For as long as I can remember, I’ve known that our family is Greek, but over the last several months, my understanding of what that means has changed.
Part of that shift came from a trip to Vilia, the home of my great-grandfather, Anastasios Stamatis, who went by Thomas for most of his life.
As a child growing up, I had heard all sorts of different stories about our family that emigrated from Greece and what their life before coming to North America was like, but it always remained somewhat abstract and out of reach until traveling to Vilia in person.
I visited Vilia in May 2024 with an assortment of other family members and the trip was the culmination of months of organization and research into our family history spearheaded by my uncle. In the months leading up to our visit, I had already learned new details of my great-grandfather’s journey from Greece to the United States and then to Canada, and coming to Vilia was the culmination of those efforts that have since altered the way I understand many of the old stories that had been passed down.
While Vilia has changed a great deal since my relatives left, being there helped transform my relationship with my ancestry into something much more concrete. I can now say I saw where my ancestors' houses used to be, I walked the hills that they likely used to as well, and sat on the same squares they did before they left.
Our day in Vilia began with a drive from Athens and a morning arrival in time to enjoy a cup of coffee and see a parade, as well as some songs and dances in traditional uniforms celebrating St. George's Name Day. After exploring Vilia, we enjoyed a delicious Easter feast at a taverna overlooking the town, Lestori.
A highlight of our trip was a visit to the local historical museum, which the director graciously agreed to open for us and give us a special tour despite it being a holiday. Thanks to help from myVilia.gr, and George, in contacting her, she found voting records that belonged to my great grandfather’s father and uncles and gave us a detailed recap of the town’s history and what life during Thomas’ time in Vilia was like.
In the months since visiting Vilia, the experience has stuck with me and left me motivated to learn more about my family's history in Greece — and Greece’s history as a whole.
In doing so, I have a better understanding of where my family comes from and experiences that must have triggered Thomas to leave Greece as a teenager at the end of the 19th century. Decades of war and political turmoil had sparked a wave of emigration from the country in search of more opportunities. That journey would take him first to the United States and then to Canada, where he found a large Greek community in Vancouver and would go on to open a Greek restaurant with his brother.
Through research done by my uncle, we know that Thomas first left Vilia as a teenager in 1898 and made his way to North America, but he remained tied to Greece and was a member of the reserve forces. When the First Balkan War broke out in 1912, he returned to Greece and fought in the Second Balkan War. In an article dated February 1914 that we found, he spoke about his experiences fighting Bulgarian forces to a Vancouver newspaper where he was profiled along with several other Greeks based in the Vancouver -area who also left Canada to fight in the wars.
Many of these stories had become family legends that were retold and passed down, but it has been enlightening to attach historical evidence and documents to our Greek ancestry. Visiting Vilia in person has helped establish a new connection to our family's roots -- however distant -- that I hope will only grow stronger in the coming years.
Reid Standish, Stamatis
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