According to early census records, Giorgachi Travassaro (Veloni) was born about 1782 in Chalepkai, a district of Chora, in Kythera. His father was Panagioti Travasaro and his mother is unknown. He had an older brother, Giannachi, and a younger brother, Nicolachi.
He was a notary and some of his papers from 1813-1814 still exist.
A lot is known about Georgiachis due to an account written by Papa Grigioris Logothetis at the time.
Georgiachi was a very polite, well-mannered man. His mother died while he was still young. His father remarried then also died while the children were young. His stepmother, Maria, then remarried Stamatis Galanakis with who Georgachi got on very well.
Sofoula Lourantou was born 10 November 1812 in Lourantianika to Nikolaos Lourantos (Perleggis) and Maria. Georgiachi eloped with Sofoula and she was willing to be taken. When the time came to live together, she said she did not want to have anything to do with his friends. He agreed to this, but she was still not happy, so she left him in the middle of the night. He did not go looking for her. They had no children.
Giorgachi then married Erini Magerou from Drymonas. Erini was born between 1775 and 1814 in Drymonas to Dimitri Magero and Ellena and was the seventh of their ten children. She has been described as a horrible, angry woman who would often verbally abuse him.
With Erini, Georgachi had two sons; Panagiotis born 16 October 1805, and Ioannis, born 1 March 1811, both in Gountianika.
Erini would always fight with the wife of Geogiachi’s brother Giannachi, and they did not get on at all. Georgios and Giannachi’s houses were joined by a wall and Erini could not escape her in-laws whom she did not like.
Erini somehow managed to corrupt her mild-mannered husband and encouraged him to put his rifle through a hole in the common wall and shoot his brother dead. Georgiakis was caught and put in gaol.
Reports of dates differ, but in May 1814 he was taken to the bridge at Fatsiadika where he was blindfolded. Georgachi was forced to kneel, then the executioner was ordered to shoot him. The rifle shot pellets which just brushed against his clothes and he was uninjured.
The people believed this may have been a sign from God as they shouted "he is innocent". Georgachi untied his blindfold and fled the scene. The overseer said, "I am sent by the governor to carry out the orders and bury him", so he sent a man to find Georgachi before he could escape and hide.
When he was found a short distance away, he had an icon of Myrtithiotisa with him. The overseer took this off him, then he was again blindfolded and forced to kneel. This time all the officials shot him, and he was killed. Georgachi was buried in the ravine under the bridge at Fatsiadika.
In his will, Georgachi left his land in Agia Anna to a brother, and this is where he wanted to be buried. He gave money to five churches in Alexandrades. He also gave 100 grosia to be given to the poor; 80 of this he specified the recipient, but the other 20 was to be given to the extremely poor and destitute and to be dispersed by Papa Lourantos, the priest at Estavromenos church in Chora. His wife Erini, who was the force behind the murder, was allowed to live in the house with her children for the rest of her life. She was also given plots of land, gardens, and houses. Georgachi asked for his stepfather Stamatis Galanaki to be the guardian of his children until they came of age. Reports claim the execution was on 9 April 1814, but his will was written on 25 April in the gaol in the castle in Chora. The death date listed in the Goudianika church register is 8 May 1814 which is more likely. He was only 32.
His two sons seem to have been quite successful. Panagiotis became a doctor and passed away in 1888, aged 83, and Ioannis was a pharmacist.
Bibliography
Kytherian censuses 1721-1788
Assorted church registers of Kythera from GAK
ΚΥΘΗΡΑΙΚΑ, Γεώργιος Τραβασάρος-Βελονάς. Ο αδελφοκτόνος Νοτάριος Γράφει η ΕΛΕΝΗ ΧΑΡΟΥ-ΚΟΡΩΝΑΙΟΥ.
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