1) Collect all available data in your home country –ship manifest, birth, marriage, death certificates, naturalisation and probate files. You need to know an exact location of your ancestor in Greece to start onsite research, as well his original last name without a name change.
2) Find your Ancestral location on the map to check which parish can keep church books for your town. You may contact the priest to see if he is willing to help with your research in Greece. Beware that Greek people are not very familiar with Greek genealogy or researching ancestors in Greece, so they might be suspicious about your intentions to ask information about people (even if they are your relatives).
3) Try to find your location in GAK/GAS or Greek State Archives and check which information is preserved for your ancestral location in Greece. What genealogical documents can be found in Greece? It can be dowry (marriage contracts), sale/property documents, lists of voters, school lists (separately for girls and for boys), army documents, etc. You have to search in handwritten Greek documents, so language proficiency and be attentive to the details is mandatory.
4) Contact your Town Hall in Greece (according to the Municipality) – there you can find Dimotologion (Family Structure Documents), Male Register (Mitroon Arrenon) and Death Certificates or Certificate of Family Structure. Please keep in mind that Greek clerks can be very busy, so be patient.
5) Visit the cemetery in your ancestral location – there you will be able to find family graves with details about birth, marriage and death. As well interview elderly from the same village in Greece to find out family stories or family lores. If you have questions or need help with researching your ancestors in Greece – please don’t hesitate to send us an email.