This is the Greek side of my family. And it is like "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," on heavy doses of caffeine, everyday, but especially on holidays. They are a loud boisterous bunch. If you come to visit bring ear plugs and some remedy for headaches. Most of them remain in the New Haven area. Only Wayne, Jay, Joanne, and I have been able to get away, and Jay and Joanne are still pretty close to New Haven. I got the farthest away and it seems as if every move I made got me a little farther. I had not stopped to think about this, but I believe Jay, Joanne, Wayne, and I are the sanest four members of the family. Whether this is a function of moving away or a self-selection process that allowed us to get away, I will let our respective analysts figure that out. And by the way, I did not think "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" was that funny. It hit a little too close to home. And incidently, the word home was invented by the Greeks, but that is another story.

If you are interested in the other side of the family, click here to see the Pacelle side of the family.

It has been a labor of love researching the family and trying to trace my roots back farther and farther. And it had a most unexpected benefit this past Spring when I received an email from Greece from a man named Theofrastos Gerou. Apparently, Theofrastos was surfing the net over in Greece and must have used a search engine to find his grandmother's maiden name. He sent me a note to ask if we were related and sure enough, after some research, it turns out that we are. Theofrastos' grandmother and my great grandfather were siblings. This was very exciting for me. He is the same age as I am and is married and he and his wife have a son, who is about 9 years old, and a daughter, who is 13. He lives in Mytelene. By my reckoning, this makes us fourth cousins (I like to think we are first cousins, three times removed). I look forward to meeting him at some point and traveling to Greece to see the home of my ancestors or to greeting him in the United States, where he can meet the whole insane family. We continue to remain in touch over email. My cousin Betsy, see below, went to visit Theofrastos at the end of April. I am not sure it was a wise idea to send Betsy, the cousin you would normally keep in the attic, but they seemed to get along well. If, upon reflection, he decides he wants to meet other members of the family (more sane ones), I will be going there to visit.

My grandmother, Mary Pappas Kledaras (Mary Papatheofrastou), was born born 6/17/05 (my two grandmothers were born on the same day) in Ayiasou, Mytelene, Greece and came to this country around 1915. One of her sisters died en route. The name Papatheofrastou refers to the fact that there was a priest in the family, designated by the "Papa." The rest of the name, according to our resident Greek expert Craig, means "one of the golden voice or throat." This is funny because no one in the family can carry a tune unless it is on a portable CD player. Some WASP bureaucrat at Ellis Island changed the name to Pappas. Pappas is a very prevalent name, but it hides a number of variations that began with Papa---. My grandmother died in New Haven, 6/6/70.

This is a picture of my great, great grandfather, Theofrastos Papatheofrastou, the priest. This picture was sent to me by my first cousin (three times removed) Theofrastos Gerou. That is his father on the right. This was my grandmother's grandfather. I am glad that Greek Orthodox priests can marry or else I would not be here and you would be reading someone else's webpage.

My grandmother had one brother James, who was killed in action in World War II, and four sisters who survived the trip, Ceclia, Sally, Irene, and Bessie.

George Athanasion Kledaras (my grandfather) born 12/26/93 in Leszoria, Mytelene. He was educated in French schools in Greece. He came to the US in 1908 with his two brothers, Charles and Peter. He served and was wounded in World War I and was awarded the Purple Heart. He owned a grocery store. He died 11/12/41. I never met him.

My great Uncle Pete used to live on the third floor of the house we shared with the Angelettis (186 Ellsworth Avenue, New Haven). He was my de facto grandfather. He used to take me to walks to nearby Edgewood Park and take me for breakfast to a diner on Whalley Avenue. It was not a very long walk, but at my age, it seemed like miles.

Mary’s parents were Stavrola Frangelis (my great grandmother), born 9/14/86. She came to the U.S. in 1915. She married Peter Papatheofrastou (my great grandfather), born 8/15/79. He came to the U.S. in 1914. He owned a luncheonette. He died 9/10/28. Peter (Panayiotis) and his brother Paraskeva came to the US. Paraskeva settled in Maine.

Stavrola Frangelis’ father’s name was William (my great, great grandfather).

Peter’s parents (my great, great grandparents) were Bessie Jermicode (?) and Theodore Papatheofrastou.

My grandparents, George and Mary, had seven children:

Thomas Calvin Kledaras
Stanley George Kledaras
Patricia George Kledaras Pacelle
Harriet George Kledaras Kral
Calliope Barbara Kledaras Angeletti
Dorothy Kledaras Guiliotis
Georgene Kledaras

As you could see my grandparents were way ahead of George Foreman, who named all his sons George. Most of the Aunts and Uncles have George in their name regardless of their gender.

Pat, Harriet, Cally, and Dot have been dubbed the "Sisters" (pronounced the Sistahs). They keep the phone company in the black. They can hear a cough or a sniffle a mile away. They are just a bit overprotective. 

Uncle Tommy lives in New Haven and has one daughter, Joanne Kledaras, who is married and lives outside Boston with her husband Bill. Joanne has a consulting business and worked with the Shriver Center. Bill has a Ph.D. in Psychology. He spends a lot of time in Brazil. There is a theory that he is doing a study on the Kledaras family. This is Bill as a participant observer at a family gathering. At first we were a little worried when he took notes at Thanksgiving and Christmas and family get togethers, now we barely notice.

Uncle Stan passed away in 1982, far too young. He was our benefactor and he did a great deal for everyone in the family. Uncle Stan owned the New Haven Testing Laboratory where I worked for many a summer testing concrete for structural soundness and the density of the soils. As a consequence, I would be very careful before I stepped into a building in the greater New Haven area constructed between 1973 and 1977. One good thing was that working in the Lab convinced me to stay in school. Uncle Stan was like a second father to us. He had a great sense of humor. He was generous to a fault. He put many of us through school and started us on the road to adulthood. Although I suspose it is hard to blame him for how we turned out. We miss him very much and hardly a day goes by when we do not think about him.

Pat is my mother. Click here to see more about my immediate family.
 
 

Aunt Harriet is my Godmother. She taught in the New Haven school system for over 30 years. She is like a second mother to everyone in the family. She played a major role in my academic development, such as it is, by encouraging me to read at an early age (14, I think it was). Annually, at least for the past two years, she joins Aunt Cally and Uncle Joe for a visit to see us. Now that she has seen St. Louis and Bloomington, we had to move to give them a new place to visit. Hopefully, they will like Statesboro and the surrounding amenities, so we can stay there a while.

Aunt Cally and Uncle Joe Angeletti, retired school teachers, have three children:
Jay (Joseph, Jr.) was the Vice President for Development at Drew University. He has now moved on to the development office at Presbyterian Hospital in new York City. He and his wife Sara have two girls, Virginia and Cally (named after their grandparents).

Sara and Jay at the post-Thanksgiving party. I am unsure whether we voted to have Sara wear the devil's horns or whether she volunteered. If the shoe fits.......

Betsy is a newspaper photographer, as is her husband John Freidah. They live just outside Providence, Rhode Island. Betsy is certifiably crazy. You know the aunt or uncle that is kept in the attic, Betsy is the cousin who should be kept there.

Jay, John and Dennis share a moment. John was just back from Iraq, alas he did not find Saddam. I can't tell you anymore or I would have to kill you.

Maribeth is a dental assistant in North Haven, Connecticut. Maribeth is my youngest cousin. She lives in Hamden with her husband, Jim Aiken (say it really fast). Jim is a nurse, who has recently taken to selling Land Rovers. And here they are:

Aunt Dot, a former school librarian, and Uncle George, a retired technician from the New Haven Testing Lab, live in Orange, Connecticut. They have two children:
Gregg is in real estate parttime and works for a helicopter maintenance firm that works with Sikorsky .
Marcy, a social worker in the Milford Hospital, is married to Jim Winkel, an attorney, but we like him anyway. They have two children: Christopher and Patrick. Despite the presence of lots of boys in the family who played lots of sports growing up, Marcy is probably the best athlete in the family, starring in volleyball at UMass.

Here are Jim and Marcy without the kids. Jim was one of the inspirations for the movie X-Men. Here he flashes his laser vision.

Aunt Georgene, the youngest daughter, died at the age of 21 (in 1963) from complications of a disease called Cooley's Anemia or Thalassemia, a genetic blood disorder that is found in people of lower Mediterranean descent, like Greeks and Italians. For more information on this disease, the hope for a cure, and research, click here.

My family, particularly my Aunt Dot, has been very active in raising money to continue research toward a cure.