During my visit to Athens in early September, I visited the National Library of Greece which is at the University of Athens. I spoke to one librarian about resources for genealogy in Greece. It seems that genealogical research in Greece is in its infancy. I would expect it to grow steadily in the future considering the number of Greek immigrants around the world who may want to research their roots in Greece. The librarian I spoke to indicated that some of the best records exist for parts of modern-day Greece that were ruled by Venice and other powers.

There is a web site where some Greeks are working to advance the cause of Greek genealogy at http://www.genealogies.gr/ . The site is in Greek and English (click on the Recording Form link to get further options to explore the web site).

The National Library of Greece does not seem to hold many genealogically related materials. There is a National Archives in Athens. It will be interesting to see how genealogy in Greece develops in the years to come. I would love to hear about readers’ experiences in genealogical research in Greece. By the way, the city of Athens is very English-fluent (and everyone has a mobile phone!).