User talk:Khatzis
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You dispute Stavros Niarchos origins. Can you provide otherwise to this data? [1], User: Tancarville, 13th June 2007.
Yes, I have good reason to dispute it. This is why:
The Spyros Niarchos family originates from the village Vamvakou in the Laconia prefecture. The family was indeed one of the poor families in the village, which forced him to move to the US while still very young. His father, Georgios Niarchos, actually never left the village, worked as a farmer all his life and of course never married a 'noble' wife.
I know all this and much more about the Niarchos family because I also originate from the village Vamvakou. There you can find a statue of Spyros Niarchos (along with the statue of Stavros Niarchos), who was born in Vamvakou and actually also died in Vamvakou (my father, being the village teacher at that time, actually witnessed him dying). My father still has the text of the funeral speech he had to give, and it says a lot about the "man who bas born very poor and died very rich".
In a limited edition book called "The History of Vamvakou", which was published in small volume and funded by the Niarchos foundation you can find more details about the life of Spyros Niarchos.
I do not have other reason to dispute the source you mention, but take into account that the name Niarchos is very common in Greece (do a google search with the Greek letters, you'll come up with more than 1000 entries). Most probably the Niarchos who married Elena Sayd in 3.1 entry of your source was a completely irrelevant Niarchos.
Of course "noble" people like being even distantly related to tycoons.........
* Thank you so much. The reason why I have this data is only because of my grandfather who meet Stravros Nicarchos in the 50's and produced a family tree. This is where I am basing it all from. Though Stravros's grand father marriage to a "Sant" wasn’t noble, just of Maltese descent. It doesn’t mean a thing to have noble links and to be poor as well. I hope you can email me from the website. I am very curious to any other information you have on this family or on the Livanos, Coumanianais (Sorry for the spelling). User:Tancarville, 15th June 2007.
Thank you also for the clarification. I have some more details on the Niarchos and Coumantaros families but I would suggest that if you really want to get the idea you should pay a visit to the small village of Vamvakou. It is built on the west slope of Parnon mountain, at 1000m altitude. It is picturesque and by now most of the streets have names from some member of the Niarchos family. There is also a very nice pension ( http://www.xenonas-vamvakou.gr/ ) where you can stay.....
Now regarding the family, it was Spyros Niarchos marriage to Eygenia Coumantaros which initially brought wealth to his family. The Coumantaros family also originates from Vamvakou (actually there are still many Coumantaros 'es and Niarchos' es in the area, distant relatives to the two tycoon families) and were the rich of the area, having a very profitable mill busyness distributed in several places in Greece. BTW, a John Coumantaros, grandson of the John Coumantaros that donated the school and the church of Vamvakou, is now involved in High sea yachting and calls his multi- winner yacht Bambakou.
http://www.bymnews.com/photos/thumbnails.php?album=search&search=BAMBAKOU http://valenciasailing.blogspot.com/2006/03/bambakou-wins-distance-race-pegasus-52.html http://bymnews.com/photos//displayimage.php?album=lastup&cat=-231&pid=14104
It was the involvement of the Coumantaros family with shipping corn from Russia to the mills in Greece that led the Niarchos to the ship business. The Niarchos believed that controlling the transport is more important and the Coumantaros believed that spreading their business all over the world was more important. Eventually they separated their business and both succeeded enormously in their own way.
I am quite curious to any genealogical data you may have from the village if possible. I am also looking at extending the lineage to siblings and their descendants to both Niarchos and Coumantaros families. I cannot read Greek and thank you again for your time, much appreciated. User: Tancarville, 22nd June 2007.
I am a first-time user to this, which I happened to come across, and I hope that this section is where I type my comment(s). When I was around 8 years-old (I am now 51) I remember my grandfather talking of Stavros Niarchos and referring to him as a relative. I think I was in my teens when I again heard relatives in my family mention it again. The one thing that I remember is that when Stavros Niarchos would arrive in the United States in the 1940's and 1950's, he would telephone my grandfather. Its been a long time since then, but I am curious as to whether there is a link. I know that before my family migrated to the island of Kalymnos, Greece, my ancestors were from Sparta. I believe it was either my great great grandfather or my great great great grandfather that left Sparta. His last name was Yanovasilakos. I haven't ever been able to find any information about this. Thought it might contribute, and being that you are the researchers, you may have information on this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Greek4Life (talk • contribs) 03:33, 4 October 2007 (UTC)
