Generation 3 · born in Greece
Georgios A. Lambros
Georgios Anastasios Lambros
Father of eleven
- Born
- 1858, Zoupena, Greece
- Died
- 1941, Zoupena, Greece
Georgios and Eleni raised eleven children in Zoupena. The Lambros sisters were remembered as “strikingly beautiful, with large blue-green eyes and dark hair”.
Six of the children went to America as teenagers or young adults: Harry (opens in a new tab), Stamata (opens in a new tab), Anna (opens in a new tab), Contillo (opens in a new tab), Athanasios (opens in a new tab) and Effie (opens in a new tab). Stamata (opens in a new tab) and Anna (opens in a new tab) ended up back in Zoupena, and Athanasios (opens in a new tab) died in Pennsylvania at about eighteen. Of those who stayed, Ioannis (opens in a new tab) was lost in the Asia Minor campaign and Stavros (opens in a new tab) died at 26.
Marriage
Eleni G. Benekou (1870–1923)
- Married c. 1887, Zoupena, Greece
- Daughter of Georgios Benekos and Diamando Costiani
- Born 1870, Zoupena, Greece
- Died 17 Oct 1923, Zoupena, Greece
Dark-haired, blue-eyed and hard-working, Eleni was loved by her children, nieces and nephews. She watched six of her children leave for America while still young, and lost a son in Asia Minor a year before her own death.
At Easter 1923, ill with cancer and knowing she had little time, she gathered the village children and her sister Andonitsa, who was about to sail for America, and led them in a last dance in the square: “One sister is soon leaving for America, and the other is leaving for heaven!” Her niece Nancy Nickles-Gregory, a child that day, remembered everyone following in tears.
She died on 17 October 1923, before her son Harry (opens in a new tab), sailing home for the first time in twenty years, could reach her.
Her brother Pete Benekos made and lost a fortune running a Chicago speakeasy during Prohibition. In 1958 he met his great-nephew Nick (opens in a new tab) by chance at a café in Athens, a story told on Nick (opens in a new tab)’s page.
Children (11)
Where the records disagree
- His birth year appears as both 1858 and 1859.
- One passage says he died at 83 in 1949; the family tree gives 1941, which fits a birth around 1858.