The Descendants of

Pantaleone d'Andria

Izmir

 

The City of Izmir

From the late eighteenth to early nineteenth centuries three distinct branches of the d’Andria family settled in Izmir: those of: Michel Jean Pantaleone d’Andria who had petitioned for the Certificate of Pedigree in 1789 and Giuseppe, his great nephew who had escaped the Kapidan Pasha’s ship in 1822; a Guiseppe d’Andria of uncertain lineage three of whose sons were buried at a grave in Karabaglar cemetery, south Izmir; and Giuseppe Marius d’Andria of the Marachi branch (whose descendants came to spell their name de Andria).

During the Napoleonic Wars Genoa had been annexed by France (1804) and Genoese citizens such as the d'Andrias living in the Levant became French citizens. By the terms of the Congress of Vienna (1815) France was returned to its 1789 borders and Genoa was attached to the Kingdom of Sardinia Piedmont. Former Genoese citizens were offered a choice of retaining their French nationality or opting to be citizens of Sardinia Piedmont. Whilst most families chose French citizenship, the d'Andrias chose to become Sardinians.

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The Crimean War and the Descendants of Michael Jean Pantaleone d’Andria in Gallipoli, Dedeagatch and Rodesto

After 1822 Michel Jean Pantaleone d’Andria’s son, Giuseppe and his wife Marie Missir took their family north to Gallipoli. The Dardinelles, along with the Bosphorus, are the two waterways that control the lucrative (and formerly Genoese dominated) Black Sea trade route. In 1854 the family met the incoming French and British armies which used Gallipoli as a staging post for fighting alongside Turkey in the Crimean War. Giuseppe's eldest son Michel (who had been born in Valletta harbour in 1822) provisioned the French army and befriended its commander Marshall Canrobert. He later held a number of French diplomatic posts in the region until the 1880s. Two of Giuseppe’s daughters married a Michel Pasquali who fought for the French. Giuseppe’s two other sons married two sisters, wealthy heiresses from Nice. Notwithstanding the earier decision to be Sardinian, over the course of two generations this whole branch of the family had won, inherited or married into French citizenship.

Ottoman war loans from Britain and France crippled it and over the rest of the century Europeans (including the descendants of this branch of the family) took control of large parts of the Ottoman economy. 

 

The Vault at Karabaglar Cemetery and the Descendants of those therein

     

The D'Andria tomb                  Antonio D'Andria

      at Karabaglar

Three d’Andria brothers, Giovanni, Stefano and Antonio are buried together in a vault at Karabaglar, on the road from Izmir to Ephesus. Giovanni had married the daughter of a French general. After his eldest son was killed by brigands at a family ranch in the Turkish interior he moved with his surviving children to England. One daughter of his brother, Stefano also moved to England – having married a grandson of Antonio Pasqua. Stefano himself practised as a merchant in Izmir: several anecdotes portray him as a strong-willed, fiery character. Some information on this branch of the family is known from the descendants of Paul Leopold d’Andria (living in Izmir/U.S.A.) Paul Leopold mysteriously disappeared on a voyage from Marseilles to Izmir in 1915.

Miscellaneous Izmir d’Andrias ese are detailed from diplomatic records. Also included is the artist of the first drawing of the house, said to be the home of the Virgin Mary, in Ephesus.

During the nineteenth century the Ottoman Empire tooks steps to reform its traditional power structures in a period known as the Tanzimat. This included refoms of the millet system by which Orthodox, Armenian, Latin and Jewish communities observed their own laws and made separate arrangements for education, medical services etc. The Armenian community thrived in the period following the Greek War of Independence as its members took over many administrative functions previously performed by the Ottoman Empire's Greek minority. In Izmir there were four Armenian families in particular with which members of all branches of the d’Andria family became connected by a bewildering sequence of marriages: the Issaverdens/Mirzans, the Missirs, the Caramans and the Balladurs.

 

The Stevanachi or Marachi Branch: The Branch of Giuseppe Marius d’Andria          

The most significant contribution made by the d’Andrias to Izmir life wqs made by this family. Giuseppe Marius founded a carpet exporting company that later bore the initial of his son Petrakaki and became the second largest carpet exporter from Izmir and a founder member of the Oriental Carpet Manufacturers consortium that controlled the trade in Turkish carpets from Anatolia in the early 20th century.  

Two of Giuseppe Marius’ daughters married Armenians (Paul Caraman and Alessandro Missir) who were employed as drogmans (local consular officials) to the missions of Naples and Sardinia. Both drogmanesses attained Italian citizenship thereby.

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The Tripolitan Balkan and First World Wars

By the end of the nineteenth century the failure of the reformers, financial bankruptcy and a series of military defeats made the Ottoman Empire the 'Sick Man of Europe', propped up by Britain and France to contain Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia. In 1911 Italy seized the area around Tripoli from the Empire and in the ensuing war the Ottomans expelled all Italians from Izmir, including members of all three major branches of the family. Included in particular were Jeanne and Auguste Braggiotti (Jeanne, a granddaughter of Michel Jean Pantaleone d’Andria), Amadeo Missir (the son of Petrakaki’s sister Maritoula Missir) and his wife’s family, and Paul Leopold d’Andria. They find temporary refuge around the Aegean. The war concluded in 1912 with the Treaty of Lausanne negotiated on the part of the Italians by Oscar Missir, another son of Maritoula who had an extremely distinguished diplomatic career in the service of Italy.

On the very same day that the treaty of Lausanne was signed, Ottoman power suffered a further blow with the first of two Balkan Wars started, during which those family members living in Salonika and Dedeagatch found themselves in a greater Greece (which country had also seized and annexed Chios in 1912).

In November 1914 the First World War commenced. For the branches of the family that had made their home in and around Izmir the Southern Front was obviously of greatest interest. Members of the family still living in Gallipoli were interned and freed after the intervention of the American ambassador in Istanbulk. They were evacuated to Dedeagatch but on Bulgaria entering the war they moved on again to Athens . Greece spent the early part of the War in constitutional crisis. An Allied bridgehead was established at Salonika under the auspices of the Prime Minister Venizelos, who had fled Athens and established a pro-Entente government based in Greece. Edgard d’Andria (grandson of Michel Jean Pantaleone d’Andria via two lines of descent) who lived in Salonika appears in photographs taken there in 1917 in uniform.When the British and Empire forces embarked upon their doomed Gallipoli campaign, the Turkish defenders, led by General Attaturk were assisted by a German general, Liman von Sanders, who established his base in the former d’Andria house overlooking the straits.  Edgard’s uncle Henri d’Andria had been expelled from the Ottoman Empire and in 1916 volunteered to give intelligence to French marines as they assaulted Piraeus (Athens) seeking to extend Venizelos‘ government to all Greece. Henri is trapped for days in a telegraph office with the marines until they are rescued by reinforcements.

The strategy on the Southern Front however was a success. The front at Salonika was eventually extended, Bulgaria capitulated and within days so did the Ottoman Empire. Within a fortnight thereafter, the Central Powers themselves agreed to a ceasefire.

An powerful account exists given by Gilbert d’Andria, Paul Leopold’s son, of the announcement of the joy and anxiety news of the ceasefire causes as news of it arrived in the middle of the night in Izmir.

 

The Destruction Of Izmir, 1922

Greek troops arrived at izmir in May 1919 and Gilbert d'Andria described the city under occupation. The following year Greece attempted to subdue the whole of Anatolia. The Turks, led by Kemal Attaturk, staged a successful war of liberation and in September 1922 a routed Greek army fled from Izmir. Turkish troops entered the city on 9 September and systematically began burning the city and slaughtering the Greek and Armenian populations . British, French, Italian and American warships in the harbour were permitted by their governments only to rescue their own citizens. At least two family members died in the fire: Adele de Portu and Rosalie Roboly. Several others were saved by the French/Italian navy and taken to Marseilles / Bari.

 

 

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