Laskaris family?

Question:

Laskaris family?

I'm searching for people whose lastname or ancestors' lastname is LASKARIS (or Laskary) and had lived on Imvros Island (Imbros, Gokceada) before 1910. This island was Greek then, now it's Turkish and I don't know how to find papers of birth or marriages of Laskaris? Could it be in Greek Orthodox church on island?
I also search for information saying about Laskaris family then and now.
I will be grateful for any help - thanks!

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: This shouldn't be so hard. I ran the name through Ellis Island...WOW...big family! The good news is that they all came over after the 1906 immigration reforms. That phenomenal news for you.

I don't know which of the hundred or so is your direct ancestor, but if you can find their name on the passenger lists, add 4 years and that tells you when they could start the naturalization process. From that you can contact the National Archives regional center for the state where they were living and request two documents (or you can order the film from the LDS if they have it...or go to the NARA center yourself...but asking them for it gets you the best possible copy). You want their Declaration of Intent and Naturalization Petition. These two documents will tell you all about them, including their parents, siblings, etc. If their parents also came over, request the same documents on them.

Next, getting documents out of that part of the world isn't hard...unless the records were on Cypress, Karpenisi or Evritania . That's a whole other mess from the Greek civil war and the battle between Greece and Turkey in the 1970s.

Since you have the name of the town look for a Greek Orthodox church in your area. English is not all that common in that region, so getting your request written in a version of Greek they can understand would best come from a Greek Orthodox priest here. Ask him to please write a request to the local priest requesting chrismation, marriage and death records on your family. Generally you pay the priest who writes the letter an honorarium to say a mass in honor of your family and you enclose an honorarium for the church there to do the same...as well as paying for the copying and postage costs. It's also very possible that the priest here knows of a family who still has ties there. If you can get a volunteer in Turkey to pick up records for you, you won't get soaked by the Turkish authorities with "transmission fees".

The records that the Turkish authorities should be holding would include civil registrations, military records, burial records, etc. What THAT island kept and when they kept it would be a matter of who ruled it at any given point in time.

If you need any other help, let us know.
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