Family ties

After analysing records of migration from the Greek Aegean Islands to the English-speaking world, he discovered a long-lost ancestor his family knew little about.

Yianni’s great-great grandfather Ioannis (John) Gronthos migrated from Ikaria, Greece, to South Australia in 1911 with his brother, brother-in-law and nephew.

Arriving at Port Adelaide and settling in Port Pirie, John worked at the BHP smelters and became a naturalised Australian citizen in 1929 – which was news to Yianni’s family.

Yianni discovered that John had returned permanently to Greece in the 1930s. Twenty years later, John’s son migrated to Australia with his children – who included Yianni’s grandfather.

Yianni – who is also a language teacher – has dedicated his PhD to unearthing the migration history of Greek communities in the English-speaking world in hope we can better understand how communities came to be and the challenges they faced.

Ioannis (John) Gronthos.

“These migrations are part of my own personal history,” he says. “We’re a multicultural nation so at some point all of us are going to take some interest in where we came from.

“(History) grounds us in an understanding of our current world and our current context. Learning more about history helps us make more sense of the world.”

Leaving people and places behind, integrating into Australian society and building new communities are key experiences Yianni hopes to uncover.

 “The idea of people willingly or sometimes forcibly leaving their homes is maybe something we take for granted,” he says.

“Nowadays, the world is globalised so travelling and moving around is easy. That’s something I think that sticks and resonates with me – the finality of leaving your home and the voyage of that experience. The desperation, exploration and the hope for a new life is very interesting to me.”

Yianni’s historical exploration has not come without its challenges. He says one of his greatest hurdles has been accessing archived records such as shipping registers, migration papers and naturalisation files.

These records are stored in places such as the National Archives Australia (NAA), National Library of Australia, and State Records of South Australia, as well as libraries and archives in the UK.

During his candidature, Yianni collaborates with his supervisor Professor Andrekos Varnava to create completion plans and goals, share resources and check in on wellbeing.

“My PhD supervisor was my supervisor through my Honours degree, and I kept him on as my main supervisor for my PhD,” he says.

“We share an interest in this field but from different angles, therefore he was able to help me find the gap in the literature where my work will hopefully fit in.

“It really is a lesson in time management, and to be able to break a large project into smaller, manageable (bite-sized) sections.”

Beginning his Flinders University experience in 2013, Yianni studied a Bachelor of Education (Middle/Secondary Schooling) and a Bachelor of Arts (Modern Greek/History/English) combined degree.

By 2017 he had graduated and went on to become a teacher before completing Honours (History) in 2018.