Legal matters before the authorities of Greece and Cyprus

RESEARCH

Tracing civil registry and municipal records in Greece

Every citizenship, inheritance or correction case is decided on documents. Before any application is filed, the entries have to be found.

WHO HANDLES THIS

Research, tracing and preparation of documents are handled by our research and administrative services team. Every step before a Greek authority or court is handled by our office in Athens, and for Cypriot matters by our office in Nicosia.

Why we start with the records

The Greek administration does not recognise family accounts; it recognises entries. Who was born where, to which parents, when the event was recorded and in which book. Until those entries are located, no application can be assessed, and an application filed without them is simply returned.
That is why the first stage of every case is archival, not procedural. It determines whether the case stands at all, and if so, which route it follows.

Where the records are kept

Births, marriages and deaths are recorded by the registry of the place where the event occurred, now supported by the national Citizens’ Registry information system. Events concerning Greeks that took place abroad are entered with the Special Registry of the Ministry of the Interior.
The municipality keeps the family record, from which certificates of family status and of citizenship are issued. For men, the male register is often the oldest official entry, particularly for births of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Church books of baptism and marriage, and the General State Archives, frequently complete what the civil records cannot.

When the matter passes to a lawyer

Where an entry does not exist and must be created, where details diverge and a correction is required, or where the correction presupposes a prosecutor’s authorisation or a final court judgment, the matter is handled by our lawyers in Greece, while the research continues in support.

QUESTIONS

Frequently asked

We do not know the village. Can anything be done?

Usually yes. We start from the documents of the country where the ancestor lived, which often state a place of birth, and work back into the Greek archives.

The ancestor left a century ago. Do records survive?

Often yes, particularly in male registers and church books. Where one archive has been destroyed, the event is sought in another.

The surname is spelled differently in every document.

That is common. We record the variants and, where needed, a correction or identification procedure follows.

Do I need to travel?

No. The research is carried out remotely, and steps before authorities are taken under a power of attorney.

Sources

RELATED

Related services

Genealogical &Archival Research

Locating the documents in the first place.

Greek Citizenship by Descent

Where the documents are used.

Name Change & Correction

When the entries do not match.