Historical Photo Gallery

The Martyrs’ Memorial, Chios

‘Vlastos, Loukas’ is the last name inscribed on this side of the memorial. He was one of the hostages executed on 5th May 1822.

Martyrs’ Memorial, Chios

Martyrs’ Memorial, Chios. The names Ralli, Rodochanaki, Scaramanga and Schillitzi can be seen on this side.

Nea Moni, Chios – church interior

The monastery became a refuge for Chiotes fleeing the massacres of 1822, but was nevertheless sacked; it was later much damaged by an earthquake .

Nea Moni, Chios

Ossiary at Nea Moni, Chios; the church was sacked and many refugees perished within during the 1822 Massacres

Byzantine Museum, Ioannina

Interior of the old domed section, showing a gallery where several large artworks are/were stored. The visible canvas is Marietta Pallis’s ‘Cypriot Olive Press’

Vlasto Antecedants

collated by Alix Vlasto

19th Century Chiote Merchants/Pandia Ralli

collated by Alix Vlasto

19th Century Greek Letters

In the Pallis/Vlasto Archive there is a batch of 9 handwritten letters dating between 1824 and 1828. These are mostly from Zannis Vlasto, then in Trieste (following the massacres of 1822), and are addressed to Nicolas Apostoli, a Greek ‘admiral’, or subsequently to his son Apostoli Apostoli. The letters deal with issues arising from the Chiote diaspora, including the ransoming of Chiote captives who had been enslaved.

The first two letters pictured below, from Ioannis A. Apostoli to my great-grandfather Theodore Peter Vlasto date from 1882, and help explain how all the earlier letters from 1824-1828 which follow came back into the possession of the Vlasto family. All the pictured letters are currently being translated (January 2026).

(page 1 of) Letter dated 13 December 1882

from Ioannis A. Apostoli, Athens, to Theo. Peter Vlasto (location?). A translation of this page will be added shortly.

(page 2 of) letter dated 13 December 1882

from Ioannis A. Apostoli to Th. Peter Vlasto

Letter dated 17 December 1882

from Ioannis A. Apostoli, Athens to Theo. Peter Vlasto (location?)

Ltr.2

Translation will follow shortly.

Ltr. 1

Translation will follow shortly.

Miscellaneous Ancestors

Marietta Mavrogordato (b.1832)

Pastel by L. Gratia, Rome, 1857. Marietta Mavrogordato (b.1832), the first child of Pandia Ralli. Marietta Pallis’s mother Julia Ralli (b.1857) was Pandia’s fifth child by his third marriage, so although Marietta and Julia were half-sisters, they were effectively different generations. Marietta married Lucas Mavrogordato in 1853, and they lived in Rome; to the Liverpool family she was always known as “Aunt Marietta of Rome”, and she was the reason Julia’s first child was named Marietta (Pallis).

Despina Vlasto (née Ralli) 1857-1938

She was married to Theodore Peter Vlasto, and the mother of Peter Vlasto and Ambrose Vlasto. Probably photographed in Athens

Old Mrs Cornelios (née Menexe)

She was the mother of Catina Cornelios, Pandia Ralli’s third wife, and thus Julia Ralli’s grandmother, Marietta Pallis’s great-grandmother. Photographed in Athens, date uncertain

Etta and Alexandra Cornelios

Photographed in Liverpool, c.1870?

Dominie; Pandia Ralli; QAL

Dominie Nicholls celebrates the issue of her book ‘Quite a Lot’ in 2001, with a picture of her great-grandfather Pandia Ralli (1809-60) in the background

Julia Pallis née Ralli

Painted by her daughter Marietta Pallis, c.1930

Julia Pallis & Descendants, Aigburth Drive, Liverpool, c.1939

left-right: Aziza (Pallis) Vlasto, Peter Vlasto, Julia Nicholls (b.1936), Julia (Ralli) Pallis, Dominie (Vlasto) Nicholls, Adrien Vlasto, Marco Pallis