A dowry contract struck in Sykamia, Lesvos (1857), a residence permit for Greek citizenship from the Royal Consulate of Greece in Mytilene (1895), another one from the Royal Consulate General of Greece in Smyrna (1895-96), and an inventory of documents concerning the Kalligeris family of Sykamia [1], compose a fascinating history of the connections between the North Aegean and the wider Mediterranean.

In the dowry agreement of 1857, Eleftherios (father of the bride) is listed as Hatzi-Anagnostou (first name) Hatzi-Efstratiou (patronymic). Hatzi-Anagnostou found himself in Sykamia, married Triantafyllia and had several children. Family accounts passed on from generation to generation state that Hatzi-Anagnostou, was probably a former officer of the Russian Army, originally from Epirus. As for his children, they in turn offered the following descendants: of Nerantzi the writer Stratis Myrivilis, of Panagiotis the painter Takis Eleftheriadis and the lawyer Nikolaos Eleftheriadis, of Dimitrios the painter Orestis Kanellis and the philologist and translator Thrasybulus Stavrou.

The aforementioned dowry contract of 1857 is signed by Hatzi-Anagnostou (later known as Eleftherios Hatzi-Anagnostou), of Sykamia, who married his daughter Fani, to Konstantinos D. Kalligeris (referred to in the document as Kostis (given name) Dimitriou (patronymic). Konstantinos and Fani had several children, of whom we know that the following survived: Angeliko, Marianthi, Ourania, Dimitros, Efstratios and Achilleas. At the same time, the research highlights interesting points in the genealogical trees of the region. Fani’s siblings, and sons of Hatzi-Anagnostou of Sykamia, were Dimitrios and Panagiotis El. Hadjianagnostis – later Eleftheriadis – who were born in Sykamia but lived in Petra, Lesvos.

Research suggests that Konstantinos, who was born in 1826 in Filia to a “poor” family (according to his son Efstratios), initially used the surname Koutsellis. As a young man, he lived and worked in trade in Smyrna and eventually married in Sykamia. In local family archives [1] we find Konstantinos holding a certificate from 1858 issued by the British Consulate, suggesting he held British citizenship. What is more an official Greek document of 1873 also attests his Greek citizenship. At the same time, based on a residence permit issued by the Royal Consulate of Greece in Mytilene, dated April 13, 1895, we find that by that time Constantine already bore the surname Kalligeris and held Greek citizenship in Ottoman Lesvos.