Author: MMR

The image above features Remo Berno’s baptism in 1953.
His godparents were Angelina and Vittorio Marchioro.
Photo supplied by the Berno family.

Sandra Semola nee Zampin spoke the words that are in the title of this blog as she reflected on her family and the importance of every one of her siblings having godparents or santoli. Sandra’s parents, Silvano and Amelia (nee Shaw) Zampin, had eight children and each one had different godparents who were mostly members of the first generation of Veneto market gardeners in the Lockleys area.

Sandra’s godparents were Vittorio and Angelina Marchioro and she remembered them:

They were great… we used to go and visit them just up the road here and the family used to go there on Sundays… they all stuck together, everybody had godparents, they all knew each other, and they’d all go to weddings, christenings or whatever parties. Or if Dad had a party in the shed, they’d be there, it was like a big family group… there was plenty of them.

(Sandra Semola nee Zampin, OH 872/44, 27 April 2017, 10)

Second-generation godchildren

In their interviews for the oral history project, second-generation narrators offered memories of significant relationships between families in the Veneto market gardener community, and these included the godparent bonds. Godparents reinforced the close and enduring connections of care between the first generation of market gardener families and created inter-generational bonds which were important for the Veneto families who did not have other relatives in Australia. In the absence of extended family, godparents became aunts and uncles. The role of godparents was the most significant of the internal formal bonds that paesani developed within the early community.

Godparents in the Catholic tradition

In the Catholic tradition, parents select significant adults and ask them to become godparents at baptism and confirmation to provide a loving presence and possible role as guardians in their godchild’s life. In the Veneto culture godparents were known as santole for women and santoli for men. A study of the godparent relationship in Calabrian families in Adelaide, comparatico, identifies a similar “family-type relationship based not on blood or marriage … “spiritual kinship” that connects the family of the child with the family of the godparent.[1]

Selection of godparents

Parents gave considerable thought to the selection of godparents for their children because of the close connections that were expected and would continue with the family.

Vittorio and Angelina Marchioro took the unusual step of choosing an Anglo Australian woman, Irene Destro, as godmother for their first-born son, Johnny. Irene’s husband, Attilio, had emigrated from the same village as Vittorio and had married Irene within a few years of his arrival in Adelaide in 1927. Although not market gardeners, the Destros were neighbours, and as Johnny Marchioro indicates, it was considered an honour to be invited to be a godparent, “When I was baptised, she [Irene] held me for the christening,” (Johnny Marchioro, OH 872/1, 21 July 2008, 28).

The image of the child being “held” suggests trust, intimacy and exclusivity in a role chosen by parents. The Marchioro family showed openness in giving the respected status of santola to an Anglo Australia woman who became a paesana (or a member of the community at Lockleys) through that relationship.

Johnny Marchioro’s godfather or santolo was Pietro Berno who, at the time of Johnny’s birth in 1940, was a single man. Johnny’s parents were asked to be santoli when Pietro and Antonietta Berno’s second son, Remo, was born in 1953.

 

Johnny maintained contact with his santolo even after the Berno families returned to live in Italy in 1969. When Johnny and his family visited Italy for the first time in 1975, he visited Pietro at this home in Riese Pio X.

The birth of children and selection of their godparents reinforced ties within the community that were often maintained beyond childhood.

For example, Diana Panazzolo nee Santin was born in 1951 and her godparents were Alberto and Elvira (nee Carraro) Berno. Diana continued to communicate with her godmother from the time she returned to live in Italy in 1969 until her death in 2013:

We were always brought up to remember them and respect them and give little gifts… She  did the same as well.
(Diana Panazzolo nee Santin, OH 872/27, 18 October 2013, 22).

 Zampin children and some of their godparents

As Sandra Semola nee Zampin said, all of her siblings had godparents who were significant as the individual child grew up. Some of the Zampin family are featured in this next section with quotes from their oral history interviews.

Virginia Rodato nee Zampin remembered her godparents were Marena (Eugenio) and Luigina Zalunardo nee Ballestrin.

Well, they used to visit Mum and Dad quite regularly… I was born and they bought me a beautiful outfit for the baptism, and later on, we still always kept in contact with each other and I used to visit them regularly when I got older. But unfortunately, she died just before I got married.

(Virginia Rodato nee Zampin, OH 872/43, 15 March 2017, 6)

 

 

Another of the Zampin sisters, Bruna Semola recalled that her godparents for baptism were Serafina and Attilio De Pieri who lived in the City of Adelaide and had lived on the mica mines in Alice Springs. (Bruna Semola nee Zampin, OH 872/39, 8 November 2016, 5)

Roma Bordignon nee Zampin spoke about her godparents, Elisabetta and Secondo Tonellato and said,

They were very good friends and we used to go a lot of places together like St Kilda and picnics… and they lived in a train off Frogmore Road…
I was quite jealous of that.
          (Roma Bordignon nee Zampin, OH 872/41, 3 February 2017, 3)

When the last of the Zampin children, Peter, was born in 1953, he had a combination of godparents, Elisbaetta nee Gatto and Secondo Tonellato and Gino and Irma Berno. Sadly Peter was killed in a road accident in 1971.

Baptism godparents and confirmation sponsors

When a child was confirmed at about eleven years, a sponsor was chosen and this role also assumed status within a family. In the following excerpt, Dino Piovesan speaks about the significance of both roles. He uses the general Italian masculine and feminine terms, compare and comare for confirmation sponsors, and the Veneto word, santolo, to describe the godfather relationship:

As far as the Italian community is concerned, that is a very important relationship, because if you ask someone to be compare for you, a sponsor for your child, that person, that family has a special significance after that, and they remain friends forever, shall we say. There was not so much a bond but a special relationship between those who were compare and comare … Gino Berno … was my santolo, the word santolo meant more than the name itself. He was the person to be respected, the santolo.

(Dino Piovesan OH 872/17, 23 September 2011, 11).

Connections within the community

The bonds within the community were continuously strengthened through a range of daily and seasonal interactions. For the Lockleys Veneto group, the most important bonds were the relationships, customs and conduct that stemmed from a collective history, shared language, culture, religious background, location and common occupation.

The majority of second-generation people interviewed for the project clearly remembered their godparents and the strong connections of these chosen adults with their families. The godparent relationship was treasured and respected as a life-long connection.

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Madeleine Regan
11 October 2026

[1] Simone Marino and Giancarlo Chiro, “Family Alliances and ‘Comparatico’ among a Group of Calabrian-Australian Families living in Adelaide, South Australia,” Journal of Anthropological Research 70, no. 1 (2014): 111.

 

Imagine arriving in Adelaide as a young Italian man in 1927! The Depression was beginning and it was difficult to find employment across Australia at the time. The population in South Australia was less than 600,00 and was made up mostly of British people. Only about 1,600 Italians lived in South Australia in 1927, although a large number arrived because The United States of America had restricted the immigration of Italians. But there was widespread prejudice against Italians in Australia at this time. Even the Premier of South Australia advised the Parliament that the state wanted “pure white northern Europeans” rather than Italians. (O’Connor, p 96) [1]

The image in the feature photo shows the cover and a page from Isidoro Ballestrin’s passport issued in Italy in May 1927. It is a photo of the original held
in the National Archives of Australia in Canberra.
NAA: A435,1947/4/2012.

September 1927

On 20 September 1927 three young Italian men disembarked in Port Adelaide. They did not speak English, had very little money in their pockets, no promise of a job or prospects but they were “full of hope.”[2] They had left their families in Valla’ close to the village of Riese in the province of Treviso in the Veneto region. The family, like many others in the region lived in a large household of three generations. Frank Ballestrin, son of Isidoro, remembered his parents talking about 40 members of the extended family living in one house. Poverty was a daily life without much food and  prospects for young men and women were limited in a subsistence existence.

The voyage to Australia

The three men, Antonio Ballestrin, 25 years, and his brother, Isidoro, aged 23 years arrived per the ship ‘Regina d’Italia’ with their cousin, Giuseppe Ballestrin aged 17 years.

We don’t know about their long voyage between Genova and its first port of call in Australia at Fremantle and then, Adelaide and other Australian ports. Fortunately, we can get an idea of the difficult experience through an account written by a Veneto man who had travelled to Melbourne in a sister ship, the ‘Re d’Italia’ in the same year.[3]

The voyage was very, very bad: the food was awful and I was sick the whole time. As everything was rationed for the long arduous journey, we were fed a lot of soup but hardly any pasta, which was awful, and as the ship was loaded with heavy cargo there were almost no individual cabins and my sleeping quarters comprised a very large room of thirty people or more… the seas were very rough and sometimes you couldn’t even eat because the Re d’Italia rocked so much… We were at sea for about fifty days. (De Bolfo, pp 34-35)

Arrival in Adelaide

When migrants arrived in 1927, they had to give the name of a guarantor who could provide access to accommodation and employment for two years because the Government did not want to take responsibility for the new arrivals. The Ballestrins had named Orazio Bonin, who had arrived in Adelaide two years before, as their main guarantor. Orazio had come from Poggiana near Riese and maybe he had had a connection with the Ballestrins from Valla’, also a village in the municipality of Riese. Orazio Bonin would have been a boarder at 213 Currie Street, a boarding house in the west end of the City of Adelaide. He would not have set up the Ballestrins with employment because work was hard to find.

Other Veneti who became market gardeners in the area arrived they called Lockleys in Adelaide in 1927.[4] Six men gave the same address as 213 Currie Street in the City of Adelaide, but they named different guarantors who were living in the boarding house. Others gave the name of Raymond Balestrin  from Spineda, also near Valla’ and was the proprietor of the boarding house at 215 Currie Street for a time.

Early working days

Isidoro Ballestrin

The Ballestrins did not stay for long at the accommodation because they needed to find work. It is likely that they would not have been able to pay board without being paid wages.

When Frank Ballestrin, son of Isidoro, was interviewed for the oral history project in 2008 and 2009, he was able to provide some details about his father’s early weeks in Adelaide:

 In the beginning there wasn’t any work at all.  They lingered around the city there and picked up small jobs, whatever was available.  And I know that at Christmas time at one stage they didn’t have any money for Christmas, so the Government made them sweep the streets and gave them a few dollars just to be able to celebrate Christmas with their friends… My father, Isidoro, went up north, up at Finke, up that area, sinking wells and building fences for the farmers, and actually the [Italian] chappie that he went with – I don’t know who he was – but he hung himself.  And Dad panicked and he got lost, no water, [and a group of Aboriginal people] gradually got him back to life again because he was almost gone.  And then he come down here and I don’t know what he did after that. I don’t know what he picked up after that.  But I know he kept saying about that, it was really horrendous. (OH 872/7)

[Finke is about 1,400 kms north-west of Adelaide]

Antonio Ballestrin

Antonio worked as a labourer near Adelaide before he and his wife, Romilda, leased 4 acres for their market garden on Grange Road, Findon in 1936. When he applied for naturalisation in 1939, he was described as “a hard-working , sober man … respected as a gardener.”

 

Giuseppe Ballestrin

 

Giuseppe Ballestrin, at 17 years old, spent some time in different jobs after arrival. His daughter, Norma Camozzato, remembered one of his first jobs in the Adelaide Hills:

 

I remember him saying how he worked in various places here. But I always remember him saying how he’d have a loaf and fill it up with cherries. They had so many cherries, they were cherry picking up in the hills. And he had so many cherries, [laughs] he probably had diarrhoea…
They were young and they were hungry. (OH 872/37)

The significance of marriage

After seven years, the three Ballestrin men had work – Isidoro and Giuseppe on a market garden at Virginia about 35 kms north of Adelaide, and Antonio elsewhere. They returned to Valla’ with the hope of marrying and raising families in Adelaide. Within eight months, all three men married – Antonio to Romilda Minato, Isidoro to Maria Gina Andreazza and Giuseppe married Cesira Tieppo, all of whom lived close to Valla.’ The three married couples returned to Adelaide and by the 1940s they had all leased land for market gardens in the general Lockleys area.

 The Ballestrin family grows in Adelaide

By the 1940s other members of the Ballestrin family had carried their hope to Adelaide through migration. In 1939, the youngest daughter, Luigia had arrived with her mother. In 1944, Luigia married Eugenio Zalunardo, one of the Veneto market gardeners, and it is possible to see the growth of the Ballestrin extended family in the wedding photo below. Three younger members of the family had migrated to Adelaide by 1939 and surprisingly, their mother Santa Guidolin, aged 65 years, had also made the decision, leaving 4 adult children in Valla.’

 All first-generation members of the Ballestrins, apart from Antonio and Romilda, who did not have children, raised families in Adelaide between the 1930s and 1950s.

99 years and five generations

There are now five generations in the extended Ballestrin family in Adelaide. The first generation were contadini or people who worked the land to cultivate vegetables and only one in the second generation, Frank, worked until retirement in market gardens. Others in the second generation were the first to work outside the family while the third and fourth generations have taken different roles in information technology, hairdressing, architecture, trades, furniture manufacturing and design, construction, and office work, to name just a few.

Frank reflected on his father’s decision to migrate to Australia 99 years ago and his hope for a better future:

It was the best thing he did. He must have suffered over there in Italy because he never wanted to return to live or have a holiday. 99 years ago, my father would never have imagined that his family could have progressed with education and employment – and have a better standard of living here in Australia than what it was in Italy at that time.  

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Madeleine Regan with assistance from Frank Ballestrin
13 September 2026

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[1] O’Connor, Desmond, No need to be afraid: Italian settlers in South Australia between 1839 and the Second World War, Wakefield Press, Adelaide, 1996.

[2] Lina Rismondo nee Marchioro used these words to describe the attitude of her parents, Francesco and Margherita Marchioro who had arrived in Adelaide with their small daughter in 1926. Lina said that new young Veneto migrants, like her parents, began their new life in Australia with hope.

[3] This account is taken from the book, De Bolfo, Tony, In Search of Kings: What became of the Passengers of the Re d’Italia, HarperCollins Publishers, Sydney, 2002.

[4] Altogether 18 Veneto men and one woman arrived in Adelaide between 1926 and 1928 and became market gardeners in the Lockleys area. Apart from the three Ballestrins, there  were Alberto and Pietro Berno and their cousin, Gino Berno; Francesco and Margherita (and baby Mary) Marchioro; Vittorio Marchioro; Angelo Piovesan; Brunone Rebuli; Giovanni Santin; Secondo Tonellato; Eugenio Zalunardo and Silvano Zampin.

Recently while staying in the Veneto region, I met Maria Luisa and Patrizio Carraro. I learned about the history of their family whose members have lived between Riese Pio X in the province of Treviso and Adelaide since 1949.

The photo above features the Carraro family, Venice airport, July 1981.
(Maria Luisa and Antonio were farewelling their parents
and brothers who were departing for Adelaide)
Back: Umberto, Elsa. Front: Antonio, Patrizio,  Michele, Maria Luisa.

The migration experience of the Carraro family

Every family who migrates to a new country has a unique story. The Carraro family story gives a perspective of the complex experience of migration, the challenges of settling in a new country and movements between Italy and Australia. Their story is an insight into what researchers of migration history call a “transnational family.” The Carraros are more than a migrant family; in Australia they became a transnational family because as the years passed, some members lived in Riese Pio X and some were in Adelaide. In a transnational family the members are separated geographically but they maintain constant contact with each other and there is a strong sense of belonging and a shared meaning of family.

This blog outlines the stages in the Carraro family migration story and the process of becoming a transnational family over the years. Umberto (Luigi) Carraro and Elsa Giovanna Alberton were market gardeners in Adelaide during the 1950s and early 1960s and they worked hard and made sacrifices for their children, Maria Luisa, Antonio, Michele and Patrizio.

Umberto (Luigi) Carraro 1914 – 1998

Umberto was born in Riese Pio X on 9 May 1914 to parents who were contadini or small farmers. Although the family owned their home, they leased about two and half hectares and grew crops mainly to feed animals – chickens, rabbits, pigs and the family had a donkey. They also cultivated vines to make wine.

The daughters left home to find work as housemaids for wealthy families so that they could contribute to the costs of the Carraro family household.

The hardship of the war years in Italy

Life in Italy between the wars was difficult especially for large families who relied on the land to survive. When Umberto was in his early 20s, Patrizio said that his father wanted “to improve his economic situation … and he had heard that in Australia, wages were higher.”

Other young men from Riese Pio X, like the Berno brothers and two Zampin brothers, had migrated to Adelaide before World War II and had communicated that there were opportunities to make a living from working market gardens during the mid 1930s. Patrizio stated that another factor that motivated his father to consider migrating in the late 1930s was the rise of fascism in Italy which brought fear and insecurity to people who opposed the political party.

In 1938 Albino Berno, a relative (and brother of Alberto and Pietro who were market gardeners in the Lockleys area) and a friend, Enrico Giacomelli, left Riese Pio X for Adelaide. Umberto had wanted to go with them but unfortunately did not have the money to pay for the trip. He went to work for a period on a farm in Breslau which was a German town at the time.

Migration to Australia

After the war he made the voyage to Australia and arrived on 13 March 1949. He was sponsored by Alberto and Pietro Berno who had been in Adelaide since the late 1920s and worked market gardens in the Lockleys and Flinders Park areas.

Umberto worked for the Berno brothers for a year and later at Michell’s hide factory at Hindmarsh before he formed a partnership with another Veneto man, Gino Silvestri, and they grew tomatoes in 14 glasshouses on land leased from the Kellett family in Torrens Avenue, Lockleys. This was in a market garden area on the southern side of the River Torrens.

 

In March 1955 Umberto decided to visit his family in Riese Pio X, and he also wanted to find a young woman who might be interested to marry him and migrate to Australia. While he was staying with his family, he met Elsa Giovanna Alberton at a fiera or fair in nearby Asolo, and they married on 23 October 1955.

 

 

Elsa Giovanna Alberton, 1929 – 2021

 

Elsa was born on 29^th August, 1929 at Crespignana di Maser, a small village about 10 kilometres northeast of Riese Pio X. Elsa had a twin sister, three other sisters and a brother. Elsa’s father was a carpenter and at one stage worked in Africa to improve the family’s financial position. Her grandmother was a very experienced knitter and contributed to the family economy knitting garments for people and she also worked in the family house. Although Elsa’s mother worked as a knitter (like her grandmother), the Alberton family experienced economic difficulties during the war.

Leaving home for employment

Daughters in the Alberton family worked away from home as housemaids like those in the Carraro family. Often the work as housemaids was organised through a network. In the case of Elsa, a priest in Conegliano (57 kilometres northeast of Crespignana), assisted young women to obtain employment as housemaids. The family does not know how the arrangements were made with the priest, but Elsa gained a job as a housemaid in England when she was 19 years old. She stayed for two years and became fluent in English.

 

Elsa’s  next position was in Milano where she joined her sisters, Luciana and Olga, who were also working as housemaids. Another sister became a nun and the other followed her mother’s work as a knitter while her brother was a carpenter like his father.

 

 

Married life and work in Adelaide

When they arrived in Australia in March 1956, Umberto and Elsa began working together on the market garden at Lockleys and they saw that Adelaide would be a good place to raise a family. He was 41 years and she was 26 years old. At Lockleys, they worked hard in the 14 glasshouses cultivating tomatoes to sell at market.

In 1957, their first child, Maria Luisa was born, and two years later, Antonio was born.

 

 

 

In 1960 Umberto and Elsa and the two children moved to Kesters Road, Parafield (later Para Hills) because the land at Lockleys was sold for housing development.

They bought 2 hectares and worked hard to establish their market garden; rebuilt the 14 glasshouses, dug a bore, erected a large water tank and built a house. They grew mainly tomatoes and some ‘outside’ vegetables like cucumbers and celery. They had a family vegetable garden and raised chickens, rabbits and pigeons for eating.

 

 

 

 

Umberto and Elsa worked the market garden at Parafield/Para Hills for 4 years and sold their produce through an agent, Mr Bishop, who took it to the East End market to sell.

Return to Italy, 1964

Patrizio explained why the family returned to live in Italy:

“In 1964 my parents and Luisa and Antonio moved back to Italy [because] my father had heart problems and could not work hard anymore, and profits in market gardening were in decline. I believe they were happy to return after many years of hard work, sacrifices and [they] were looking forward to returning to Italy.”

In Riese Pio X, Umberto and Elsa bought land and built a house with the goal of starting again. They cultivated corn and wheat crops and had a small contract to raise calves, and they also grew vines for making wine.

The family expanded in Riese – in 1967, Michele was born, followed by Patrizio in 1971.

Luisa finished high school in Castelfranco Veneto and became a fashion pattern maker and worked for fashion companies.  Antonio also completed high school and completed his apprenticeship as a welder and fitter and turner. He was creative and enjoyed blacksmithing in his spare time.

A transnational family – 1981

In 1981, when Umberto was 67 years old, he and Elsa made a big decision to return to Adelaide with Michele and Patrizio. Maria Luisa remembered that her parents “decided to show Australia to their two children born in Italy and have them learn the English language for a while.” At this time, Maria Luisa and Antonio remained in the family home at Riese Pio X as they both had permanent jobs. Umberto and Elsa settled in Seaton and Michele and Patrizio completed their schooling. The family had a vegetable garden and Patrizio remembered that his parents mixed with other Veneti in Adelaide.

Changes in family circumstances

In 1983 at the age of 24 years Antonio became very unwell and Elsa went back to Riese Pio X with Patrizio for some months. Elsa and Umberto decided that it would be best if Antonio returned to Adelaide for medical treatment. Although Maria Luisa remained in Riese Pio because of her employment, she spent some time in Adelaide when Antonio was ill. The family was devastated when Antonio died in 1984, and they received support and care from their Veneto friends and friends from other regions of Italy in Adelaide.

Both Michele and Patrizio completed Year 12 in Adelaide and studied at university – Michele became an Engineer and Patrizio studied Agriculture Science and Economics.

Another change in the family circumstances in Adelaide occurred when Umberto died in 1998. The following year, Elsa returned to live in Riese Pio X with Patrizio. Michele remained in Adelaide because he had a good job.

 

Elsa continued to live in Riese Pio X and enjoyed spending time with her family, relatives and friends. She died in 2021 aged 91 years.

 

 

Belonging

Today, Maria Luisa and Patrizio live close to each other – in Castelfranco Veneto and Riese Pio X – and meet up very often while Michele lives in Adelaide. As a transnational family, they continue to maintain contact with each other and communicate regularly via WhatsApp. In 2025, Michele visited his sister and brother. Maria Luisa has returned to Adelaide 8 times and sees herself as half Australian half Italian.  Patrizio is very informed about the news in Australia and sometimes people think he is more Australian than Italian because he spent his formative years in Adelaide.

Maria Luisa, Patrizio and Michele are fortunate that their mother kept a detailed record of family experiences through photographs. The Carraro family has a very large collection of photos that document the history of the family beginning with the two sets of grandparents in the Veneto region and the movement of family members between Riese Pio X, Adelaide and Riese Pio X over more than 70 years.

The legacy of Umberto and Elsa

Patrizio said that his parents taught their children “old values like honesty and [the importance of] helping other people who are struggling. [We learned] to be polite especially to old people, and to respect every person.” Umberto and Elsa believed in being good citizens in both Riese Pio X and in Adelaide – they supported their children and passed on a strong sense of the meaning of family.

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Madeleine Regan with assistance from Luisa, Michele and Patrizio Carraro
9 August 2026

All family photos provided by the Carraro family – other images, as stated in captions.

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References

• Budginaitė-Mačkinė, I., Albert, I., Schrooten, M., Stanojević, D., & Wojtyńska, A. (2026). “Defining transnational families across countries and time: an analysis of academic discourse on the phenomenon between 2003 and 2023,” Journal of Family Studies, 32(1), 9–28.
• National Archives of Australia, NAA SA1954/4081, Declaration of Intention (to apply for Naturalization)
• Notes provided by Patrizio and Maria Luisa Carraro and discussion with  Maria Luisa, Michele and Patrizio.