Greece Emigration and Immigration: Difference between revisions

These sources can be valuable in helping you determine where in Greece your ancestor came from. If you don’t find your ancestor, you may find emigration information on neighbors of your ancestor. People who lived near each other in Greece often settled together in the country they emigrated to. Records were created when individuals emigrated from or immigrated into Greece. Other records document an ancestor’s arrival in his or her destination country. This section discusses:

=== Emigration from Greece ===

Although Greeks had been leaving their homelands for the New World since colonial times as sailors, merchants, or miners, it wasn’t until the 1890s that substantial Greek communities were established in the United States. At the close of the Civil War, fewer than one hundred Greeks lived in the United States. Reports of job opportunities in America started a wave of emigration in the 1880s. The earliest emigration was from the Peloponnesus, then from central Greece, Crete, Turkey, Cyprus, and the Balkan countries. The number of emigrants grew slowly until 1900, thereafter growing rapidly and reaching a peak about 1910.

=== Finding the Emigrant’s Town of Origin ===

Once you have traced your family back to your immigrant ancestor, you must determine the city or town the ancestor was from. Greece has no nationwide index to birth, marriage, or death records. These records were kept locally. There are several sources, however, that may give your ancestor’s place of origin. You may be able to learn the town your ancestor came from by talking to older family members. Members of your family or a library may have some of the following documents that might name the city or town:

The two primary ports of departure from Greece were Piraeus and Patras. Although no passenger lists from Greece have been microfilmed, there are several other sources for tracking your immigrant ancestor’s place of origin. If the family came to the United States, the passenger arrival lists can be of great help in finding the town where the family last resided in Greece and an ancestor’s birthplace, especially in the records of the early twentieth century. Indexes to New York arrivals (1903–1943) and other ports of arrival can be searched through the Family History Library or the National Archives. A published set of books that may be helpful is:

Additional information about finding the origins of immigrant ancestors is given in the Tracing Immigrant Origins (34111) research outline.

Significant numbers of ethnic Greek refugees were removed to Greece following World War I. Some of the registers of refugees, identification lists, and certificate records of those who moved to Greece have been microfilmed and are available at the Family History Library:

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