Kytherian Society of California

The Kytherian Society of California hosted its 8th Global Zoom meeting on March 11/12, 2023.  71 participants from 8 countries attended the event, held in collaboration with the Kytherian Genealogy Project by Amalia Samios and Kalie Zervos.  The Zoom’s main topic was Sharing About Our Ancestors. By asking participants to pre-register and complete a brief survey, Amaia and Vikki were able to tailor the infomation presented to those who attended.

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KSOCA President Vikki Vrettos Fraioli welcomed the participants and offered a brief introduction of the Board Members. 

Focusing on family connections and genealogy, Amalia Samios noted how one can glean important information by looking at old photos. Photos may have been taken to commemorate a wedding, or to send to relatives who had emigrated to Australia or to the USA.  Clothing may indicate how well off or poor a family was. 

 
Amalia shared photos from the Fatseas Photo Collection to illustrate the nuances of photography detective work. 
Nina Conomos recognized relatives; Cynthia Cavalenes-Jarvis saw photos of her grandparents; and Georgia Marudas noted her mother and aunts were in one of the photos.  

The family of Gavrilis Haros & Katina Karatza
Kiriakoula, on the right, is the mother of Nina Conomos from Sydney, AU
Photo from the Fatseas Collection

Spiridon Kavalinis & Argiro KontoleonGreat Grandparents of Cynthia Cavalenes-Jarvis from Alhambra, CA
Photo from the Fatseas Collection

Daughters of Georgios Petrochilos & Christina Daponte
Evgenia, Eleni, Maria, Aspasia & Fotni
Maria is the mother of Georgia Marudas from Baltimore, MD
Photo from the Fatseas Collection

Kalie pointed out that the Fatseas Photographic glass plate collection was preserved because of diligent work by Angelo Notaras and George Poulos. 

Helen Tzortzopoulos, FMK President, gave a brief update on the Migration Museum in Agia Pelagia, showing architectural drawings of the proposed building and noting that there is now an office in Potamos.

Vikki gave a brief update on the Migration Monument in Agia Pelagia,

George Souris from Saint Louis, MO was unable to attend the Zoom because he was celebrating his 100th birthday at a surprise party given by his family!  The Zoom participants wished him a happy birthday, and a video greeting was sent to him.

Kiriaki Mavrogiorgi & Nicolo Koroneos (Faganas)

When Vikki visited Amalia in Sydney in 2019, she shared an Ancestry.com family tree of Alice Christofas Bogansky. Amalia was surprised when she realized there were photos of her great great grandparents on that tree! The sister of Kiriaki is Vikki’s great great grandmother! We are ALL connected.

Vikki noted that has collected and scanned photos from relatives and friends for many years. By sharing these on Kythera-family.net, Facebook and with others, she has been able to obtain identities of many of the previously unknown people in the photos.

  One photo, from the archives of Terry Chlentzos Panages , was of their common great-grandmother Efrosini Manoli Chlentzos (nee Venardos) with her daughters Marigitza Chlentzos Alfieris (Vikki’s grandmother) and Kirani Chlentzos Katsouli (grandmother of the famous photographer Manoli Sofios)  from approximately 1890. Many years ago, Vikki shared the photo with John Stathatos,  who wrote about it in one of his blog entries. The photo was featured in the National Geographic book Kythera.

Efrosoni Chlentzos (nee Venardou) with daughters
Marigitza Alfieris (nee Chlentzos) & Kirani  Katsoulis (nee Chlentzos)

Another photo Vikki shared was the wedding photo of Peter D. Leonsinis, grandfather of Alexis Paspalas Bante from Austin, TX. While studying photos from Auggie Conomos’ archive, emailed by Diane Homberg,  it was discovered that a couple in the Leontsinis  wedding photo was also in one of Auggie’s photos. Because this couple was flanking the bride and groom, we speculated that that they were possibly the Koumbaroi.

Vikki talked about the importance of collecting and scanning old photos, identifying the people in them, and ways to preserve and share photos using a camera or iPhone, emphasizing that as old photos are studied and scrutinized, faces become recognizable at different life states.  As we see these photos in groups with others, we can identify them and denote family relationships.

Other highlights of Vikki’s shared photos included one of the Galakatos family; one of Mary Cavacos Capsanes, who was the mother of Zoom attendee Panagiotitsa (Titsa) Capsanes Bronstein. 

Titsa (Panatitsa) Capsanes Bronstin, from Owings Mills, MD,  
looks on as she views of photo of her mother,
Mary Capsanes (nee Cavacos)  that she had never seen before!
Photo from the archives of Augge Conomos, father of Diane Homberg.

 Interestingly, Titsa’s uncle was the famous sculptor Emmauel Cavacos, and Titsa shared several of his bronze sculptures.  

Eleni Venardos, from Athens, Greece, shared information about her family that was recently featured on the KPG Genealogy blog.  

The participants discussed various family connections, and Amalia offered information from the Kytherian Surnames book by Emmanuel Calligeros.  

Amalia shared photos of school testing results, noting the fine penmanship of students at the time.  Participant Laura Pavou-Muddie offered her expertise in graphology to decipher personality and characteristics. 

 Some of the participants shared their own family photos. 

Lisa Marentis, fom Brisbane, AU,  showed a photo of a sewing school in Kythera, with her grandmother Triantafilia Kontoleon.  

Julie Duveas (nee Stratigos) from Bayside, NY shared the famiy crest of the Stratigos family from Milopotamos.

Theodora Adigun, from Sydney, AU, shared a photograph of a furniture factory in Pireaus, Greece taken in 1903. It was owned by Nikolaos Samios, Theodora’s mothers maternal grandfather who was from Aloizianika.

Samios Furniture Factory - Pireaus 1903

First-time participant Robert Samios shared a photo of his father playing a Samios accordion.  Robert is planning his first trip to Kythera in a few weeks. 

Father of Robert Samios from PN, USA

The Global Kytherian Genealogy Zoom was a great success.  Participants enjoyed finding common roots, discussion of Kytherian topics, and meeting new friends (who are likely cousins).  We look forward to the next one!

Aronis

Haros

Megalokonomos

Kavalinis

Petrochilos

Veneris

Stratigos

Fatseas

Fatseas 2

Records

KGP Blog

Museum

Monument

Koroneos

Picnic

Simos

Mavromatis

Venardou

Alfieris

Chlentzos

D Chlentzos

Diakofti

Cavacos

Galakatos

E Galakatos

Tzortzopoulos

Poulos

School

Factory

Samios

2022 Kytheraismos Symposium
17-20 November, Sydney, AU

President, Vikki Fraioli participated via ZOOM

KSOCA Presentation Slides 

Eternal Be Her Memory…
Genevieve Marie Moulos

October 15, 1934 - September 16, 2022

The KSOCA mourns the loss of long time member Genevieve Moulos. Ginger was active in the KSOCA for many years, aways attending our luncheons with her children and grandchildren who always helped out by passing out the raffle prizes. Her daughter Elaine, served as president from 2005-2011 and currently holds the position of Vice-President. Our sincere condolences to the  family. 
May her memory be eternal.

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Genevieve Marie Moulos (aka Ginger) a long-time resident of Sacramento, died peacefully of natural causes at the age of 87 on Friday, September 16, 2022.
Ginger was a Fulbright Scholar with a master’s in Psychology and enjoyed 35 years teaching High School for the San Juan School District where she taught Home Economics, Foods, Psychology, Economics, World History, Civics and Typing.  She also worked alongside her husband, Jim Moulos at the family restaurant, Souperb Salads from 1980-1992.  After retiring in 2000, Ginger was a Deacon and Elder and served tirelessly in the Women’s ministry and Food bank at Arcade Baptist and Christ Community Church.  She also volunteered for Strategic Renewal International (SRI – Leading prayer mentoring) for 5 years.  She is survived by: sister Jeanne Ward, children Elaine and Greg Moulos and Stacey Larsen and five grandchildren, Rachel and Sophia Larsen and Nick, Jacob and Natalie Moulos.

Services will be held on:
Friday, November 4th at 1:00 p.m. 
Arcade Baptist Church
3927 Marconi Ave., Sacramento, CA 95821

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2009 Honorary Kytherian

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Eternal Be His Memory…
Prof. Basil Peter Leftheris, PhD
May 11, 1930 - November 28, 2021

The KSOCA mourns the loss of Vasilis Leftheris, the father of one of our KSOCA members, Dr. Katerina Leftheris. Our sincere condolences to the  family. May his memory be eternal.

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Prof. Vasilis P. Leftheris passed away on November 28, 2021 at the age of 91 from complications due to the COVID virus.

Prof. Leftheris was born on May 11, 1930 in Kythira, Greece. At a young age, he showed an aptitude for mathematics and physics, graduating 3rd in his high school graduating class.

With the help and understanding of his father, a seaman with the Greek Merchant Marines, Vasilis emigrated to Montreal Canada where he worked and attended McGill University. He obtained his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering.

While at McGill, he met his wife, Isobel while working at the Niagra Falls hydroelectric plant.

After finishing McGill, Basil married Isobel and obtained a scholarship to study thermodynamics and engineering of internal combustion engines at the University of Birmingham in the UK. After he obtained his advanced degree, he returned to Petersboro Canada where he began his engineering career working on atomic energy projects for General Electric.

As part of the US effort to advance space programs, Vasilis was recruited by Republic Aviation on Long Island, NY to work on protecting satellites from micrometeorites. During that time, Vasilis obtained a second Master’s degree in civil engineering from Brooklyn Polytechnic University (now part of NYU). After this project concluded, he was recruited by Grumman Aerospace Corp to work on the Lunar Module project in conjunction with NASA. Following the success of the Apollo program, he worked on fighter plane technology where he invented a new device for riveting the wings of high-speed aircraft to prevent wing failure due to microcracks. This was the subject of a PhD thesis Dr. Leftheris earned from Princeton University. There are over 23 patents covering the invention of the Stress Wave Riveter mechanism. A form of this device is used to assemble most high speed military aircraft today.

Soon after, Dr. Leftheris was asked to work on the US government sponsored TOKMAK project at the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab (PPL). He oversaw the diagnostic engineering team.  This was part of the effort to design a containment device to harness the energy released from hydrogen fusion. Today, there is an international team in France (International Energy Thermonuclear Reactor (IETR)) continuing this effort.

Dr. Leftheris retired from PPPL and moved back to Greece in 1989 to take a faculty position at the Technical University of Crete. There, he taught earthquake engineering and built a laboratory focused on material testing. After 12 years as a professor, he finally retired to the Island of Kythira.

Dr. Leftheris is survived by his wife Isobel, his daughter, Dr. Katerina Leftheris, his son Peter Leftheris, 4 grandchildren (Averil, Hannah, Samantha and Alexander) and one great grand child (Julian Constantinos).

THE MIGRATON MUSEUM OF KYTHERA

Join us for  our next GLOBAL ZOOM to hear exciting new developments about the Migration Museum of Kythera in Agia Pelagia!

PLEASE CHECK YOUR TIME ZONE CAREFULLY

Saturday, September 17, 2022 / Sunday, September 18, 2022 (Australia)

Saturday, September 17, 2022
 1:00 p.m.   San Francisco / Los Angeles 
 3:00 p.m.   Chicago / Little Rock / St. Louis
 4:00 p.m.   Baltimore / Boston / New York / Toronto / Asuncion
 9:00 p.m.   Dublin / London
10:00 p.m.  Berlin / Cape Town /Paris
11:00 p.m.  Athens 

Sunday, September 18, 2022
 4:00 a.m.   Perth   
 5:30  a.m.  Adelaide 
 6:00 a.m.   Brisbane / Sydney / Melbourne

Now that the plans have been approved, Helen Tzortzopoulos, Friends of the Museums of Kythera (FMK) President, and several of her committee members, will join us from Kythera to detail plans for the museum.

In addition to detailing the architectural plans, Helen will explain each area's function, and will include a video and slide presentation. 

Since the  memorandum with the Academy of Athens has been signed, the FMK can officially begin collecting  family histories, documentation, and other information for the museum. 

We thank Helen and her committee for their dedication and hard work on this project. It is a huge undertaking and our support is vital.

After the presentation, we hope you will stay on to enjoy conversing with  participants as in previous ZOOMs.

If the time is too early or too late for your time zone, check in later as participants tend to continue chatting for several hours. You are welcome to come and go as your schedule permits.

The presentation will be recorded and made available for those unable to attend.

ClICK HERE TO REGISTER HERE

READ THE ARTICLE IN THE GREEK HERALD:

Eleni Tzortzopoulou: "Kythera Migration Museum may be ready in three years"