About Bitushe
taken from the book Lerin in Mourning by Atanas Tane Naumovski available courtesy of
Pollitecon Publications
Bitusha had its name forcibly changed to Pararion. It is
about 10-11 kilometres to the north of Lerin. It is on the
ridge of Baba Mountain on the periphery of the Pelagonia
plain. It is 21 degrees 22 minutes longitude and 40 degrees
52 minutes latitude and 620 metres above sea level and has
an area of about 6 square kilometres.
The village borders on the following: to the west Rakovo, to
the northwest with the village Opsirino, to the north with
Sveta Petka, to the east Dolno Kleshtino and to the south
with Gorno Kleshtino.
In 1945 there were about 560 residents in the village and all
of Macedonian background.
The residents were employed in agriculture, raising
livestock, timber getting and other trades and necessary
occupations.
Family Names of Bitushe Inhabitants
Here is a list of family names which at one point lived in Bitushe (although it is NEVER complete).
In the first column is the original Macedonian version of the name. In many cases individuals and families that have emigrated to other countries have had their
names 'localized' to the local language (in Australia/Canada/USA they have been shorted - Ivanov to Evans, Branov to Brown). In the European countries they have
adjusted to include "-ski" or "-sky" (examples are Popovski from Popov, Mangovsky from Mangos).
In the second column is how it would be written in Macedonian (NOTE: you will need to have the "MAC C Times" Truetype font installed on your system to properly read it. For
more information on how to get this done please visit Biser Balkanski - How To Install Macedonian fonts on your computer .
The third column is the Hellenized (ie. "Greek") version assigned by the Greek government in the years which followed the Treaty of Bucharest in 1913. In a majority of the cases
the changes did not appear until after 1920. In many cases as with the village names, an attempt was made to spell the last names in the Greek alphabet sound-for-sound but it
was later decided to make them sound more "Greek" (examples were "Dimov" to "Dimopoulos", "Iliev" to "Iliadis").
For those unaware, the Treaty of Bucharest "divided the spoils" of Macedonia amongst the three neighbouring countries - Bulgaria, Greece, and Serbia.
Amongst the worst of what was to follow happened in Greece - family names were given "Greek" versions, village names were renamed, churches were re-Christened
under Greek saints, tombstones and epitaphs along with any visible signs of the Macedonian language were erased and re-written in Greek.
| Original Macedonian Name | Po Makedonski | Hellenized Version |
|---|
| We have no data of family names for the village : Bitushe |
Thank you to everybody who has contributed to the various lists. If you would like to add your family
please email me at tedn@macedonianvillages.com and specify the village and a list of family names.