Agelasto Family Genealogy Pages

AM Agelasto (top left, yellowed) in the New Orleans Cotton Exchange, 1873, by Edgar Degas

Agelasto Family Reunions

Our first family reunion of the modern era, held in London 12-13 July 2008, was attended by about 80 bloodline Agelastos. Events comprised two Greek restaurant meals and a visit to West Norwood Cemetery. Also, following Saturday vespers, the Right Reverend Bishop of Nazianzos Dr Theodoritos gave us a tour of St Sophia Cathedral and its museum; he included a memorial mass for the family after Sunday’s Divine Liturgy. The shared stories, documents and photos have been added to this website. We offer some tips on reunion planning. We are also interested in hearing from relatives who have the inherited blood disease thalassemia in order to determine the extent to which it runs in the Agelasto bloodline.

Twenty of us attended a second reunion that was held in September 2009 on the Island of Chios. Narrative commentary and a photo album of the trip are works in progress.

Plans are underway for a return reunion on Chios in May 2011, with an excursion to Smyrna or Syros, and reunions in Marseille and London the following years.

FEATURE ARTICLES

Our family was part of the Diaspora from Chios of the families who ran the island's political economy following the massacre of 1822, depicted in the famous Eugene Delacroix painting. The history of the Agelastos of Chios is discussed by Georgios Zolotas & Emilia P. Zolota, Christina Agelasto in her 1983 essay and, of course, by Philip Argenti in his 1955 landmark genealogy, Libro d'Oro de la Noblesse de Chio. The origin of the name Agelasto is explored in a 2008 note by Parker Agelasto.

Formerly royalty (with family crest), Agelastos quickly learned how to make a living by becoming merchants and traders, mostly in grains and fabrics. It seemed you weren't an Agelasto if you didn't go bankrupt at least once in your life, as illustrated in this album of documents.

A photo essay of Chios, Greece, ancestral home to the Agelastos. Click on the map of the Kampos to view photos of former Agelasto properties.

W.E. Gladstone and the Negroponte Affair.

Welcome to our site! - an introduction.

How not to pronounce our name - oral commentary by Athanasios Eumorfopoulos, who discusses the correct and incorrect ways of pronouncing the name Agelasto/Agelastos/Agelastou. Recorded at the Chios reunion, September 2009. You can listen with the Windows Media Player. Our name is frequently misspelled, even in Greek. George Agelastos comments on correcting the name on the Agelasto Street signs in Chios.

PLEASE CONTACT US

If you have any questions or comments about the information on this site, please contact us at information[@]agelastos.com [remove the brackets!]. We look forward to hearing from you.