Search

Alexandru Obregia (1860 - 1937) is well known as one of the pioneers of scientific psychiatry in Romania. He was the son and grandson of minor Moldavian boyars, and on his mother's side he had Greek ancestry - Xantopol. His paternal grandfather was căminar Vasile Obregia of Cristeşti (in the former district of Tutova), who was married to Smaranda, the daughter of medelnicer Dumitrache Avram. A brother of Alexandru Obregia's, Anastasie, was also engaged in scientific activity, being professor of chemistry at the University of Iaşi. The learned psychiatrist had two daughters - Maria - Romana, married to General Edgar Rădulescu, and Ana, the wife of the engineer Mihai Portocală, brother of the liberal politician Radu Portocală - and one son, also named Alexandru. A sister of paharnic Alexandru Obregia - the father of the learned psychiatrist - was married to Dr Ludovic Prodan, a member of a family of minor Romanian nobility from northern Transylvania. Dr Ludovic Prodan moved to Moldavia, where he founded a family of intellectuals, among the more recent descendants of which the London - based scenographer Maria Björnson may be noted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]