The results and advantages accruing from the project are on three different levels.

• On a personal and family level the ability to preserve and maintain memories of our origins for future generations and the possibility to put back together pieces of families that were broken apart because of the war, immigration and refugee life. The reconstruction of the family tree encourages us to discover aspects of family life and tradition that although forgotten, continue to affect us.
• On a collective level, we give the potential to communities that were split apart to come together, communicate and reconstruct the picture and history that was shattered because of historical upheaval. This picture is supplemented with a series of autobiographic interviews and with the collection of digitalized historical evidence that in many cases is enriched with the subject´s comments.
• On the level of large scale - national history, the program provides the only reliable source for the calculation of populations, before during and after refugee relocation. At the same time it enriches our history with details and experiences of people that had been ignored or marginalized while the formation of our national historical narrative was taking place, namely, refugees, immigrants, women, the poor etc.

The utilization of the project does not really depend on the importance of every single story and individual who are portrayed or taking part, but on the truly large scale it is conducted at, and on the width and diversity of the cases it covers. Historical elements about refugee communities of Macedonia acquire bigger value if they are combined with elements from the rest of the country and Hellenic Diaspora so that

• We achieve an optimum combination of family-genealogical data from the families that were removed and potentially estranged because of refugee life and immigration
• We weigh up the importance of each experience and cultural element in order to highlight common experiences and their different versions according to location and social group independently of origin, the place of settlement or current situation
• A rich and functional educational tool is created at a relatively low cost, which is going to establish or accommodate communities that give and take the benefit of information and knowledge depending on their disposal and needs.

< Previous page           Next page >