05/26/2019
Someone interested in the Cyprus Genealogy Database wrote to me and asked, in essence, "Is it worth it for me because my family is from (Village X)?" The short answer is yes.
Here is my complete reply: "There are more than xx entries from (Village X). Entries from this village will most certainly increase, but not any faster than those from other villages because I don't have a specific source of family trees (or a published village history) from (Village X).
Getting to your other question, I have taken many entries from lists online, such as the Missing from 1974, from both communities. That provided a strong start of more than 2,500 names, but they were mostly born around 1950 and well known and remembered. My second greatest source, which has provided the bulk of the entries, has been the Cyprus Gazette, available online. I have scanned (with my eyes) every page from 1878 through 1906 (more than 5,000 pages!) and have extracted every Cypriot name with all pertinent, useful information. I have then gone through the entire database (twice so far) to eliminate possible duplicates introduced by variations in transcription, such as one entry for John Johnides and another for Ioannis Ioannides, but both obviously for the same man. This is where many of the (Village X) names have come from.
Another type of source that has given thousands of names is published village histories. I have extracted all 2,000+ names from the family trees of Pano and Kato Kividhes and am in the laborious but interesting process of doing the same for Gastria-Patriki. I have several more similar books, though not one for (Village X), and will march through them in their turn. When done, I will have catalogued just about every person in those villages from 1800 to the date of publication (usually about 1990).
Another rich source has been Ancestry.com. They have no records from Cyprus proper but have many from Cypriots who went to the U.S., U.K., and Australia. I have entered a dozen or so names from (Village X) from that source, taking info from their passenger lists, naturalization papers, etc.
You can see that I am spread thin. So that I don't bore the majority with entries of no interest to them (as from a particular village), I juggle these sources. I figure that I add about 50 names per week, so it will take me about 10 weeks to add another 500 entries and send the next update to the subscribers."
