The Road to Madaro

Sisters Julie, Cheryl and Jacque with their families in July, 2007.

When we returned from a summer cruise to the Greek Isles almost four years ago, I wrote an article about Julie and her sisters visiting Chania, Crete, to see the area where their Grandpa Nick had grown up.

A few weeks later, I received this e-mail:

Dear Wes:

It is with great interest and curiosity that I read about your trip to Madaro, a small Cretan village south of Chania (Hania) on the island of Crete. You see, during my lunch break yesterday, I decided to “google” the village that my grandfather hailed from “Madaro”. Consequently, I came upon your blog. My name is Harold Migias. My grandfather was Haralambos Migiakis aka Charalambos Miyiakis aka “Harry Migias” upon his arrival at Ellis Island in 1912 with his cousin Joseph “Iosif” Birakis. I visited Madaro in 1996.

Road to Madaro in July, 2007.

How does your family fit into the Migiakis-Birakis family tree? As I recall from my visit, those are the only two families up there.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Harold Migias (son of John Migias)


Sorting through family trees, Harold determined his grandfather was the first cousin of Julie's grandfather, but their last names had been altered differently at Ellis Island.

Julie's father, John Megas, had visited Chania and Madaro about ten years before Harold had, and it was his stories of the warm hospitality of his distant cousins including Eftalia Birakis that planted in Julie the idea of hooking up with relatives on Crete.

Amy in taxi to Chania in July, 2007.

For the previous trip, Julie's sister had tried to contact Eftalia before we arrived on Crete but unfortunately could not. After making phone contact through a taxi driver while in Chania, however, we did start sending letters translated by internet programs to Eftalia in case we tried again. It was never quite clear how we would actually communicate once we were there, but when we found a cruise spending a full day in Chania, Harold brought us the solution.

He had met Nikolaos Mygiakis, a younger member of the family in Chania, on his trip to Crete, and Nikos knows how to speak English. We suddenly had someone of our generation as a connection in Crete. As luck would have it, Nikos would be forced to work on the day we arrived, but he introduced us by e-mail to his brother, Vasilis.

Road to Madaro in May, 2011.

Vasilis proved to be a Godsend. He set up a meeting place near Souda Harbor. We worried if he knew the exact pier for our ship and if we would find our meeting spot. We worried he may not show up at all for "cousins" whom, after all, he had never heard of until a few weeks earlier. We arrived a few minutes early and scouted out the area to be sure we were in the right place.

Aunt Ermioni and Cousin Vasilis upon arrival in Madaro, 2011.

Right on schedule, Vasilis arrived in his car, and he had a Mercedes taxi following him to drive the other three of us up to Madaro. He spoke English fluently, and the taxi driver could understand most of what we said. A palpable spark of excitement said, "This is actually going to work!"