Rogi wrote:
Hmm, I didn't really think about the Church archives, although I suppose you're right as they'd have to keep some records on Marriages, Christenings and so on... I'm not sure what kind of records they have, particularly since the Church was not exactly 'ours' after 1767.
But if we can collate Turkish archives, Church records and whatever else we can get our hands on, then digitalise it all, put it in a database and index it then build a nice 'geneology' building (like a modern library) in Skopje.
It would be much like a library with a whole bunch of computers and surrounded by history books of the Ottoman and perhaps Byzantine time periods, relating to Macedonia where Macedonians can research their family history.
A family-history research centre (or library) where Macedonians can build their family trees, work out where their families have migrated to and from over the last few centuries, what their names and surnames were, what land titles they owned and even when they died and how... that would be fantastic. It would surely create a much larger interest in Macedonian history amongst a great number of Macedonians as well as help create a pride about being Macedonian.
At the very least, it would help so many Macedonians understand that we have what their forefathers didn't have but always dreamt of, a free Macedonia (well, part of it) and that might help them see the importance of keeping our name, culture, identity and securing our country.
I'd travel to Macedonia specifically for that.
But if we can collate Turkish archives, Church records and whatever else we can get our hands on, then digitalise it all, put it in a database and index it then build a nice 'geneology' building (like a modern library) in Skopje.
It would be much like a library with a whole bunch of computers and surrounded by history books of the Ottoman and perhaps Byzantine time periods, relating to Macedonia where Macedonians can research their family history.
A family-history research centre (or library) where Macedonians can build their family trees, work out where their families have migrated to and from over the last few centuries, what their names and surnames were, what land titles they owned and even when they died and how... that would be fantastic. It would surely create a much larger interest in Macedonian history amongst a great number of Macedonians as well as help create a pride about being Macedonian.
At the very least, it would help so many Macedonians understand that we have what their forefathers didn't have but always dreamt of, a free Macedonia (well, part of it) and that might help them see the importance of keeping our name, culture, identity and securing our country.
I'd travel to Macedonia specifically for that.
Hi Rogi
As far as I know, almost all of those Church archives were destroyed by no other than our southern neighbor.
The abolition of the church was initiated by the Constantinople Patriarch (Samuil Handzheri 1763–1768), and un-canonically administered by a Muslim ruler. Playing into each other’s hands, the Ottoman Turks and Greeks developed a long-standing relationship under which the Sultan could never have crushed the heart out of his Christian subjects without the aid of a Christian middleman, and the "Greek used the brute force of his Mohammedan employer to compliment his own cleverness and guile", G.M. Mackenzie and A.P. Irby, The Slavonic Provinces of Turkey in Europe, London 1866, p. 29.
"The abolition of the Macedonian Archbishopric of Ohrid emerged from political manouvering, and was motivated by a desire to strengthen the position of the Patriarchate in non-Greek territories under Ottoman rule", C. Eliot, Turkey in Europe, London, 1965 (1900) p. 251. Furthermore, "the Macedonian church was annexed to the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which took ecclesiastical control of Macedonia and, in place of native Bishops of one interest with the people, Greeks were sent from Constantinople", G.M. Mackenzie and A.P. Irby, The Slavonic Provinces of Turkey in Europe, London 1866, p. 29.
According to Eliot, Greek bishops and metropolitans reinforced Greek religious domination in Macedonia by attempting to wipe out traces of the Macedonian character of the Archbishopric of Ohrid. They set upon destroying centuries-old books, records and religious texts and often replaced Macedonian church inscriptions with Greek. In monasteries on the Holy Mountain of Sveta Gora, "the Greek clergy acted drastically, throwing old Macedonian parchments into the sea or burning them in furnaces, and at the Monastery of Saint Naum on Lake Ohrid, the Greek prior Dionysius burned the manuscripts. In Prilep there was a burning of the religious books, whilst the books stored at Veles were destroyed in a bonfire in the marketplace under the orders of the Greek bishop. As much as 300 kilograms of parchments and religious books belonging to the Ohrid Archbishopric were gone forever", Macedonia - Its People and History, The Pensylvannia State University Press, 1982, p. 108. The library of the Patriachs of Trnovo in Bulgaria, although surviving significantly longer, was destroyed by fire in 1825 at the hands of the Greek Metropolitan Hilarion, The journalist, J.D. Bourchier, The Balkan States - Their Attitude Towards the Macedonian Question, New York, 1905, p. 52.
