My wife's ancestors - Vassal - Contents

Vassal of Syros, Greek islands

Vassal are probably a French merchant family living in Greece

[Maltass, 1892] says Anne Vassal was, like her husband Jacques Icard, French, and of La Ciotat, near Marseille.
However [1748 document] describes her as "Anne de Syra".
Syra or Syros is a Greek island in the Aegean Sea (see map).
Syros was under Ottoman rule from 1522 to 1827.

If Anne was from Syros, does this indicate she was Greek, not French?
The surname "Vassal" suggests no.
If [Maltass, 1892] is right about the surname, she must be from a French merchant family living on Syros, and not Greek by ancestry.
Vassal would be, like Icard, one of the Western European merchant families that lived for generations trading in the Ottoman Empire.

Anne Vassal,
of Syros, a Greek island in the Aegean Sea.
She mar pre-1725 to Jacques Icard and had issue.

Syros (Syra) in a book of 1717.
From p.2 of Relation d'un voyage du Levant by Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, vol.2, 1717
See full size.

Syros (Syra) in a book of 1837.
From p.36 of Syria, the Holy Land, Asia Minor, etc. by John Carne, vol.2, 1837.
See full size.

Extract from [Maltass letter, 1892].

Syros on Wikimedia Commons
- Old pictures of Syros
Syros tourism site
- Syros tourism videos

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