Post by cressie on May 17, 2007 17:50:33 GMT 10
Sometimes there is some truth in those family stories passed down!
My mother always told me she had a block of land in Castellorizo. “Not a house, just the land”, she said. Her own mother (Anastasia – nee Xanthis) had promised it to her when they migrated from Castellorizo to Australia in 1928. But my mother was the second born daughter so how would this have come about? Why would there be a empty block of land in the family and why would it go to my mother?
Her answer to these questions were: “My mother had an older sister, Xanthi Xanthis who married about 1902 to a Kyriakos Makriargirou. Part of the dowry when Xanthi married was a block of land. Xanthi died in childbirth, along with her first child, within a few years of her marriage. Kyriakos heartbroken, went back to the Xanthis family and gave the block back to the family. When my mother, Anastasia, married her dowry included a home plus this block of land. Mother said the house was to go to her eldest daughter, Maria (later Anastasakis), and the block to me (Panayiota Xanthi Karasavas), her second daughter.”
I told this story to a few family members who had never heard of this block of land. It seemed it might just be a tale passed down, with little substance and with perhaps some confusion by my mother.
But then our Administrator, Nicholas Pappas, kindly produced and transcribed for me my own grandparents dowry contact for their marriage at Castellorizo in 1911. And there it was………
• A completed house to the west of the house of Vasilios Piperoglou in the neighbourhood known as Kavoulaki.
• A plot of land located next to the house of Tzorzi in the neighbourhood known as Pasa.
Other items are listed including 150 English pounds, a gold bracelet, a necklace and personal items.
So here was this block of land as my late mother described, with perhaps some truth in the block being handed back to the family. It would be interesting to find out if this story was entirely correct. Thanks Nicholas for clearing up and putting substance to this old family story!
My mother always told me she had a block of land in Castellorizo. “Not a house, just the land”, she said. Her own mother (Anastasia – nee Xanthis) had promised it to her when they migrated from Castellorizo to Australia in 1928. But my mother was the second born daughter so how would this have come about? Why would there be a empty block of land in the family and why would it go to my mother?
Her answer to these questions were: “My mother had an older sister, Xanthi Xanthis who married about 1902 to a Kyriakos Makriargirou. Part of the dowry when Xanthi married was a block of land. Xanthi died in childbirth, along with her first child, within a few years of her marriage. Kyriakos heartbroken, went back to the Xanthis family and gave the block back to the family. When my mother, Anastasia, married her dowry included a home plus this block of land. Mother said the house was to go to her eldest daughter, Maria (later Anastasakis), and the block to me (Panayiota Xanthi Karasavas), her second daughter.”
I told this story to a few family members who had never heard of this block of land. It seemed it might just be a tale passed down, with little substance and with perhaps some confusion by my mother.
But then our Administrator, Nicholas Pappas, kindly produced and transcribed for me my own grandparents dowry contact for their marriage at Castellorizo in 1911. And there it was………
• A completed house to the west of the house of Vasilios Piperoglou in the neighbourhood known as Kavoulaki.
• A plot of land located next to the house of Tzorzi in the neighbourhood known as Pasa.
Other items are listed including 150 English pounds, a gold bracelet, a necklace and personal items.
So here was this block of land as my late mother described, with perhaps some truth in the block being handed back to the family. It would be interesting to find out if this story was entirely correct. Thanks Nicholas for clearing up and putting substance to this old family story!