Although today the word ‘dowry’ means little, if anything, to new generations of Greek Australians and the western world, prior to this century, particularly during the 1900s, a prenuptial dowry contract was an old and widely accepted custom, present in many cultures around the world, including Greece.
“A dowry agreement or proikosymphono was a ‘promise’ of transfer of parental property, gifts, money, and generally wealth from the bride’s father to the candidate groom or his family, ostensibly for the bride,” says Spiros Sarris, an Adelaide-based archivist and genealogist who will be presenting a talk titled ‘Greek Dowry Contracts (Proikosymphona) and their Importance in Family History Research’ this month as part of Greek Cultural Month 2018.
Dowries are notarial deeds which document formal recognition of dowries and uphold their validity in any legal (or matrimonial) dispute, as the Benaki Museum quotes. The dowry contract document itself is also a rich source of valuable family history information especially about the betrothed couple and their respective families, the witnesses and the public notary themselves.
In Greece, the dowry agreement constituted an official document drawn up in two copies, one for each party, in the presence of an office clerk or a priest, and detailed the various financial commitments which would be transferred to the future groom by the father of the bride, should he accept to marry his daughter.
These documents, written on high quality paper, were more often than not the only avenue to secure a good marriage in Greece. For most young Greek girls of the era being discussed, a good προίκα together with a profile photo of the future ‘bride’ could also guarantee one ‘golden’ ticket to set out for Australia and get married there.
“My pappou had to sign off and post the dowry agreement he had prepared from Rhodes all the way to Australia for my father to sign, before he allowed my mother to embark on her journey to Australia as his bride-to-be,” remembers Chris Despotakis whose mother migrated to Australia in 1958.
The dowry agreements were legally abolished in 1983, but they remain a form of document of considerable interest to genealogists and family historians because of their direct link with the institution of marriage and of the dowry property itself.
“Irrespective of whether the contracts are valid these days, the structure, language, and contents used in the agreement, as well as in other similar documents and photographs, together with expired passports and birth certificate extracts, form the documentary basis of our migrant family history and give us a priceless connection to the past and a treasure to pass on to our children and their offspring,” says Sarris, who decided to research his own family history indepth in 1971 when he visited Sianna in Rhodes, where he was born and spent the first six years of his life.
“While exploring the family home where my maternal grandfather lived for nine decades, I discovered an abandoned, nondescript, wooden treasure chest, dusty and neglected, which displayed signs of the passage of time. I suspect that it had belonged to my late maternal grandfather who was the village’s priest and had passed away in 1968 at age 90.”
Inside the dusty chest, Sarris discovered a plethora of ‘official documents’ and certificate butts issued by both the church and municipal offices of the village. The documents, dating from the 1890s to the mid-1960s, related to baptism certificates, marriages, deaths, and so forth.
“One document – quite possibly my maternal grandmother’s birth certificate – is written in Ottoman script (pre-1912) while some other documents are written in Italian, dating from the Italian occupation (1912–1943).
“I am convinced that my grandfather would have known how important these documents were, and that’s the reason why he stored them away for so many years,” says Sarris, who also came across several documents belonging to the church and the Office of the President of Siana village, such as certificates of baptisms, marriages, deaths, and some photos.
“In fact, one of them, from 1912, is written in Ottoman script, while others in Italian because, at the time, the Dodecanese Islands were under Italian occupation,” says Sarris who amongst all the paperwork also found his parents’ marriage certificate, the dowry agreement, and their marriage licence accompanied by certificates of the couple’s celibacy.
“Being an archivist, genealogist, and a family historian, I am very used to dealing with old and fragile documents and conducting research for others, however, researching and documenting my own family history is another matter altogether. There is a different level of excitement when dates and documents are discovered,” says Sarris.
Although original documents and photographs from the early 1900s are relatively scarce and often in a rather poor physical condition, the historian was pleasantly surprised to observe how much of the material was in a relatively good condition.
“There is more dust to be removed, more documents and dowry agreements to discover, more dates to record, more photographs to examine and I hope that by sharing my experience, I will encourage and inspire others to search for their own families’ hidden treasures and as a consequence shed more light on Australia’s Greek migration history,” he said.
“After all, these are our stories and this is our journey of discovery which shall continue.”
‘Greek Dowry Contracts (proikosymphona) and their Importance in Family History Research’ is presented by the Ellin Corporation on behalf of SACGCM Inc on Wednesday 9 May at 7.00 pm at the Greeks of Egypt and Middle East Society Hall, (56 Richmond Road, Keswick, SA). For bookings contact Spiros Sarris on 0404 145 455 or email: spiross@adam.com.au or spiros@ellin.com.au