Sophocles Tsardoulias (1895-1895): On When to Hire Genealogy Help

If you’ve researched your family tree for any period of time you’ve probably, at some point, considered hiring outside help to break through some of your brick walls. This was especially true for me when I started researching my Greek ancestors before they came to the United States.

I finally decided that if I wanted to expand the Greek branch of my family tree I was going to need some expert help.

Here is a brief example of how hired genealogy help led me to the discovery of MANY new relatives, like the child described here, Sophocles Tsardoulias (1895-1895).

With the help of Antonis Chaldeos, who I “met” through the Hellenic Genealogy Geek facebook group, I was able to learn about about Sophocles and dozens of other newly discovered relatives. You can learn more about Antonis and his services at the Trace Your Greek Roots facebook page.

Sophocles Tsardolias was my 2nd great uncle. He was the younger brother of my great grandmother, Maria Chardoulias Halvangis (1894-1951) and the older brother of my 2nd great aunt, Angeline Chardoulias Karr (1896-1984). I knew of eight Tsardoulias siblings (including my great grandmother) but until I hired Antonis I had no knowledge of other siblings who died as children. Sophocles is one of three newly discovered siblings.

Here is the “Act of Birth Registration” for Sophocles.

Sophocles Tsardoulias (1895-1895) Birth Registration

Antonis provided me with the following translation of this document:

ACT OF BIRTH REGISTRATION

Ser. Nr. 20

In Tigani, Samos today the eighth of month June of the 1895, day of the week Thursday and time 0900 a.m. in the town hall building, before me Mayor Ar. Solounios ,registrar of town of same presented himself the priest G.P. Karathanasis,

and declared to me that the seventh day of the present month, day and time 0100 a.m. was born in the house of Ant. Tsardouluas situated here in the parish of the Transfiguration a child male by his wife Paraskevi with whom he lives together. Thus assured about the birth, I drew up the present act of birth registration, which, after having been read clearly in the presence of the witnesses Zach. Dimitriou and G. ??? and the declarer priest was signed by them, by me and by the declarer.

Notes

The 16th of the month July of the same year the child was baptised by the godmother Chariklia wife of priest Karathanasis and the priest G.P. Karathanasis rector of the sacred church of Transfiguration and was named Sofoklis .

Thus the present is undersigned.

The details described match what was already known about this Tsardoulias family (e.g., that they were from Tigani (a village on the Greek island of Samos), that the father was Antonis, and that the mother was Paraskevi).

Sophocles’s parents (and my 2nd great grandparents) were Antonis Tsardoulias (abt. 1850) and Paraskevi Korfists Tsardolias (1854-1912).

Antonis was also able to provide me with an “Act of Death Registration” for this 3 month old child.

Sophocles Tsardoulias (1895-1895) Death Registration

Here is the translation:

ACT OF DEATH REGISTRATION

Ser. Nr. 3

In Tigani, Samos today the thirteenth of month September of the 1895, day of the week Wednesday and time 1000 a.m. in the town hall building, before me Mayor Ar. Solounios, registrar of town of same presented himself the priest G.P. Karathanasis,

and declared to me that the twelfth day of the present month, day of the week Tuesday and time 0400 p.m. Sofoklis, son of Ant. Tsardoulias, died at the age of three months in the house of his father that situated here in the parish of the Transfiguration and buried in the local cemetery.

Thus assured about the death, I drew up the present act of death registration, which, after having been read clearly in the presence of the witnesses Zach. Dimitriou and G. ??? and the declarer priest was signed by them, by me and by the declarer.

I am quite certain that without outside help Sophocles would have been forgotten. I feel it is an important part of my job as a family historian to document the lives of the children who have died. Too often their stories get lost, or are never told. Check the posts below for some writing I have on other children in my family who have died.

Here are some questions to think about as your consider Sophocles Tsardoulias and some of your own genealogy mysteries.

Questions:

• How did Sophocles die?

• What branches of your family tree have you considered hiring help with?

• What do you think, feel, and wonder about as you consider Sophocles’s story?

• How did the death of infant siblings impact my great grandmother and her siblings?

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This is the 40th of 52 weekly posts planned for 2018. It was inspired by the #52Ancestors writing challenge issued by professional genealogist, Amy Crow Johnson. The challenge: once a week, for all 52 weeks of the year, write about a relative in your family tree.

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