06 April, 2015

E is for Emigrant



E is for Emigrant.



Before the turn of the twentieth century my grandfather, Cosmas Papagiorgiou, was born on a hilly outcrop in the village of Palechori in the region of Pitsilia, Cyprus.  Not a lot would grow there – except rocks and disgruntled sons.


 
Palechori, Pitsilia, Cyprus.


He was driven away by a sociopathic older brother and the ambivalence of his bitch of a mother, Madeleine, when he was thirteen (he was away from home, alone in Larnaca for a year!) and he left Cyprus permanently in his early 20s, seeking a life off the barren land and away from all the misery.  

Cosmas' father and older brothers,
all dressed up and smiling for the photo.


His options were Russia or Australia.  He chose the latter (warm and sunny) over the former (bleak and grey). Apparently he was impressed by the Australians he'd met while he was in Egypt who he'd found to be aristocratic and refined... 



Although Papou (for that is what we call "Grandpa" in Greek) and his family hadn't had a great time under British occupation (we had cousins who were terrorists/freedom fighters – depending on which side of the conflict you stood) I would've thought coming to a former British colony might've put him off, but the time he spent in Egypt amongst the European colonials  ­­– "upper class" and pretentious – I suspect made going with devil you know a more attractive proposition.


Papou in 1921 on arrival in Australia.  Seriously.

Anyway.  Papou eventually arrived in Australia in 1921.  He worked tirelessly building trainlines and down saltmines to provide security to bring out his brothers  in 1925 (no one spoke a word to him for the first six months, not one word) and in 1928 he crossed over to New Zealand and with the purchase of Kilburnie Fish Supply began to build what would become an empire of sorts designed to support and sustain himself and his brothers and their families into the future.



He travelled back to Athens, Greece to find a wife in 1929.  Sophia (nee Maheras), turned 18 as she disembarked from the boat at Wellington Harbour.  She was sweet and fun loving, educated and refined and blessed with a moral compass of unshakable strength.  Where Papou was hard edged and unyielding she was loving and kind.  They complemented one another completely.



In 1935 a mysterious* family feud caused Papou to pack up his wife and two small children and leave everything he had built in Wellington.  He started again in Melbourne and in the mid 1950s he even formally ditched the family name:  Cosmas Papagiorgiou became by deed poll John Cosmas. 



And thus his emigration was complete.





*All the parties who were alive at the time of the feud are now deceased, so we're unlikely to ever know what happened.  What we do know is that when my brother was born and it was suggested he be named after Papou's younger brother, Peter, my grandmother shut down that suggestion very promptly saying that Cosmas would not approve at all.  And nothing more was to be said about it!  Perhaps the key lies there.


2 comments:

  1. I did NOT know you were New Zealish... you don't talk funny!

    I love a bit of family intrigue and skeletons in the trunk... so many fascinating possibilities

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  2. Well, we're not REALLY New Zullush, coz Dad and Aunty Mad were born here. Uncle John and Aunty Ethel were born across the ditch… I do have my suspicions about what might've come to pass in the feud,but it's all guesswork and supposition. So unsatisfying to never know. Might need to find a good medium one day...

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