Sveta Petka
taken from the book Lerin in Mourning by Atanas Tane Naumovski available courtesy of
Pollitecon Publications
The village of Sveta Petka was made to change its name by the Greek government to Agija Paraskevi. It is about 13 kilometres northwest of Lerin on the ridge of the Baba Mountain
near the Greek - Macedonian border. It is at 21 degrees 23 minutes longitude and 40 degrees 52 minutes latitude and 682 metres above sea level. Its area is about 6 square kilometres.
The village borders to the northeast with Negochani, to the east with Klabuchishta, to the south with Bitusha, to the southwest with Opsiriniom, and to the northwest with the
Macedonian border. The Mala River runs through the village dividing it into two.
Before the start of the Greek Civil War there were about 690 Macedonian residents in the village. They were employed in agriculture and raising livestock.
During the Greek Civil War, the residents took little part in the organization of NOF and the armed forces of DAG with only 2 active fighters. Unfortunately both gave their lives.
They were :
- Lazar Simejanov
- Mihail Srbinov
After the Greek Civil War and emigration from and forced migration to the village, the number of residents fell significantly. The 1991 census recorded 206 residents.
Family Names of Sveta Petka Inhabitants
Here is a list of family names which at one point lived in Sveta Petka (although it is NEVER complete).
In the first column is the original Macedonian version of the name. In many cases individuals and families that have emigrated to other countries have had their
names 'localized' to the local language (in Australia/Canada/USA they have been shorted - Ivanov to Evans, Branov to Brown). In the European countries they have
adjusted to include "-ski" or "-sky" (examples are Popovski from Popov, Mangovsky from Mangos).
In the second column is how it would be written in Macedonian (NOTE: you will need to have the "MAC C Times" Truetype font installed on your system to properly read it. For
more information on how to get this done please visit Biser Balkanski - How To Install Macedonian fonts on your computer .
The third column is the Hellenized (ie. "Greek") version assigned by the Greek government in the years which followed the Treaty of Bucharest in 1913. In a majority of the cases
the changes did not appear until after 1920. In many cases as with the village names, an attempt was made to spell the last names in the Greek alphabet sound-for-sound but it
was later decided to make them sound more "Greek" (examples were "Dimov" to "Dimopoulos", "Iliev" to "Iliadis").
For those unaware, the Treaty of Bucharest "divided the spoils" of Macedonia amongst the three neighbouring countries - Bulgaria, Greece, and Serbia.
Amongst the worst of what was to follow happened in Greece - family names were given "Greek" versions, village names were renamed, churches were re-Christened
under Greek saints, tombstones and epitaphs along with any visible signs of the Macedonian language were erased and re-written in Greek.
| Original Macedonian Name | Po Makedonski | Hellenized Version |
|---|
|
|
Toulis
|
|
|
Servinis
|
|
|
Ioannidis
|
|
|
Christou
|
|
|
Sideris
|
| Chekutanoff |
|
|
| Sarbinov |
|
|
| Simeon |
|
|
| Temelko, Temelkov |
|
Temelkos
|
Thank you to everybody who has contributed to the various lists. If you would like to add your family
please email me at tedn@macedonianvillages.com and specify the village and a list of family names.