The digital - genealogical collection project constitutes of three interrelated but distinct programs. The first one pertains to the reconstitution of genealogical trees of Greeks that were born in or originate from regions outside the Greek borders -Asia Minor, Pontus, Thrace and Istanbul- Greeks who fled to Greece and abroad as refugees, because of the persecution they faced during the birth of Nation states in the old Ottoman Empire.

Information on genealogical trees emanates from the families themselves, through the completion of the special Genealogical Tree Report by those who so wish, and by processing Municipal Files, Records, and lists of refugees as well as from archival sources, the Press or existing literature. Our aim is to safeguard for future generations, the right and the potential of knowing the origins and the historical course of their family and communities from which they come from.

Additionally, we collect autobiographic interviews - Testimonies - autobiographic texts and personal histories that illuminate sides of the refugee historical experience that would otherwise be ignored or lost. Through Testimonies and personal histories, all people emerge as individuals and as agents of history and offer their recollections as well as personal and family evidence to the common memory of greater hellenism.

The historical evidence, photographs, texts, maps, ephemera and objects, that are offered by the refugees, their descendants and the collective bodies or their local authorities, are digitalized and filed in the project´s archives in connection with the genealogical trees and the "testimonies of" depositors as well as with the necessary information on their origin and keeping. We aim to turn the digitalized historical evidence into common property for all those who are interested in it, without depriving its natural holders or their archives of it. In many cases it is accompanied by the depositors´ statements, interviews or written texts that describe the evidence.

The interviews are not limited to the simple citation of metadata or descriptions of evidence. Instead, they develop into a narrative of recollections initiated by pieces of evidence, the events they are connected to and the feelings or thoughts they cause. In this way, displaying the evidence along with the texts that accompany it, creates extracts of a parallel history, that begins with the experiences and the mnemonic culture of individuals.

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