In the Beginning

It all started about 1892 when Penelope Patsili was born on the island of Lesvos (sometimes called Mitilini after its largest city).  At that time the island was ruled by the Ottoman Empire (Turkish) and had been that way since 1462. 

Penelope had 9 older brothers and an older sister.  Though the island was ruled by the Ottoman Empire whose faith was Muslim, the island population including Penelope's family was Greek in culture and faith (Greek Orthodox).  

There had been attempts in the early part of the 19th century to rebel against the Turkish occupation but without success.  During the First Balkan War the island gained its freedom when it was captured by the Greek kingdom.  

Many of the young people at that time left the island because they anticipated that the peace would not last and they were proven right, as there followed the second Balkan War 1913, World War I and then the Greco-Turkish war 1919-1922.  At the end of 1922, the Greeks and Turks agreed on a population exchange where approximately 1.5 million Greeks were expelled from Asia Minor and 500,000 Turks were expelled from Greece.  This was a forced exchange. It was based not on language or ethnicity, but upon religious identity, and involved nearly all the Orthodox Christian citizens of Turkey, including its native Turkish-speaking Orthodox citizens, and most of the Muslim citizens of Greece, including its native Greek-speaking Muslim citizens.

So why is this important.  Penelope was one of the young people sent by her family in 1916 to leave the island permanently to the United States.  She sailed on the Principe Di Udine out of Napoli. 

She never had the opportunity to return to Lesvos.  In the United States, she married and had a daughter Calliope, who also never had an opportunity to visit the island of her ancestors.  I am the son of Calliope and in May of 2014 my wife and I had the opportunity to travel to Lesvos as tourists. 

And now once again the island is the focus of one of the greatest refugee migrations in recent history.  So this is a part of why I must go back.