Constantin Georges Antoine Demetre ‘Kostia’ (Anton) Vlasto & Ludmila de Nittey

Family Group Sheet

NameConstantin Georges Antoine Demetre ‘Kostia’ (Anton) Vlasto, GGGG Grandson

Birth17 Oct 1883, Rue de Naples, Paris 8ème, France

Death28 Oct 1967, Bourron-Marlotte, Seine-et-Marne, France

Burial1967, Russian Orthodox Cemetery, Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, Paris, France

Residence1883, Rue de Naples, Paris 8ème, France

Residence1931, 3 Boulevard Jules Sandeau, Paris, France

Residence1905, Liège, Belgium

OccupationCivil Engineer.

OriginRepudiated French nationality 1905. Described as of Greek nationality in a 1931 US immigration document.

Note 1Dimitris Vogiatzis, quoting the French aeronautical magazine L' Aero, says Kostia had a French Aeroclub balloonist's license and so was perhaps the first known Greek balloonist.

Note 2He appears to have been attached to the Greek Aviation detachment during the First Balkan War, perhaps as an aide-de-camp and as a battlefield guide for journalists such as his brother Stephane (pseudonym Etienne Labranche) of ‘Les Temps’.

Note 3In 2015, historian Nikos Karabelas published a major study of Kostia Vlasto: ‘Etienne Labranche & Kostia Vlastos. Two war correspondents of Le Temps in Preveza during 1912-13’.

Note 4“... issue d'une famille de banquier grec installée en Roumanie. Durant la guerre des Balkans 1912-1913, ayant son brevet de pilote, il s'engage à 29 ans dans l'armée grecque, pour libérer la terre de ses ancêtres...

Note 5... Puis lors de la Première Guerre mondiale, il devient correspondant pour le journal français Le Temps sous pseudonyme d'Étienne Labranche.”

Note 5He and his wife were in Port au Prince, Haiti, in 1931 (sponsor Mrs M. Franckel) before sailing to France via New York. They had been in the USA in 1929 and he spent 3 months in the Savoy Plaza Hotel New York in 1928 having sailed in the Isle de France.

FlagsArgenti, Cantacuzene, Caralli, Coressi, Dwerniki, Giustiniani Fi, Kaplanoglou, Maximo, Petrocochino, Ralli(Chaviara), Rodocanachi, Scanavi, Vlasto, Zafiropoulo, Zarifi

FatherAnton ‘Antoine’ Dimitri (Dimitri) Vlasto (1853-1942)

MotherTheresa ‘Tarsi’ (George) Zarifi (1860-1919)

Marriage7 Jul 1930, Lausanne, Switzerland

Married MemoMarried very discreetly.

SpouseLudmila de Nittey

Birth27 Sep 1902, Kiev, Ukraine

Death9 Oct 1989, France

MemoProbably

Burial1989, Russian Orthodox Cemetery, Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, Paris, France

Residence1926, 22 Avenue Carnot, Paris, Franc e

MemoLiving there with her husband Dimitri de Watazzi.

Residence1931, 3 Boulevard Jules Sandeau, Paris, France

OriginRussian. Described as of Greek nationality in a 1931 US immigration document.

Note 1George Vassiadis correctly suggested she may have been of Baltic/Russian origin. She divorced Dimitri de Watazzi, a cavalry captain, but not before 1926 when she went into business with Jean-Nicolas Tamvaco and others.

Note 2Her father or her brother may have been the Leon de Nittey, recorded on the same tomb as Ludmila, who died 21 Mar 1978.

Note 3New York Social Diary web pages ‘Resort Life: Chapter XXVI, 1964-1965’ picture Ludmilla Vlasto in the company of American socialites and Collette Molière at or near Fontainebleau, describing her as the founder of the Théâtre la Bruyère.

Note 4New York Social Diary web pages ‘Resort Life: Chapter XXVI, 1964-1965’ also pictures an Alex Nitty on the same occasion and photographs of Ludmilla’s house and garden at Maillot, once owned by Cézanne.

Note 5Who was Alex Nittey pictured in the same context as Ludmila in 1964/65?