ?
In 1866 the highway to Vienna was the Danube, but the capital was Bucharest. The main port of Romania at that time was Braila. The trend of that years was the railway...
King Charles connected Bucharest with Danube at Giurgiu.
My ancestor Stjepan AJETIC (1832-1899), coming from Ilok, Salvonia (Croatia) port on Danube probably used Danube to arrive in Bucharest about 1860 and married here in 1861 with a Szekely !
He worked at the construction of the Bucharest-Giurgiu railway, the link to Danube.
I think there is somewhere the archive of the British company who built this railway and there are the personnel records, interesting for amateur genealogists like me...
Their first son, Anton, was born in 1864 and later he became cashier at a railway station close to Braila, a railway junction to Galati, Moldavia's port on Danube.
The second son, Dionysus, was born in 1871 and later became engineer on Pacific locomotives.
The third son, Alexander, born in 1874, became doctor in law after studying law in Belgium.
Anton is the link with the Greek community from Braila. Why did he arrived there ? See this:
In 1872 Anton's future wife Varvara Antoniu RODIS, daughter of Georgios RODIS and Theodora Georgiou was born in Braila. In the same year the rairoad from Bucharest to Braila was finished.
Anton met Varvara about 1894 and they married in January 1895.
In October 1895 was born their first son, Stere, my grandfather, father of my mother.
Because Anton's job was outside Braila, Varvara went to her parents' house, close to the Saint Spiridon, their parochial church.
The birth certificate of Stere is full of details, very good for the family history.
Why am I upset ?
When Antonios RODIS' wife Eleni died (1867), he moved with his son Georgios to Braila.
It is possible that in one trading action on the Aegean and Black Sea and then on Danube to Braila Georgios (1842-1926) met Theodora and they married in 1868, exactly on the birthday anniversary of Georgios. This document was found in 2012 by my brother and our uncle in the National archives from Braila. They looked for Georgios ANTONIU but they found that he was in fact RODIS.
The legend of the family said that they came from RHODOS island (because of the name RODIS).
Georgios was the son of Antonis and according to the Romanian rules of family name before 1900 (Ottoman style), Georgios, even born RODIS became ANTONIU in Romania when his daughter Varvara was born !!!
In the birth certificate of Varvara she is ANDONIU with D, something usual for Greek names.
The full name could be Varvara G(eorgios) Antoniu RODIS because we also put the father's initial.
Her mother was Theodora T(hanasis) Georgiou.
The crucial information from the 1868 marriage record was the birth place of Georgios RODIS, Eghina town, not Island, so the main city of Aegina. The profession - 'ghimigiu' - ship owner, sailor.
Varvara had 2 brothers, Peter and Thanasis.
Peter disappeared, I don't know if he died young, we don't know anything about him.
On Thanasis' birth certificate was a stamp with his death.
For Georgios and his son Thanasis I got the death certificates from Braila after several attempts and years. First I asked for George Antoniu and finally for George RODIS.
Both had the same address when they died.
About Thanasis' family we don't know anything.
What happened in Braila ?
House parcels were big at the beginning and in time people sold a part of the parcel.
In our Greek family branch it was as following:
Their parcel was between 2 streets. My grandfather Stere was born at the address Glasis 14, later Charles 14, the main street, very close to the church. The back street was Unirii.
At one moment probably they sold half of their parcel and they kept the backyard with the address Unirii 13, the address where Georgios and Thanasis died.
I studied the evolution of the numbers of the streets in Braila and the renumbering of the parcels...
Another act of the Greek tragedy...
The legend said that Georgios died at age 104 !!! Incredible.
After I found his birth record thanks to Mr. KOUTSODONTIS and MR. CHALDEOS, 1842, he was very old when he died but not matusalemic.
So the candidate for this incredible age could be Antonios, forgotten by God.
I asked for his death certificate several times. Nothing.
The same happens with Theodora, no birth, baptizing, marriage, wedding, death certificate.
There is a poor quality photo with 2 women, taken after WW1 where the oral history says it is IACA, meaning grandmother, probably Theodora...
Where are these Greeks buried ?
Nobody knows !
The only person who could know was the only surviving daughter of Anton & Varvara, Maria (1902-1986). At that moment I was 19 and the subject genealogy wasn't my priority.
After I finished the faculty I asked my brother to ask all elders (2 grandmothers, aunts and uncles) about our family.
Trading places of eternity...
I've seen this 'live' - my uncle Dan, specialist in this matter...
In 2000 there were 4 places in the cemetery from Braila, full of family members but buried a long time ago. The only Greek buried there is Varvara.
Dan 're-organized' them from 4 places in 2 places and sold the other 2.
Now, 2020, Dan, whose father Michael, son of Varvara, is buried there sees the 'imminent' end and looks for someone to preserve the remains of his father and our ancestors buried there.
As we still have an aunt almost 90, the daughter-in-law of Maria (1902-1986) whose husband died about 10 years ago, and the last bearer of the oral information, even poor, about our Greek branch,
Dan intends to donate me the collection of remains of our ancestor.
I noticed this phenomenon, elders give me information, photos, even cemetery places...
The same thing happened with the place in the cemetery where is buried Dionysus AJETIC, the Pacific locomotive engineer buried in Bucharest, but that place is for me...
As I don't intend to be buried at 200 Km from my family, where the railway central sent my great grandfather Anton at Barbosi, thrown over Siret river, the former border with the principality of Moldavia, I will accept Dan's donation in order to preserve the past.
Greek tragedy...
Antonis, Georgios, Theodora, Peter, Thanasis, were are you buried ?
In some docs they say they are under Hellenic protection !
What means this ? I asked the embassy in Bucharest about a list with the Greeks from Braila. Nothing. I asked the dying Greek community head from Braila. Nothing.
THERE IS A VERY INTERESTING 1838 CENSUS OF BRAILA WITH ALL THE PEOPLE LISTED. Too early for my study. Other censuses ? I didn't find.
There are stories about well known Greek families and nothing about common Greek families.
Antonis and Georgios RODIS owned a ship. Where is the registry of ships ? They docked in some ports. Where are the registers ?
At the end something that for common people sounds crazy
Dan's place in the cemetery is a crypt (vault) with deck.
Inside are the remains of Nikos (1899-1924) , the second son of Anton & Varvara.
He went to US and returned and died in a work accident.
His skull has a hole as the 'specialist' Dan says.
Nikos has mtDNA of Varvara and Theodora and Y-DNA of Anton, the same as Dan, E-M35, inherited from the Ilok, Slavonian line (Nikola-Stjepan-Anton-Michael-Dan).
Dionysus, brother of Anton, buried in Bucharest, has mtDNA from his Szekely mother Susana Lakatos (born 1835- died 1919 in a railway station worker's house where she lived with Dionysus. Where was this information written ? In her old style full of details death certificate).
Y-DNA is from the same Ilok Slavonian line.
I already discussed with a forensic archaeologist who dug in different places where political detainees were buried without any marking. He identifies the remains by DNA tests.
He worked for IICMER, a Romanian institution who studies the crimes of the communists.
IICMER - link !
Before talking with him, another microbiologist told me that she needs a tooth to get a sample for DNA test, but the chief archaeologist said that a bone fragment is enough.
I intend to test DNA of both males from Braila and Bucharest.
Maybe this will help someday if I put their information on GEDmatch.
Maybe the final act of the Greek tragedy will be the finding of my living Greek cousins by DNA tests...
Because at the beginning people care about others and after years they really don't care or there is no more surviving people to care about the past.
I noticed that every family has a person who knows the oral history of the family.
When this person disappears, the whole oral history disappears.
Young people generally don't care about these elders who tell old stories only good to got asleep.
Why Greek ?
Because in the past Braila, port on Danube, had a big Greek community. This was a result of being a free port. There were Greeks, Armenians and Jewish merchants there, but Greeks were the sailors.
Braila was a Turkish RAYA until 1829, see here: RAYA - link !
After the treaty of Adrianopolis the navigation on Danube became free and the Turkish trading monopoly was abolished.
As consequence, Braila port became a cosmopolitan city.
I think this port has fallen after 1877 when Romania got Dobrudja and king Charles I asked Anghel Saligny tobuild the port of Constanta @ Black Sea.
Even now you see in Braila the old houses of the Greeks, Armenians and Jews on streets paved with cubic stones, now with weight limit of 1,6 tons because these were designed for other time...
How did our kinship with Greeks start ?
Which is the link with the Danube and free navigation and trading ?
In 1866 the highway to Vienna was the Danube, but the capital was Bucharest. The main port of Romania at that time was Braila. The trend of that years was the railway...
King Charles connected Bucharest with Danube at Giurgiu.
My ancestor Stjepan AJETIC (1832-1899), coming from Ilok, Salvonia (Croatia) port on Danube probably used Danube to arrive in Bucharest about 1860 and married here in 1861 with a Szekely !
He worked at the construction of the Bucharest-Giurgiu railway, the link to Danube.
I think there is somewhere the archive of the British company who built this railway and there are the personnel records, interesting for amateur genealogists like me...
Their first son, Anton, was born in 1864 and later he became cashier at a railway station close to Braila, a railway junction to Galati, Moldavia's port on Danube.
The second son, Dionysus, was born in 1871 and later became engineer on Pacific locomotives.
The third son, Alexander, born in 1874, became doctor in law after studying law in Belgium.
Anton is the link with the Greek community from Braila. Why did he arrived there ? See this:
In 1872 Anton's future wife Varvara Antoniu RODIS, daughter of Georgios RODIS and Theodora Georgiou was born in Braila. In the same year the rairoad from Bucharest to Braila was finished.
Anton met Varvara about 1894 and they married in January 1895.
In October 1895 was born their first son, Stere, my grandfather, father of my mother.
Because Anton's job was outside Braila, Varvara went to her parents' house, close to the Saint Spiridon, their parochial church.
The birth certificate of Stere is full of details, very good for the family history.
Why am I upset ?
When Antonios RODIS' wife Eleni died (1867), he moved with his son Georgios to Braila.
It is possible that in one trading action on the Aegean and Black Sea and then on Danube to Braila Georgios (1842-1926) met Theodora and they married in 1868, exactly on the birthday anniversary of Georgios. This document was found in 2012 by my brother and our uncle in the National archives from Braila. They looked for Georgios ANTONIU but they found that he was in fact RODIS.
The legend of the family said that they came from RHODOS island (because of the name RODIS).
Georgios was the son of Antonis and according to the Romanian rules of family name before 1900 (Ottoman style), Georgios, even born RODIS became ANTONIU in Romania when his daughter Varvara was born !!!
In the birth certificate of Varvara she is ANDONIU with D, something usual for Greek names.
The full name could be Varvara G(eorgios) Antoniu RODIS because we also put the father's initial.
Her mother was Theodora T(hanasis) Georgiou.
The crucial information from the 1868 marriage record was the birth place of Georgios RODIS, Eghina town, not Island, so the main city of Aegina. The profession - 'ghimigiu' - ship owner, sailor.
Varvara had 2 brothers, Peter and Thanasis.
Peter disappeared, I don't know if he died young, we don't know anything about him.
On Thanasis' birth certificate was a stamp with his death.
For Georgios and his son Thanasis I got the death certificates from Braila after several attempts and years. First I asked for George Antoniu and finally for George RODIS.
Both had the same address when they died.
About Thanasis' family we don't know anything.
What happened in Braila ?
House parcels were big at the beginning and in time people sold a part of the parcel.
In our Greek family branch it was as following:
Their parcel was between 2 streets. My grandfather Stere was born at the address Glasis 14, later Charles 14, the main street, very close to the church. The back street was Unirii.
At one moment probably they sold half of their parcel and they kept the backyard with the address Unirii 13, the address where Georgios and Thanasis died.
I studied the evolution of the numbers of the streets in Braila and the renumbering of the parcels...
Another act of the Greek tragedy...
The legend said that Georgios died at age 104 !!! Incredible.
After I found his birth record thanks to Mr. KOUTSODONTIS and MR. CHALDEOS, 1842, he was very old when he died but not matusalemic.
So the candidate for this incredible age could be Antonios, forgotten by God.
I asked for his death certificate several times. Nothing.
The same happens with Theodora, no birth, baptizing, marriage, wedding, death certificate.
There is a poor quality photo with 2 women, taken after WW1 where the oral history says it is IACA, meaning grandmother, probably Theodora...
Where are these Greeks buried ?
Nobody knows !
The only person who could know was the only surviving daughter of Anton & Varvara, Maria (1902-1986). At that moment I was 19 and the subject genealogy wasn't my priority.
After I finished the faculty I asked my brother to ask all elders (2 grandmothers, aunts and uncles) about our family.
Trading places of eternity...
I've seen this 'live' - my uncle Dan, specialist in this matter...
In 2000 there were 4 places in the cemetery from Braila, full of family members but buried a long time ago. The only Greek buried there is Varvara.
Dan 're-organized' them from 4 places in 2 places and sold the other 2.
Now, 2020, Dan, whose father Michael, son of Varvara, is buried there sees the 'imminent' end and looks for someone to preserve the remains of his father and our ancestors buried there.
As we still have an aunt almost 90, the daughter-in-law of Maria (1902-1986) whose husband died about 10 years ago, and the last bearer of the oral information, even poor, about our Greek branch,
Dan intends to donate me the collection of remains of our ancestor.
I noticed this phenomenon, elders give me information, photos, even cemetery places...
The same thing happened with the place in the cemetery where is buried Dionysus AJETIC, the Pacific locomotive engineer buried in Bucharest, but that place is for me...
As I don't intend to be buried at 200 Km from my family, where the railway central sent my great grandfather Anton at Barbosi, thrown over Siret river, the former border with the principality of Moldavia, I will accept Dan's donation in order to preserve the past.
Greek tragedy...
Antonis, Georgios, Theodora, Peter, Thanasis, were are you buried ?
In some docs they say they are under Hellenic protection !
What means this ? I asked the embassy in Bucharest about a list with the Greeks from Braila. Nothing. I asked the dying Greek community head from Braila. Nothing.
THERE IS A VERY INTERESTING 1838 CENSUS OF BRAILA WITH ALL THE PEOPLE LISTED. Too early for my study. Other censuses ? I didn't find.
There are stories about well known Greek families and nothing about common Greek families.
Antonis and Georgios RODIS owned a ship. Where is the registry of ships ? They docked in some ports. Where are the registers ?
At the end something that for common people sounds crazy
Dan's place in the cemetery is a crypt (vault) with deck.
Inside are the remains of Nikos (1899-1924) , the second son of Anton & Varvara.
He went to US and returned and died in a work accident.
His skull has a hole as the 'specialist' Dan says.
Nikos has mtDNA of Varvara and Theodora and Y-DNA of Anton, the same as Dan, E-M35, inherited from the Ilok, Slavonian line (Nikola-Stjepan-Anton-Michael-Dan).
Dionysus, brother of Anton, buried in Bucharest, has mtDNA from his Szekely mother Susana Lakatos (born 1835- died 1919 in a railway station worker's house where she lived with Dionysus. Where was this information written ? In her old style full of details death certificate).
Y-DNA is from the same Ilok Slavonian line.
I already discussed with a forensic archaeologist who dug in different places where political detainees were buried without any marking. He identifies the remains by DNA tests.
He worked for IICMER, a Romanian institution who studies the crimes of the communists.
IICMER - link !
Before talking with him, another microbiologist told me that she needs a tooth to get a sample for DNA test, but the chief archaeologist said that a bone fragment is enough.
I intend to test DNA of both males from Braila and Bucharest.
Maybe this will help someday if I put their information on GEDmatch.
Maybe the final act of the Greek tragedy will be the finding of my living Greek cousins by DNA tests...
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