I am researching my grandfather who was born in Paphos, Cyprus about 1902.He came from Cyprus to South Australia around 1911, but I believe he stowed away on a ship to get here. I have been told that his surname was probably Markou / Marcou and it was changed to Markos.I would be grateful for any suggestions about how to find out more info.

Hi Gregory
Do you know which part of Aus he went?

Janice

Ancestry Admin

Hi Janice,
He went to South Australia. He died in Stepney and used to own a fish shop and a fruit shop. He also owned a 'club' where they served greek coffee (and I believed they gambled there)

Sue

Hi Sue
I need to get this right.

He then left South Aus, and then went to Stepney in East London and set up a fish and fruit shop? so what time scale was this?

Janice

Ancestry Admin

There is a family tree in Ancestry, is it yours?

Gregory John Markos
Residence: 1980 - Mount Isa, Kennedy, Queensland

This is all that I could find.

I would suggest you contact from this page?

http://www.mernick.org.uk/elhs/ELHS.htm

Janice

Ancestry Admin

Hi Janice,

I think I have confused you - he came to South Australia and stayed there until he died 17 Oct 1951 in Bedford Park Sanitorium. He was married in 1927 to Coralie May Ryan and had 8 children; first a daughter then 7 sons.
I am trying to get information about his birth and early life details in Cyprus.
Thank you for you help so far.

Sue

Sorry I am unable to help you,but I am here if you need to come back.

Good luck in your search!

Janice

Australia Death Index, 1787-1985 about Gregory John Markos
Name: Gregory John Markos
Death Date: 17 Oct 1951
Death Place: South Australia
Registration Year: 1951-1955
Registration Place: South Australia
Page Number: 5908
Volume Number: 774

Australia Marriage Index, 1788-1950 about Coralie May Ryan
Name: Coralie May Ryan
Marriage Place: South Australia
Registration Place: South Australia
Registration Year: 1917-1927
Page Number: 970
Volume Number: 310

Hi GreekPom,

From what I've been able to find on the NAA (National Archive of Australia) database, I've located a possible record for National Status which may be your Gregory John Markos. If you search under RecordSearch-basic search in the NAA database you will find:

Markos, G J - National status
A659, 1942/1/5681
Contents date range 1943 - 1943

It'd be best to start with this record, and see what more specific information it gives about Gregory, particularly birth location as Paphos has a number of villages or is it Paphos town he was born at? Hopefully this Nationalisation record will have greater details that will enable you to make your search easier.

I can tell you that his name in Greek is rendered as Grigorios or Gregorios, and since Cypriots almost never had middle names of that generation, you could safely conclude that John was his father's name. All my ancestors and countless of records have this noted to distinguish one Gregory from another, by using their father's name as a middle name.

Gregory's name in Greek most likely would have been, Grigorios Ioannou Markou. Ioannis is the formal version of John in Greek, and Ioannou means son of or belonging to John. In Greek characters his name would be furnished as Γρηγόριος Ιωάννου Μάρκου.

Hope that helps. Moving forwward once you can confirm more details, parents names etc, specific locality/place of birth, you should write to the Paphos BDM advising them to search for your Gregory, providing as many details as possible.

Best Regards,

Anthony

Wow, thanks very much Anthony. I will look into this information this week. My husband's family are English and it has been much easier to trace them. I might contact you again when I try to add all the cousins!!

Sue

No Problem, happy to help.