Xanthi County, Greece Genealogy
Guide to Xanthi County ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records.
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History
Xanthi is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the Region of East Macedonia and Thrace. The capital is Xanthi. Together with the regional units Rhodope and Evros, it forms the geographical region of Western Thrace.
Xanthi (Wikipedia)
Geography
Xanthi was established as a prefecture in 1944, when it was split off from the Rhodope Prefecture. As a part of the 2011 Kallikratis government reform, the prefecture was transformed into a regional unit within the East Macedonia and Thrace region, with no change in its boundaries. At the same time, the municipalities were reorganized, according to the table below. Rhodope was established as a prefecture in 1930, when the former Thrace Prefecture was divided into the Rhodope and Evros prefectures.
Xanthi borders the Bulgarian provinces of Smolyan and Kardzhali to the north, and the Aegean Sea to the south. The regional unit of Kavala lies to the west, Drama to the northwest and Rhodope to the east. Xanthi, Wikipedia
Municipalities
Most of the research you do will be at the municipality level, by contacting the Mayor's Office of the municipality.
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Villages
- List of villages in Xanthi County
- List of former toponyms in Xanthi Prefecture (County) Village names during the Ottoman Empire, etc. Many settlements in Macedonia region in Northern Greece had Greek and non-Greek forms. Most of those names were in use during the multinational environment of the Ottoman Empire. Some of the forms were identifiably of Greek origin, others of Slavic, yet others of Turkish or more obscure origins.
Municipal Archives
Quite comprehensive records for your family, perhaps for several generations, are kept by the mayor's office of each municipality. Civil registers of birth, marriage, and death since 1925 are kept there. In addition, an important record, unique to Greece, the Dimologion is similar to a "family group record". Census records, contracts, and other records can be found.
Information About Important Records in Municipality Archives
Click on the links for an explanation on the types of records you will look for at the municipality level.
- Modern Birth, Marriage, and Death Registers
- Male Registers (Mitroon Arrenon)
- Town (Resident) Registers (Dimotologion)
Greek National Archives and Xanthi Archives
- The Greek National Archives (GAK or GSA) has a central office in Athens, and local offices throughout Greece. These offices have copies of Male Registers, Town (Resident) Registers, School Records, and other documents of interest to family historians. Civil registers are not preserved in the Central Service (CS). Some records are online. Others are not online, but the staff will search them for you upon request.
General State Archives (GSC)
Dafni 61
15452 Psychiko
Greece
Phone:+30 210-6782200
FAX:+30 210-6782215
Email:archives@gak.gr
Xanthi Archives
G.A.K.- Archives Xanthi
Postal Address: Venizelou 30
Xanthi 67100
Greece
Phone: 25410 62 555
Fax: 25410 62 555
E- mail: mail@gak.xan.sch.gr
Greek Orthodox Church Records
Important Church Records
- Book of Births: date of birth, place of birth, gender, name, surname, father’s name, date of baptism, godfather and priest, notes
- Book of Marriages: date of marriage, groom’s name, groom’s age, groom’s father’s name, groom’s mother’s name, bride’s name, bride’s age, bride’s father’s name, bride’s mother’s name, priest, place of birth, notes
- Book of Deaths: date of death, name of the deceased, father’s name, age, notes
How to Read the Records
You do not have to be fluent in Greek to read and understand these records! Only a few vocabulary words are involved. True, the alphabet is different. But you learned one alphabet, and you can learn another alphabet!
- Greece Handwriting and Text will teach you the alphabet in print and handwriting and give you some computer translation tools.
- The article, This simple Greek Word List, features a short list of key terms. You should learn to recognize these.
- Other words will be used on a "look it up when you come to it" basis. For this, more thorough word lists can be found at :