07 July 2003

Introducing the family: Cypriot ancestry

Admittedly I've not done any work in researching this branch of the family. All I have is hearsay from relatives. I doubt records were kept before 1878, the year Cyprus passed into British hands. Surnames tend to mean little in the island, as most people went by patronymics until recently. (My own father was born with a patronymic only and no surname, which he adopted in adolescence from his grandfather's.) In any event, if there are records they have not been posted on the internet.



At Paphos,
with a nonrelative


Statistically, however, it is likely that my father is descended from virtually everyone who was living in Cyprus as recently as half a millennium ago, including nobles, clergy, peasants and towns people. (But not monastic clergy, of course, since they are celibate.)

More on what is called statistical genealogy later.

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