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wooden baUs have survived to the present century,^^ indicating that the peasants
adapted traditional wood carving skiUs to this purpose (see chapter Home and Family).
Carved from local hard woods and rasped dovm until smooth, bocce balls became the
property of many famiUes as did a grass bocce pitch. Matches between families were
regular occasions and an opportunity for Italian-speaking families to come together.
Locamo Road, which these viUage dwellers had come to identify as the area of the
Sartori home, was one popular venue.^'
While all this contributed to Maddalena reportedly having a stable and happy
Ufe, things had not been so good for her brother Alessandro, who had experienced
financial difficulty. In 1870 the mine shafts around Piggoreet had swamped with water
causing him to leave the area and move to Derwent Jacks near Linton.^* In 1880, he
had been fined two shillings and sixpence for not sending one of his children to
school,^' apparently ~ in the tradition of agrarian communities ~ keeping him home to
help with the family income. In 1885 the family had moved to Allendale following
another big gold msh but, there too, wealth had eluded them. Alessandro possibly saw
little of his sister Maddalena during these years except when occasions, such as the
death of her husband Giacomo and eldest daughter in October 1891, brought them
together. Mary succumbed to influenza at sixteen years of age, dying just four days
before her father: while escaping the poverty of Ticino had meant greater financial
security, the mimigrants had remained the victims of nineteenth-century medical
ignorance. After nearly 20 years in the Colony Maddalena was thus left a widow with
seven children aged between two and thirteen to raise. Because their extended family
encouraged its members to understand and be able to take over the roles and
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