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Welcome! This website was created on 03 Apr 2008 and last updated on 11 Dec 2023. The family trees on this site contain 900 relatives and 2886 photos. If you have any questions or comments you may send a message to the Administrator of this site.
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About The Levi Vital Families & related.
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I was born in Athens,Greece, in 1940. I live in Athens. My father was Raphael Levi and my mother Esther Vital-Levi. I am married to Rita Decastro-Levi. I have two children,  Raphael (Ralfo), who lives in San Francisco U.S.A. and Esther (Etty) who lives in  Thessalonika Greece.

Many years ago, my children were asking me questions regarding their origin and their  relation with their other relatives.Then I decided to create a family tree of the two  families Levi and Vital. In 1982 I printed two charts and I distributed them to the  members of our families. In that time members of our families were living in  different counties: GREECE, ISRAEL, U.S.A., ITALY, SWITZERLAND, ARGENTINA, SPAIN,  FRANCE.

I am retired since 2005, and having plenty of free time, I have started dealing more  seriously with the research of my roots. Having a better knowledge by now of the  potential that a computer offers, I decided to proceed to the creation of a family  site and share it with all members of our family in all over the world. The most  important thing is to know each other better and mainly our children, our  grandchildren and their descendants.

Why shouldn't Yali Shafrir, born in Tel-Aviv, Israel on 25/10/2006 know that a cousin  of hers, Daniel Levy born on 25/05/2008 lives in San Francisco, U.S.A.and  Anna Venouziou born on 09/10/2008 and also Matteo Venouziou born November 29, 2011 live in Thessalonoki, Greece ?

I AM DEDICATING THIS SITE TO THE MEMORY OF MY GRANDFATHER ZACHARIA VITAL. ALL OLD FAMILY PHOTOS ARE COMING FROM HIS ARCHIVE.

I EXPRESS MY GRATITUDE TO ALL MEMBERS OF OUR FAMILY THAT HELPED TO THE CREATION OF  THIS  SITE, BY SENDING ME INFORMATION AND PHOTOS.

SPECIAL THANKS TO RICHARD GLASER, WHO MANY YEARS AGO SHARED WITH ME HIS FAMILY TREE RELATED TO OSMO AND VELELLI FAMILIES,TO VICTOR VELELLI,TO ROSELLA GABRIEL-ROSENHOLZ  WHO ALSO SHARED WITH ME HER RESEARCH ABOUT HER FAMILY AND HER EXCELLENT PHOTOS AS  WELL AS ALEX LEVIS,  LEFTERIS LEVIS, STELLA AND MARCELLA LEONTSINI AND PAUL ZADIK FOR HIS VALUABLE  HELP.

LEVI FAMILY

The roots of Levi family are found in the Northwestern Greek city of Jannina. This  beautiful city, lies in the shore of lake Pamvotis. The city was under the Ottoman  Empire and was liberated in 1913 by the Greek Army. Jannina had an important Jewish  community of about 2.000 members that were annihilated by the Nazis. Only 70 people  survived the Holocaust. The historians call those Jews "Romaniotes" because they were  descendents of the Greek Jews of the Byzantine empire and were speaking Greek.

According to the historian Nikos Stavroulakis, the "Romaniote" appellation comes from  the time of Emperor Titus of Rome. When a slave ship with Jews from Palestine  destined for Rome, sunk near Preveza and the slaves escaped and "colonized" Epirus.  That happened much before Byzantine times.

Sometime at the end of the 19th century, the Levi family left Jannina and settled in  a city of central eastern Greece Volos were they excelled in textile industry. In  1926-1927 Joseph (Iossif) Levi and his wife Rosa Yessoula-Levi with their children Moise,  Raphael, Isacco, Rene and Matilda left Volos and went to live in Milan, Italy. Before World War II, the family of Raphael Levi, his wife Esther Vital-Levi and  daughter Rosella returned to Greece and settled in Athens. Their son Joseph (Josy) Levi was born in Athens where he still lives and their daughter Rosella Levi-Yoel  lives between Athens and Tel-Aviv. The other son of Joseph (Iossif) Levi, Moise and  his wife Alice Levi-Levi went to Manchester England during the war where they  remained for several years. Their daughter Rosetta got married to Nouli Vital and  settled in Athens, while their son Joseph (Joe) Levy lives with his son Andy in  Buenos-Aires. The daughter of Joseph (Joe) Levy Sandra with her daughters Jennifer  and Jasmine live in Spain. Isacco Levi with his wife Sefy Vital-Levi stayed in Milan.  Their children Riccardo, Niky and Dianna live in Milan. The daughter of Joseph Levi,  Matilda, married to Hannen Levi settled in Athens.Her daughter Suzy lives in Athens  and Suzy's daughter, Errica, in Geneva, Switzerland.

VITAL FAMILY

Vital family originates from Italy. In a period of time members of this family are  found in Corfu a Greek island of northwestern Greece. The name Vital comes from the  Italian word vita=life. Jews came to the island of Corfu during the 13th and 14th  century. In 1386 Corfu surrended to the Venetians. The Jews of the island come either  from Greece (Romaniotes) or from Italy. The island passed successively to the French  (1797) and then to the British (1815) sovereignty. The annexation to Greece took  place in 1864. In 1944, 1800 Jews out of the 2000 living in the island were driven to  the concentration camps. Today there are only about 65 Jews left on the island. The  family of Marcos Vital, at the end of the 19th century, moved to Cefallonia another  Ionian Greek island. Zacharia Vital was born there in Peratata village. He and his  wife Rebecca Johannan-Vital moved to Patra an important port of Western Greece,  where he became an important businessman in the field of textiles. Their children  Esther, Marcos, Sefy, Noulis and Regina were born there. Before World War II, the  family finally settled in Athens. In the meantime one of his daughters Esther got  married with Raphael, son of Joseph (Iosif) Levi and the other one Sefy, married with  Isacco the other son of Joseph (Iossif) Levi. After the war the third daughter Regina  got married with M.D. Harry Perez. Their daughter Esther (Etty) Perez with her son  Philip Varagis live in Athens. The son of Zacharia Vital, Noulis, got married with  Rosetta daughter of Moise Levi. Philip and Paul Vital children of Noulis and Rosetta  went to Israel to study and created their families there.

Related to the VITAL family, are OSMO and VELELLI families. Jacob Osmo got  married with Regina Vital, sister of Zacharia Vital. Their daughter Emily Osmo, got  married with Emmanuel Velelli.

DECASTRO FAMILY

As a Jewish family name, this name is usually delivered from the ancient Spanish  fortress of EL CASTRO, which was called "the town of the Jews" by Jewish medieval  chroniclers. Spanish family names beautifully illustrate the history of the Jews in  the Iberian peninsula. The first Jews arriving in Spain during the times of the Roman  Empire, bore Greek, Latin and Hebrew names. In the early eighth century, when Spain  was conquered by the Arabs and came under Islamic rule, she became the shelter for  many more Jews where they enjoyed religious freedom and were greatly involved in the  government and administration. During this period, many Jews adopted Arabic names, as  well retained their Hebrew names, leaving a legacy of fascinating combinations of  Arabic and Hebrew. After the tenth century, when Spain was reconquered by the   christians, these same Arabic and Hebrew names were stil being used by the Spanish  Jews. It was not until the sixteenth century inquisition that Jews changed names,  when they were forcibly converted and baptised and took spanish-christian names,  becoming the "New Christians" or "Marranos" of Spain. Yet the same conservatism and  love of tradition can been seen among the Marranos, who retained their Spanish- Christian names when much later they were able to re-convert to Judaism, just as  those who fled the country tended to keep their Spanish names wherever they moved to. This trend among Sephardi Jews to retain their family names intact has enabled us  today to trace closely their histories. Especially interesting is the fact that large  proportion of Spanish names are delivered from place names, many of them in their  original forms from ancient times and no longer existing today.

Decastro family has roots in the city of North-Western Greece, Jannina. Elia Decastro lived there at the first half of the 19th century and was a famous  physician. His son Abraham was born there. His son Nissim passed a certain time in  Milan Italy and died in Athens Greece.Descendets of Decastro family are living in  Lausanne Switzerland ( Georges and Yves Braunschweig) and in Athens, Greece (Rita  Decastro-Levi, Lia Decastro-Ishaki and Mariza Decastro).

This site includes  many families related to Levi-Vital family. Among them are: De CASTRO, MOISE, PEREZ, BRAUNSCHWEIG, YOEL, BORBOLI, GABRIEL, OSMO, VELELLI,  SALVATOR, LEONTSINI, VENOUZIOU, JOHANNAN, AMARILIO  and many others.
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Getting Around
There are several ways to browse the family tree. The Tree View graphically shows the relationship of selected person to their kin. The Family View shows the person you have selected in the center, with his/her photo on the left and notes on the right. Above are the father and mother and below are the children. The Ancestor Chart shows the person you have selected in the left, with the photograph above and children below. On the right are the parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. The Descendant Chart shows the person you have selected in the left, with the photograph and parents below. On the right are the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Do you know who your second cousins are? Try the Kinship Relationships Tool. Your site can generate various Reports for each name in your family tree. You can select a name from the list on the top-right menu bar.

In addition to the charts and reports you have Photo Albums, the Events list and the Relationships tool. Family photographs are organized in the Photo Index. Each Album's photographs are accompanied by a caption. To enlarge a photograph just click on it. Keep up with the family birthdays and anniversaries in the Events list. Birthdays and Anniversaries of living persons are listed by month. Want to know how you are related to anybody ? Check out the Relationships tool.

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