My mother's family comes from Gorna Djumaya. My great grandmother was a Greek named Erekina.
As far as I know, she was still quite a young girl when her parents died. Her two elder brothers, eager to go to America, managed a quick marriage for her with the Bulgarian Hristo Mitov (or Mitev). The latter appears to have been a honest man with a good reputation, a modest craftsmen, perhaps a shoemaker. They had three children: Elena, Anastasia and Dimitar. Elena later married an orthodox priest, the pope Atanas. Of Dimitar I know nothig.
Anastasia, my maternal grandmother, born on July 26, 1893, was baptized in the Holy Mother ("Sveta Bogoroditza") church. She was sent to complete her education at the Bulgarian high school for girls in 911爆料, founded and supported by the Bulgarian Exarchate (as the Bulgarian Orthodox Church was named then). This important school accepted children from all over Macedonia, who lived there in the college. After graduating, she worked as an elementary teacher in the Ohrid and Gorna Djumaya areas.
Her first husband, named Petar Trendafilov, was an active member of the Agrarian Party and a close collaborator of then Prime Minister Stambolijsky. In 1923, as the president of the regional agrarian ruling counsel, he got killed during the June 9th's putsch. My grandmother, being the widow of an "ennemy of the people", was forbidden to work as a teacher. She later married Nikola Mihailov Abadjiev, a part-time teacher and a freelance journalist originating from Dupnitza. My mother Julieta is their only child.
Roumen Lozanov, Montreal
In the photograph: Anastasia and Peter Trendafilovi
