The Descendants of Istanbul Ignazio the Armateur Marie Braggiotti and Olympia Guillois
17 C. Istanbul
The Dandria family is known to have been present in ther former Genoese colony at Galata, Istanbul from 1627 (when a Magnifico Giovanni Dandrea was Under-Prior of the the Magnifica Communita di Pera, which governed the Genoese colony of Galata under Ottoman licence. The earliest extant census of the Communita was conducted in 1632 and records 53 households, two of which are d’Andria. One branch of this family was the descendants of a Francesca d’Andrea who married into the Dantan, Timoni and de Hubsch families. Dr Emmanuel Timoni (first husband of Catherine, Fancesca’s daughter) was a member of the Royal Society and wrote the first modern scientific paper on innoculation. Catherine’s second husband Frederic de Hubsch was an influencial German diplomat and owned one of the largest properties on the Bosphorus at Buyuk-Dere. De Hubsch's elder son, Charles Francois died in unknown circumstances whilst imprisoned at Naples on charges of freemasonry; he had been a favourite, and it is said a lover, of Queen Maria Caroline of Naples and Sicily (sister of Marie-Antoinette of France). The younger son, Antoine Frederic, continued in his father’s tradition of Ottoman diplomacy and acquired the title Baron von Grossthal. During his diplomatic career he represented the interests Russia at the Ottoman Porte during the Russo-Turkish War 1787-9. During this time the permanent Russian delegation, which included an unknown d’Andria were imprisoned at the Castle of the Seven Towers.
Several d’Andrias, some from Chios, are known to have acted as priests in the former Genoese colony of Galata from the seventeenth century. In particular they are associated with the Dominican Church of St Peter and St Paul where d’Andrias seem to have ministered almost continuously from 1715 to 1803.
Giovanni d’Andria (1635-75) of Chios raised a family in Galata after his release from captivity in Africa.
Grande Hotel de Londres, Pera The SS Stefanodandria
One branch of the d’Andrias, head by Ignazio Dandria ('Ignazio the Armateur') who was probably descended from the d’Andrias of Karabaglar, at one stage owned a shipping company Fratelli Dandria. This owned and operated a steamship called S.S. Stefano Dandria which brought grain to Istanbul from the Black Sea. His descendants diversified into hotel management after the opening of the Orient Express that linked Istanbul with the major cities of western Europe by rail for the first time. The family owned the International Hotel, and later the Grand Hotel de Londres overlooking the Golden Horn. A street off the Grande Rue de Pera was until recently called Passaj d’Andria and a building on the Grande Rue was called Arcade d'Andria.
Two daughters of Nicolo d'Andria, who settled in England in the 1850s and whose sons were wool and cotton traders in Manchester and Bradford, married residents of Galata and came to live there; Marie married Pierre Isidore Braggiotti and Marie’s younger sister married Edouard Guillois who worked at the French Embassy.
A graphic letter (1887) from their brother John to his relatives in Manchester describes a major fire and his frantic efforts to save Marie’s house, contrasted to the chaotic efforts of the Turkish volunteer fire brigades, the tumbercanis.
In 1895 Istanbul was disturbed by Armenian riots. Another poignant letter is received by the Manchester d’Andrias, this time from Olympia, in which she writes of her fear of an imminent massacre of Christians and of her desire to die alongside her children if this comes to pass.
The massacres did not in fact occur to the great extent that Olympia feared and Olympia’s children survived. One, Rev. Joseph Guillois became the personal assistant to the Papal envoy to Greece and Turkey (1935-44) Cardinal Angelo Roncalli. Later Roncalli became Pope John XXIII and Joseph the Vicar General of Istanbul and the family’s second member to be admitted to the Legion d’honneur.
Pantaleone d'Andria