The Great Depression:your grandparents? annec dotes? (1 Viewer)

[limbs_may_fall]

Hey,
Im writting a story about my grandfather and his experiences during the depression, (leaving home at 14 to find work in the country to support his family) to him playing first grade with the Balmain Tigers, fire officer and other aspects of his life.

Im interested to know if YOUR grandparents or other relatives had similar harsh experiences, (im mainly focusing on the depression era) or overcame adversity to acheive success during such times.

You know what im after, the typical "back in my day" experiences. This is all research so i'll quote and reference you in my journal. So do pop or gran proud and post a bit of their life story right here.

Cheers!!

 

[goldendawn]

This is not directly related to the Great Depression Era in Australia, but it deals with similar issues through the lens of the immigrant experience. I hope it helps - I also hope I remember it all correctly. I will post this now, but I will also consult relatives and make adjustments if need be - if you want to, you can ask me for more specific information via PM.

My mothers family came to Australia from Greece in 1952. Greece had just emerged from four hundred years of Ottoman control, from the desolation of the World Wars (including occupations by Italy, Germany and Bulgaria), from the Balkan War, and from civil war (one of my ancestors procured the alias "spitfire", because she worked as a spy for the Greek resistance, and fought against the Ottomans during the occupation). Greece was left destabilised. There was much poverty; and in many places, the threat of violence. My grandfather Dimitrios Kechaigias was afraid of being captured and imprisoned by the "junta", the military police. He left the village in Corinth with his wife, and their two children as well as nine of his siblings (one of the children was my mother, who was nine years old at the time). After WW2, the developed countries, e.g: America, Canada, Australia, were accepting immigrants from Europe at this time as part of their own repopulation, and to assist the starving Europeans.