Kyprianos & Gethsimani Prodromidis   Minas & Hrysanthi Maximiadis   Ioannis & Eleni Papaioannou      Anna & Prodromos      Kalliopi &              Anastasia &

                                                                                                                                                                                         Prodromidis                   Andreas Ntolkas   Kyprianos  Prodromidis

Collateral branches to:

1c:  (i/ii) Maria (+Georgios Daniilidis), (iii) Prodromos (cleric), (iv) Ioannis (+Sosana).

3c: Makrina (†child), Euthalia (†child).

4c: (i) Basileios, (ii) Paraskevi (+Stylianos Karaiordanis), (iv) Sofia (+Leonidas Prodromidis [see below: 1d]), (v) Anastasios (+Theodosia Giabroglou),  (vi)Alexandra (+Dimitrios Hatzithomas).

1d: (i) Leonidas (+Sofia Altsitzoglou [see above: 4c]), (ii) Sofia (+Leonidas Kesisoglou [see above: 1c]), (iii) Georgios (+Marika Goneou), (iv/v) Aikaterini (Ioannis Piniatoglou).

3d: (ii) Euthalia (+Ioannis Kioukas), (iii) Anthoula (+Iosif Symeonoglou).

5d: (i) Theodora (†child), (ii) Maria (+Hristos Palybos), (iv) Basileios (+Io Sakami), Paraskevi (+Andreas Papadimitropoulos), (v) Theodora (+Dimitrios Polyhronopoulos), Konstantinos (+Eirini Ntolka), Georgia (+Theodoros Dimopoulos), Asimina (+Pavagiotis Giannopoulos).

7d: (i) Anastasia (+Panagotis Gaveras), (ii) Dimitrios (+Rita Raverta), (iii) Konstantinos (†child), (iv) Andreas (+Paraskevi Kouremenou; Kleoniki Oikonomopoulou), (v) Sotiria (+Basileios Mihos), (vi) Konstantinos (+Basiliki Koutsounopoulou), (vii) Ioulia (+Athanasios Smparounis), (viii) Olga (+Dionysios Matsoukas), (ix) Georgios (†child), (xi) Basiliki (+Georgios Karavidas).

2e: (ii) Hrysanthi (+Abraam Dimitriadis).          6e: (i) Haralampos (+Sia; Eleni)

One thing that the reader will notice with regard to the personal names, is the pattern of transmission/repetition. This is a reflection of a very old and common Greek practice to name children after their grandparents (most of the times starting with the paternal and then moving to the maternal side), moving subsequently to the names of uncles and aunts whose branches are no longer extant (recalling also Roman practices of reviving old family names). Perhaps it gives a sense of continuity. So Kyprianos and Gesthimani [1c, 2c] named their third son, Prodromos [1d], and Kyprianos and Anastasia [2e, 6e] chose the middle-names of Andreas [4f] and Anna [5f] from the same Prodromos's [1d] childless siblings.

The Prodromidis [1a], Kefalidis [2a], and Altsitzoglou [4a] families hail from the vicinity of Kaisaria, Cappadokia, in Asia Minor (which is located in modern-day Turkey), whereas the Maximiadis [3a] family was established in Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul), and descended from Nigde, Cappadokia. The suffices -idis and -adis (which is also attested in the maiden names of Harikleia Ieremiadou [2b] and Anna Agniadou [3b]), are very old patronymic name-forms meaning "child/descendant of", attested even in the Iliad, the very first Greek (and for that matter European) epic. For instance, it relates Hector, son of Priam, as Ektor Priamidis; while the suffix was also used in subsequent centuries in order to describe clans like the Herakleidae in Sparta and Macedonia, the Alkmaeonidae in Athens, and so on. So Prodromidis means "descendant of Prodromos", Kefalidis means "descendant of Kefalos (i.e., of the head-man or the smart man)", and Maximiadis "descendant of Maximus". By way of digression, another frequent ending of Greek surnames, employed in medieval & more recent times and carrying a similar meaning, is -opoulos (e.g., the maiden names of Theodora Dimopoulou [6b] and Anthousa Askidopoulou [4b]). On the other hand, the appellation Altsitzoglou is clearly Turkish meaning "son of the plasterer" (Alçicioglu, in terms of the subsequently-developed Turkish script). What is not apparent however is that prior to their displacement and when in Turkey our other Kaisarian ancestors also opted to use, and blended by using, the Turkish appellations Kioseoglou [1a] and Kafaoglou [2a] instead. (Köseoglu=son of the man with a sparse beard, Kafaoglu=son of the man with a peculiar head, or son of someone smart, or of one who has his head on his shoulders).

The branches of the Ntolkas family [5a,6a] hail from the Peloponnese (in southern Greece), the borders of Achaia and Arcadia in particular; but the literal meaning of the name is unknown to us. If a variant of D'Olk* or Dolc* then it may conceivably date from the Venetian & Crusader invasions of the 13th century onwards. The common surname of two of these ancestors is no mistake and our careful inquiries to our uncle Kostas Ntolkas, our grandfather's [5d] brother (who provided us with the genealogy) produced a flat and emphatic rejection of a close relation: "First, my papa [5c] was a priest. They were no close relatives with my mommy as far was we know. It is just a coincidence."

Both the Papaioannou [7a] and Papandreou [8a] branches seem to derive from Central Greece and the genitive form along with the composition of their surnames relates both (a) the evolution of patronymics assuming the role of family-names in a society where one name was the rule, and (b) decadence from clerics: Ioannis (John) and Andreas (Andrew) respectively.

A few words about the personal/first names of the above table:

As in antiquity, modern personal names may:

· be theophoric such as Dimitrios, Eleni, Kalliopi, Minas, Theodora;

· reflect desirable attributes like happiness, strength, wisdom, such as Andreas, Haralampos, Harikleia, Leonidas, Sofia;

· derive from plants/gardening and precious elements such as Anthousa, Asimakis, Hrysanthi, Garyfalia, Georgios, Margarita and Kyprianos (the latter incorporating the suffix -ianus recalling a fashion introduced in Roman times);

· consist of other terms and epithets favoured by Christianity such as Athanasia, Anastasia, Petros, Sotirios; along-side several Hebrew or Aramaic variants brought with the new religion such as Ioannis (John), Gethsimani, Anna.

      Among the latter is the name Prodromos [1d]. Originally, a compound adjective (pro+dromos) denoting "the first person on the way" or "forerunner" and "scout", it was employed as early as the 5th century BC (e.g. Herodotos 9.14) to describe one going in advance of the rest. Later, it was used by Christians in reference to John the Baptist as the precursor/forerunner (Greek: "prodromos") to Jesus of Nazareth. Thus, in time, the adjective became a personal, albeit rare, Greek name, which is usually celebrated on January 7th (see namedays, below). And in time, in a manner similar to the evolution of family/clan names in a number of cultures, it gave rise to the surname Prodromidis [1.a].