SportsCardiology: Chios

My grandmother, Mary Kostomenos (later Mary Thomas) was born on the island of Chios in either 1899 or 1903. She left the island with her sister Margarite (Rita) and emigrated to the United States in August 1920 with her future father-in-law (John Thomas) and sister-in-law (Penelope Thomas). Here is log book from Ellis Island documenting her entry into the US (in the log her last name is spelled Costomenu).

She returned to Chios for a visit in 1974. Except for her, no one in our family has ever visited Chios until I had the opportunity to go from June 30 2019 to July 4 2019. This is a summary of what I learned before leaving and while on the island of Chios.

My great-grandparents were born and spent their lives on Chios. My great grandfather, George Kostomenos, was born on Chios in 1851. He had a grocery store. He married my great grandmother in 1881 (around the time a great earthquake hit and devastated Chios in March 1881). He died in 1918. My great grandmother, Harikleia Vorria, was born on Chios in 1853. She was a housewife. She died in 1916. They had nine children: Irene, Nicholas, Angelo, John, Stanley, Rita, Demetrios, Michael and of course, Mary. (From the family tree generously supplied by George and John Thomas). Before leaving for Chios I wrote to the General Archives on Chios asking for information about the family. Here are their replies:

Mr Georgeson

Here in General Archives of Chios we have notary books from all the villages of Chios from 1700 ci. to 1914, we found the surname Kostomenos in the villages below: in town of Chios, Pyrgi, Kalamoti, Karyes.

Sincerely

GAK-Archives of Chios

Mr Georgeson

I attach the documents of the marriage pre-agreement of George Kostomenos and Harikleia Vorria and the receipt of dowry, from the 991 notary book of town of Chios.

Here are the documents:

Prior to going to Chios, I met my cousin Efie Georgakopoulos in Athens. I asked her to help translate the documents. Even she had trouble due to the fact that they are hand written and hard to understand and they were written in Katharevousa, an earlier form of Greek not used today. This is what she was able to discern.

This document is from October 1880. It is an agreement to marry, apparently written by George. In it he agrees to marry Harikleia within one month, otherwise there is a fine! My understanding is that this was an arranged marriage.

This document is a receipt of the dowry, written in January 1881. I am not sure when they were married, presumably between October 1880 and January 1881. It talks about George receiving a house, furniture and utensils. There is mention of 40 pounds English (the currency), so there may have been a monetary exchange as well. This was also written by George.

To find out more about the family, Efie suggested going to the kafeneio in Pyrgi (the village where my grand mother was born, more about that later). She said "pick the old one"- referring to the kafeneio- and ask if there is family in town. Also she suggested going to the church, asking for the priest and and asking for baptismal records. Lastly, she said go to the municipality in the capital city of Chios and ask for the records from Pyrgi.

Pyrgi is in the Mastichochoria, a series of villages in southern Chios. This area is known for, and is the almost exclusive world producer of, masticha. Masticha is a resin that drops from the lentisk tree. These trees thrive in the hot dry climate of southern Chios and are found everywhere in the region- behind fences, presumably as part of family farms, but also by the side of the road.

Pyrgi is the largest and most important village in the Mastichochoria. The village is known for its beauty and the intricate grey and white patterns seen on almost every building in town. These patterns are produced by a technique called Xysta which uses cement, volcanic sand and lime to produce these wonderful patterns.

Here are some pictures from Pyrgi:

The church and the main plateiea (town square).

Here are some good examples of the xysta on the buildings around town:

When Sue and I arrived in Pyrgi, we parked and walked to the town cemetery, seeking gravestones for George and Harikleia. We walked around the cemetery for a few minutes (I really know how to have fun on vacation), but all of the stones were much more recent. We later learned that after 5 years, old graves are dug up and the bones moved to an ossuary (no cremation for the Orthodox). I didn't inquire at a kafeneio (my Greek is not good enough to describe what I was looking for), but we had a long discussion with the local souvenir shop owner. Neither she nor the locals in the shop knew of any Kostomenoi in town. We tried the church in town, but it was closed at mid-day so I could not ask about records.

The next day, we drove into the main town of Chios (also called Chios) and luckily we found their Town Hall (the names of the buildings were all in Greek. I had asked out hotel manager and he drew a great map of the town and showed me where the Town Hall was. He was a wonderful source of information). In the Town Hall, my Greek was good enough so that I found the records department and a young, very helpful gentleman who spoke very good English. He searched on his computer and found a Mary Kostomenos, born in 1899, but this was the person's married name. In addition, she died in 1982 (my grandmother died in 1984). It seemed that it was not the right person. I asked him to print out the records anyway, but he said he couldn't, citing privacy policies! So, unfortunately, I could not gather any more information about the family on Chios.

Just a quick bit about masticha. Masticha was known and valued since ancient times. The sultans and rulers of the Ottoman Empire enjoyed it so much that they left southern Chios alone when they over ran and took over the island in the medieval era. The Turks left the people alone to produce masticha and took and used the yearly output of masticha for themselves. Today, masticha is used in just about everything- gum, soap, liquor, lotions, shampoo. It is also felt to have medicinal properties as well. There is a great, new Mastic Museum just outside of Pyrgi, which we visited. The views were stunning and the history of masticha was very interesting.