My Ancestry
Greek Family Tree
Guide to creating your Greek Family Tree
Thinking of starting your Greek family tree but unsure where to begin? Our guide to creating your Greek family tree will help you get started.
Tracing your Greek family tree back to Aristotle or Alexander the Great may be easier said than done. Western Europeans have it much easier, with countless resources to facilitate their research. Unfortunately, tracing your Greek family is a little harder, with less records, books, and websites at your disposal. This is one of the reasons why we created Diaspora Travel Greece!
1. Gather your existing family resources
Collect family records, old photos, letters, diaries, even newspaper clippings.
2. Talk to your relatives
Your grandparents, parents, aunties, and uncles have a wealth of knowledge waiting to be uncovered. Pick out their brains and unearth stories of ancestors you never knew you had.
3. Draw up your initial Greek family tree
By jotting down all the relatives you already know of, you’ll then be able to identify the gaps.
4. Take a DNA test
Not everyone may be comfortable taking a DNA test but it certainly makes life a lot easier. There are many DNA tests out there and it doesn’t hurt to take more than one. Ancestry.com is the largest ancestry company with the largest database, meaning that your results are likely to be more accurate and you have more of a chance of getting DNA matches with other people who have taken the test.
Click here to order your Ancestry.com DNA test.
You can also create and/or replicate your family tree online at Ancestry.com and find relatives who have done the same – Ancestry.com helped me identify 4th and 5th cousins I never knew I had!
5. Start to fill in the gaps
Now it’s time to go in search of the golden fleece. You’ve identified what you do and don’t know, but you won’t get all the answers at once. Pick one of the easier missing links to solve first and then work backwards.
6. Look at your surname
Are you stuck and in need of some direction? This is normal, you will often hit a dead end while trying to create your Greek family tree. What can help steer you in a direction to research further is your Greek last name. Did you know that you can get a lot of answers just by breaking down your surname? Often Greek last names have a meaning that refer to a decedent’s profession or nickname. You can identify which region the surname might have originated in by looking at the suffix.
7. Look in the village or region of the ancestor you’re research about
You can find answers and records at local church, municipality government building, or even by just asking locals within the village. You would be surprised how much people know about the history and residents of their village and neighbouring villages.
8. Google it
Have you ever heard someone say “just Google it”? Well it’s not as simple as that, but the internet is certainly a useful place to search for answers. Try searching the names of the people who you are looking for or the names of closely linked relatives.
9. Leverage the many Greek ancestry resources available
With the largest ancestry database online, Ancestry.com is a great places to start and search for records. Social Media is also another powerful tool in your quest. There are countless Greek diaspora and Greek genealogy Facebook groups that you should join and share questions/information with.
There are many more resources, with some specialising in Greek ancestry. Click here to find the top 14 resources for Greek genealogy records.
10. Find your local Family History Centre
You’ll be surprised to find that you have a Family History Centre closer to you than you thought. Here you’ll be able to find records that you potentially have not been able to access elsewhere.
11. Collate all your information and update your Greek family tree
Go back and add what you’ve found to your initial Greek family tree.
12. Don’t stop
Unless you’ve traced your ancestry all the way back to Adam and Eve or Ouranos and Gaia, your Greek family tree will always be a work in progress. Remember, it’s a long term project, so don’t stop and continue to chip away at it by researching and updating your tree.
Happy researching and good luck on your ancestry journey!
There are a number of DNA tests available but the most common and most trusted of them all is Ancestry.com