In 1916 or 1917, Angeliki Sechnedopoulou, born in Sinasos at the end of the 19th century, married her compatriot, Theologos Chatzitheodoridis, a textile merchant. The couple had three children, Aikaterini, Kyriakos and Giorgos. Angeliki lived with her husband’s family in Sinasos, while Theologos lived and worked in Constantinople. Theologos Chatzitheodoridis was probably killed by robbers at the end of 1920.
On October 2, 1924, according to the terms of the Lausanne Treaty, Angeliki, her three children and her mother-in-law, Nymfodora Chatzitheodoridou, left their home carrying seven bundles in which they had tried to fit their most useful and valuable possessions. The family made it to Mersin where they boarded the ship Destounis and travelled to Greece. Half the ship’s passengers disembarked in Evoia and the other half in Piraeus. The Chatzitheodoridis family made it to Piraeus and settled in Tabouria, in Keratsini. They survived the difficult first few months by gradually selling off the valuables they had brought over sewn into their garments, until they managed to find first some sort of temporary work and later steadier employment.
Today, Sotiris Marsellos, son of the eldest daughter of the family, Aikaterini Chatzitheodoridou, still has in his possession several of the objects brought over in those seven bundles. He even keeps some in the family’s refugee home where he still lives. He has an emotional bond to these objects because they remind him of his family history and the hardships they had to overcome in order to survive their new circumstances.
