John Taylor Adams was born in Drosopigi (north east of Ioannina and in Konitsa township)
His birth name was Ioannis Telis tou Adamou which translated means John Telis son of Adam. His surname is certified as Telis from his birth certificate from Kantsikon (Now Drosopigi)
On his declaration of intention(for US citizenship) he states he was born in Tirnavos, Greece, 1891.
His birth certificate issued by the township of Kantsikon states that he was born May 29th, 1887 [ref]The Julian calendar (old style) was in effect at this time in Eipirus GR. 29 MAY, 1887 JULIAN Calender IS 10 June, GREGORIAN (new style)[/ref]
A note about Tirnavos: Several years ago I was given a list of births in Kantsiko/Drosopi that had been copied from the Register which was kept in the town at that time. I noticed that quite a few of the births had taken place in Tirnavos, which is south east of Drosopigi. This may have been due to wanting better medical care and there may have been an obstetrician there. Even today in Southern Evia where there is is obstetric care quite a few expectant Moms go into Athens for their delivery.
There is a question that John may have been born 2 or 3 or even 4 years before 1887. The families tried to hide the male babies as long as possible and register them when they were already 2 to 3 or 4 years old. This was because the Turks took the young men into the army and the families tried to delay this as long as possible.By recording the births late the Turks thought the boys were younger than they were. We figured out from surveying various gathered records that his birthday is probably 1883 or 84.The town of Drosopigi (Latitude 40°12’43.93″N – Longitude 20°54’46.21″E) is a mason’s town (mastorohorion). The men from these famous towns were masons and left every spring traveling all over Greece and as far as Russia, the Balkans, Egypt & Sudan building stone bridges, houses and churches.
http://www.drosopigi.org
http://drosopigi.blogspot.gr
The women were left to care for the fields, sheep and goats. Life was not easy back then.
The boys left with the men when they were quite young and started learning their trade. My Dad left the village when he was about 13 years old to travel around the country and learn the trade. He worked on the Olympic stadium that was built for the first Olympic games in 1896 and also on the hospital of Evangelismos. (Still operating.) He travelled to Egypt at some point.
Vivian and I visited Drosopigi in late 90’s and met some of the family. It’s a beautiful village nestled high in the mountains of Epirus just 10 or 15 kilometers from the Albanian border.
John left for the States in October of 1907 on the Europa, arriving at the port of NY.
On the ships manifest he is listed as John Adamou, probably written like that because the ships officer was not familiar with Greek naming convention. Sometime from that point he adapted the name of John Taylor Adams.
There were many people from his town in the states. He first went to his first cousin Philip Spellas, in Manchester NH, and worked in a shoe factory where he lost a finger on his right hand.
He then moved to Norristown PA, where he went into the candy business with 4 other young men from Drosopigi.
In 1917, George Gazonas, Nick Gazonas, John Adams, Kosta Koutroubinas and George Suflas bought the Lyric Theater and candy store combo at 17 or 19 East Main Street. This was during the period that Charlie Chaplin was making films in Norristown and he often told us that he had met Chaplin.
At some period after that he moved into the Chester area and owned a succession of restaurants, The Coffee Pot and The Black Duck among them.
He was operating the Black Duck when he was introduced to my mother Angeline and they were married on June 1, 1930 .
During the The Great Depression he lost The Black Duck and moved to Willow Grove to stay with his father in-law Nick Pappageorge (Pappas).
Life improved over the next few years. We moved to West Philadelphia and a few years later my father bought the house in Willow Grove where he lived until his death in 1976 at the age of 89 (officially) but he could have been 92 or older.
Update May 29, 2013
My sister Kay writes:
“Dad was the youngest of 5 – 4 girls and he was last. The girls were all very tall. Dad was short and was called the runt of the family. The eldest sister died of flu in the 1918 epidemic. I met Perestera when I visited in 1960 and she was in her mid-late 80s then. The other 2 sisters also were dead but I’m not sure how they died.There were no obstetricians when Dad was born. Midwives handled births and they still do in many villages in northern Greece/Bulgaria, etc., and as they did in the U. S. at that time. And in the late 19th century when Dad was born, there was no thing such as “better medical care.”
I remember Dad telling me that often women working in the fields would give birth right there and then continue working. That’s not an unusual situation even today – witness certain sections of Africa where that occurs. There may have been another reason for many births taking place in Tirnavos,Remember that at the end of the 19th century, even in the U. S. medical care was nowhere near what we experience now — it was quite primitive and the family doctor most often was the sole source of medical care. There was no such thing as preventive or continuing care as we have now. You were born at home and there was no attending “obstetrician” – A physician appeared later to sign the birth certificate.”