My father --- went to a school in Constantinople, which I am trying to identify, and that was a city in which my family lived for generations. Earlier they had come from the island of Tinos in the Western Aegean, like many of the Catholics of the city and earlier still somewhere in Italy. The Tinos church records which I examined show family members went back and forth to Constantinople from 1719 onwards, presumably for better trade opportunities. Tinos used to be a Venetian controlled island, but now it was part of the Ottoman Empire, so there were no real barriers for migration to the capital. Between 1207 and 1715, Tinos was in Venetian hands, a result of the 4th Crusade ‘betrayal’ and from 1715 to 1821, Tinos was ruled by the Ottoman Empire.

 Note: According to the book ‘The Cyclades: Discovering the Greek Islands of the Aegean By John Freely, p. 94 - After Marco Sanudo conquered the Cyclades in 1207 he gave Tinos as a sub-fief to the Ghisi family, along with Mykonos. This dynasty ruled Tinos and Mykonos until 1390, when Giorgio III Ghisi died without heirs, having bequeathed the islands to Venice.’ Presumably this is the same family...

My father passed at 98 in 2008, rarely spoke of his past or family and I learned only from my grandfather Joseph Ghisi (died --) all I know about our Levantine family. The family were very Catholic, wealthy, well educated and my father spoke Greek, Italian, French, Turkish and English and my grandfather and my aunt spoke all those as well, excluding English.

The family home of my grandfather, brother (John and Alberto) and my father was in Büyükdere, a neighbourhood half-way up the Bosphorus on the European side, favoured by Levantines and wealthy Greeks. All brothers were in business in the city, alas I don't have details what that was, or photos of the houses. I have family photos which I am including to help with the investigation

To assist me in my continuing quest to piece together my family past, feel free to contact me on tghisi[at]msn.com, June 2011
Below some information provided by the book Les Levantins - Oliver Jens Schmitt - Isis, 2007, p. 167:
Francesco Ghisi (signed in a Greek style along with some of the other islanders) was one of the signaturies amongst Catholic Levantines of Constantinople objecting to the control of their church from St. Benoit in 1799.

submission date 2011