Discoveries.

[Bereta_Eder]

BTW Rhodes is propably one of the very few places in the world with such diversity of architectural influences. Ancient Greek temples, Byzantine churches, Venecian fortified walls, Enette (in english?) castles etc. Strangely enough, nothing Ottoman. The muslims (I write muslims because I'm not sure wether it was the Turks or the Arabs) actually tore down the Collossus and sold it for metal garbage.

But the biggest scurge of that island thoughout history was no others than... Pirates. From all nationalities.

It also has one of the biggest catholic populations in Greece. As used to have the Ionian islands.

[Chris 62]

Ìéá ÃôñïðÞ, ößëïò

[Bereta_Eder]

Funny huh?

[C0ckney]

yeah there was a duchy of athens, basically a norman state in greece, was fairly short lived though.

it can be quite hard to trace your family, my uncle has been doing it for years, hoping to find our family are related to the nobility most likely. so far he's found that at least since the late 18th century all my family have been working class cockneys!

[Bereta_Eder]

I didn't actually set out to "find my family line".

Hell I used to laugh when my dad used to tell me we were descandants from the line of one of Leonidas 300 soldiers in Thermopylae (silly dad)

Just happens though that I find out about my family.

What I find most interesting thought is that somehow my mom and dad, while both Athenian with only some vague recolections of their family lines, they both have to do with the Ionian islands and through them Italy.

But things are not so simple. There's also Constantinople, Smyrna, Peloponese of course and somehow Crete....

Oh and what would you expect from a "Greek commie" than "A bas les Aristos"?! Working class is an honour here

[Al B. Sure!]

The Duchy of Athens wasn't really that short-lived. it wasn't destroyed until the Ottomons conquered Greece circe mid 15th century. it was probably founded in the 13th century so two centuries isn't what i would call short-lived...

how do you not know your country's history, paiktis?

[Bereta_Eder]

2 centuries is pretty short lived by Greek stantards

Yeah I didn't know about that. I can't possibly know everything in the 5.000 years history of Greece Albert

Just the most important, hopefully.

[The Pioneer]

Paiktis is pulling our leg big time.

Gia sou Paikti!

So long...

[Bereta_Eder]

Tipota ap'osa egrapsa den einai psemata

Geia

[mrmitchell]

Oogle baj kedorf manof ofahov

Did I say anything?

[Bereta_Eder]

Well I said that nothing of what I've written is made up But I don't know what you said.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by mrmitchell
Albert Speer, Europeans keep lots of family records...also, Europe was civilised for several hundred years. In America, it would be a lot harder to trace back to your great-great-grandfather because of lack of records, immigration, and simply moving around too much. European families were more likely to stay around for a while.

Not true for all European Americans. Both sides of my family can be traced back to our European ancestors. My dad's line can be taken back to c. 1200 A.D. His first ancestor in America was a Prussian farmer fleeing a death sentence for poaching on the king's lands. My mother's father's side goes back to Myles Standish.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by paiktis22
The Ionian islands were under Italian control (then British briefly, then Greek) under most of the Ottoman Empire's rule over Greece. I've never heard of the "Catholic Duchy of Athens" though. I doubt it lasted very long?

Not long. The Turks got them before they took Constantinople.

[Bereta_Eder]

For a very brief time. Then they were under Italian administration.
Also the Turks had taken half the Balkans before they bothered to have a go at Constantinople.

[Bereta_Eder]

And to be more precise: In 1350 Venice was the undisputed sea power in the Mediterranean, but by 1716 the Ionians were Venice's sole remaining overseas possession. Venice fell to Napoleon in 1797, and the islands were allotted to France. In 1815, when the general's star had waned, the islands became a British protectorate under the jurisdiction of a series of Lord High Commissioners. Calls for the islands' political union with Greece were increasingly raised, and in 1864 the Brits packed up and left leaving the islands to Greece.

Oops. You were refering to the Duchy of Athens. Yeah I had a feeling it would have been short lived.