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ought social unrest and uncertainty ~ had all combined to force many to consider<br />

emigration. Among those eager to depart for Australia were several members of the<br />

Milesi family.<br />

Giovan Battista Milesi was bom to a farming branch of the family at the tum of<br />

the nineteenth century. In 1825 he married Giacomina* from a nearby Lombard village<br />

Cantaldo,* their endogamous marriage uniting two famiUes of similar cultural and<br />

linguistic heritage and preserving the continuity of peasant life. Following their<br />

wedding in San Ciiovan Blanco's Catholic church, the couple settled in the village<br />

where they raised five sons. ' The tradition in this patriarchal culture was for the bride<br />

to go to Uve in the groom's village. It was also common to postpone the wedding to a<br />

time in the year's farming cycle after the harvest in order to economise on time, even if<br />

this meant the bride was already pregnant.* The eldest Milesi child, Angelo Maria, was<br />

bom three years after the marriage on 14 December 1828 followed by Domenico<br />

Maria on 11 August 1832; a third child Giuseppe was bom on 12 Febmary 1839 and<br />

Sisto Gaetano on 24 July 1842. The youngest child Giovan Battista, who arrived on 5<br />

March 1846, was named after his father. Despite the large workforce provided by<br />

these offspring, the Milesi family was unable to support itself during the disastrous<br />

years of the 1850s and Angelo, the eldest son, decided to emigrate to the <strong>Victoria</strong>n<br />

colony.<br />

As in Ticino, British and German shipping companies had established branch<br />

offices in Lombardy aimed at encouraging emigration to the American ar.J Australian<br />

goldfields. Like Angelo, many northem Italians signed their travel contracts with these<br />

251

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