In the shadow of silence. The Gonata boyars in Bessarabia
In the shadow of silence. The Gonata boyars in Bessarabia

Summary/Abstract: Through this article we bring again in the attention of the Romanian historiography the past of a less known Bessarabian family. Gheorghe Bezviconi wrote some things about the Gonata boyars, his studies being the only serious contributions to this matter. Our research disclosed unknown details. We found out that they originated from Thessaloniki, Greece. Constantin Gonata, who was căminar [a collector of financial taxes in Moldavia and Wallachia] in Moldavia, studied in Paris, a fact recently discovered by V.V. Morozan in the Petersburg archives. However, his son, Ştefan, a well-known member of the Romanian Academy, did not study philosophy there, as it was incorrectly known, but agriculture and viticulture. The last bearer of the name Gonata, Natalia, born Gafencu, died in Bucharest in 1949. Last but not least, the Greek Constantin Gonata can represent an example of the way in which foreigners integrated and became a part of the Moldavian society in the 19th century.

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