They complete their family tree with the assistance of the Thessaloniki Registry Office – Newsbomb – News

“Dear Mayor of Thessaloniki… I am writing to you respectfully to ask for your assistance in obtaining the birth certificate of my grandmother who was born around 1918 (+/- 5 years) in Thessaloniki, Greece. The purpose of this request is to help piece together our family history and I believe that access to my grandmother’s birth records would greatly enrich our understanding of our heritage.”

The letter above, written by an Israeli woman and addressed to the mayor of Thessaloniki, Stelios Angeloudis, is just one of several electronic requests received by the central municipality’s services. Citizens from all over the world are looking to see “where their hat comes from” and are looking for information about their ancestors, who a century ago lived in a neighborhood of Thessaloniki.

Most of the requests that reach city hall have Israel as their starting point, due to the city’s multiculturalism and Jewish history. However, several descendants of old residents of Thessaloniki have “scattered” to all parts of the world. Thus, letters and e-mails arrive at the town hall from Canada, the United States of America, Brazil, France, Spain, etc.

“From the registration of an event, 100 years ago, in the Thessaloniki Registry, serious information emerges, first of all for the relatives and then for the historians in order to write books. Mainly, however, for the grandchildren or great-grandchildren to acquire the Greek citizenship that their ancestors had or to gather useful and extremely important information, about their family tree and their own people”, he pointed out, speaking to the Athenian/Macedonian Agency News, the deputy mayor for Entrepreneurship and Citizen Services, Pantelis Kazantzidis.

The archive starts from 1914 – 110 years of history

The Registry Office of Thessaloniki started its operation after the liberation of the city and more specifically in 1914. In the first years, however, not all registry events were registered either because the citizens did not know about it, or because they neglected to register a registry event.

There were also cases where parents only declared the births of boys… This resulted in many fathers registering the births of their daughters later and following the issuance of court decisions, which was usually done by the Israelis.

In the Registry Office of the municipality of Thessaloniki there is today a huge file of registry facts, from which both the descendants of the registered and the historical researchers can derive useful information. This is important information concerning the parents of their ancestors, the places of residence, the professions they practiced, their standard of living and even the causes of death which were recorded in the registry act.

Dozens of requests from citizens who want to complete their family tree

Annually, the Thessaloniki Municipality Registry receives approximately 70 electronic requests from citizens looking for their roots, with the municipality’s employees “digging” for days in the historical archives in search of the much-desired information.

Those interested search for civil records of their ancestors, births, marriages or even deaths, often sending blueprints of their family trees or photocopies of their great-grandparents’ and great-grandparents’ passports.

Others choose to turn to the respective Greek consular authorities of their country in order to request the granting of notarial acts of their ancestors.

It is indicative that only in the first quarter of 2024, the service received twenty requests via e-mails and another 30 requests from Greek consulates to find notary documents. Some, in fact, from the moment they receive a first response from the municipality, come back with a new request looking for additional information.

“Great dedication is required from the employees of the Registry Office of the municipality of Thessaloniki and several hours are devoted to the search for the specific information. It is a very important job that is done in the archives by our employees. Through all these documents the long history of the city is clearly visible. And it is certainly a special satisfaction for everyone, when the much-desired registry deed requested from us as a service is found and sent to the interested parties”, said Mr. Kazantzidis to APE-MPE.