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A Branch
of Nomikos Family
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The
island Santorini
(Thira), is one of the Cycladic Islands.
Santorinians
from around the middle of the 18th Century got involved into the Hellenic
Merchant Marine development. According to the Naval
(Maritime) Museum Santorini, from 1774, after the end of the Russian
- Turkish war, it became possible for the Greek ships to raise the
Russian Flag to penetrate to South Russia and Ukraine. Thus the Greeks
little by little established their Maritime position, trading mostly
the surplus agriculture products (wine, wheat, cotton) and investing
in Shipping Company's and Transportation Trade. These activities were
profitable and the profits were multiplied as the Greeks took the
risk by carrying mostly wheat. In a very short time the Greek Merchants
and Seamen had made a fortune.
After the Greek Revolution of Independence (1821) the only vital section of the economy in Greece was that of the Mercantile Marine and when
the wheat trade dominated the markets the Greeks had the monopoly in South Russia
and the Black Sea. Around the year 1850 the island of Thira shows an
increase in commercial activity
far more that the rest of the islands. It trades directly with Russia. Almost the
total wine production is being exported there. From Russia they are loading cereals,
part of which was discharged on the island and the rest are being transported by the Thiran Merchants towards France, Italy and England."
One
of the families largely involved in maritime activities from the first
half of the 19th century until our days was Nomikos family.
In
the 20th century after the World War II there appeared some new names
among greek ship owners that became worldwide known - Aristoteles
Onassis(1906 - 1975) and Stavros Niarchos (1909 - 1996), who both
married the daughters of Stavros Livanos (the "patriarch"
of the greek ship owners of the interwar period), and Iannis Latsis
(1910 - 2003).
Iannis Latsis began his career before the World War II as a sailor
on a ship of Loukas Nomikos, who at that time was one of the most
known ship owners. In 1945 he bought his first ship on credit from
the son of Loukas Nomikos, Markos, who had become his friend.
The
descendants of these Greek shipping magnates of the 20th century now
are branching out into numerous other economic sectors. But some descendadants
of the Nomikos family are still continuing the traditional family
maritime business for at least
seven generations.
Even
in a Nomikos family with two daughters and no sons one of the daughters,
Kadio Segala-Nomikos, being a captain's wife, thanks to her own efforts
succeeded to build up a whole fleet. The story is described in the
book "I Pano Meria tou Kosmou" written by her granddaughter
Kadio Kolymba and based on the grandmother's diary.
The
economic independence of santorinians resulting from the mecrchant
marine activities is reflected in the old
bourgeois mansions which still survive in the villages of Santorini
or in other places, like the neoclassical Nomikos' house in Taganrog
(third quarter of the 19th century). Because of its cultural value
it is a
listed building under protection of the Russian state.
It
looks like there were at least two branches of the Nomikos family
in Russia. Kadio Segala-Nomikos in her diary was mentioning the names
of Kolia Nomikos and his son Iannis Nomikos, who owned a factory in
Tagantog. I also had an ancestor Iannis Nomikos in Taganrog, but he
should have been at least half-century older than this Iannis Nomikos.
Kadio Segala-Nomikos was mentioning also other relatives in Taganrog
without references to their names.
