January-December 2010, vol. 1

antonino and antonio santospiritoof malfa and carltonby tony santospiritoTony Santospirito, born 3 August 1932, is the youngest child of Antonio and Lena Santospirito.He lived with the family at 79 Bouverie Street, Carlton for twenty-one years before moving toNorth Balwyn. Tony attended Xavier College, Kew and after working with Antonio for threeyears, he continued his studies at Melbourne University, graduating in law in 1960. In 1967 hemarried Beverley Toole and they had five children. He worked in the Commonwealth AttorneyGeneral’s Department as a solicitor until his retirement in 1997. Since retiring, Tony hasstudied theology at Yarra Theological College and graduated with a Bachelor of Theology in2007. He has also undertaken some volunteer work and researched his family’s history.author’s introductionThis is a very brief story of my father and my paternalgrand-father. It is limited because of the limits of my knowledge,including the limits of my knowledge of my own father’s lifebefore he was about fifty. By the time I became vitally interestedin the subject, after I retired in 1997, all those who could havetold me much about it were dead. Accordingly, a lot of what Irelate is based on research. I hope others may find the sources Ihave referred to useful.Antonino Santospirito and Giuseppa Lazzaro were married on12 April 1888. The marriage took place at Malfa, a village on theisland of Salina, one of the Aeolian Islands, Italy. Their ages aregiven in their marriage record as 29 and 24 respectively. Thismakes the years of their births 1859 and 1864. Antonino wassometimes called Antonio but I will call him Antonino todistinguish him from their second child, Antonio. Antonio wascalled “Tony” by all who knew him, but I will stay with“Antonio” so as not to confuse him with myself.Antonino’s parents were Basilio Santospirito and Maria DellaChiesa. 1 Judging by the unusual nature of her name it may bethat Maria was an orphan, or perhaps her mother did not wishto reveal her father’s name. Antonino had a brother, Giovanni,who married Giovanna Picone. Giovanni and Giovanna had sixchildren. At least three of these have descendants living inAustralia. They are Giuseppe, who married Maria ConcettaCanestra; Angela, who married Giuseppe Miranda who wasborn on Lipari; and Maria Giovanna who married LorenzoCincotta.Shortly after their marriage, Antonino and Giuseppa went toArgentina. Their first child, Maria, was born there in 1889 or1 Family History Centre: Copy of records, Parish of Malfa, Italy.1890. 2 In those days many Italians went to Argentina forseasonal work, going from farm to farm, and province toprovince, harvesting crops. They then returned to Italy, in April,at the end of the southern hemisphere harvesting season, toattend to their own crops. 3 I do not know why Antonino andGiuseppa did not eventually migrate to Argentina. In any case,at the beginning of 1892, the middle of the Argentiniansummer, they were in Malfa for Antonio’s birth.Antonio Santospirito was baptised on 17 January 1892 atMalfa. 4 I cannot be certain of his birth date. It may have been16 January 1892, if his application for registration as an alien canbe relied on. We always celebrated his birthday on 17 January,but that is not conclusive.It is probable that, in anticipation of Antonio’s birth, Antoninoand Giuseppa had already decided that they needed a morepromising, permanent home to raise their family, and thatAustralia might provide them with the opportunities they werelooking for. Less than four months after Antonio’s birth,Antonino had embarked for Australia at Naples on the shipOruba, and arrived in Melbourne on 7 May 1892. 5Antonino and Giuseppa were among an estimated five millionsouthern Italian emigrants – over one third of the population ofthe south – who left Italy between 1870, the time it became afully united country, and 1914. Four million of these went to theUSA. 6 The rest went to South America, other parts of Europeand several other countries, the furthest from Italy beingAustralia and New Zealand. The Aeolian Islands are remarkable2 Victorian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages: Marriagecertificate, Maria Argentina and Pietro Palamara, 1915.3 Erik Amfitheatrof, The children of Columbus; an informal history ofItalians in the new World (Boston: Little Brown, 1973), p. 159.4 Family History Centre.5 National Archives of Australia (NAA): Naturalisation Papers; File J7223.6 Erik Amfitheatrof, p. 138.6 | IHSJ ITALIAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY JOURNAL VOLUME 18 2010