Marino Lucas - Migration

Migration

In 1886, Marinos left Ithaca shortly after his brother Anthony JJ Lucas. Their destination - Melbourne, Australia. In the 1932 obituary for Lucas that appeared in The Herald newspaper (now the Melbourne Herald Sun), reference was made to the fact that a relative of Marino's had visited the country and returned to Ithaca with tales of great potential in the distant land. This relative was most probably Andreas Lekatsas. Andreas Lekatsas had arrived in 1845, only 10 years after the foundation of Melbourne in 1835 by John Batman.

Odysseus was said by Homer to be the leader of the "Kefallinians", the literal interpretation of which is given as an explanation as to why modern inhabitants of the islands have a keen interest in travelling to other countries.

It is likely however that the primary reason for their emigration from the island was its somewhat unstable political situation during those times.

Ithaca had been under Venician control until defeat by Napoleon in 1797, when it transferred to French rule. The French were subsequently succeeded by the Russians and Turks in 1798. In 1809, Ithaca was then subject to English rule under the auspices of the “United States of the Ionian Islands” plan. It was thus governed by a Constitution imposed in 1817. During English occupation, the Ithacecians participated in the War of Independence of 1821, joining the Hellenic Revolutionary fleet against the Turks.

The English 'occupation' of the Ionian Islands lasted until 1864. In that year Ithaca was finally liberated and, with the other Ionian Islands, became a part of the New Greek State. The nearby island of Corfu was at the time home to families of the current Prince Philip of Great Britain. The first monarch of this new Greek dynasty George I, King of the Hellenes, was actually Danish. At his enthronement in Copenhagen in 1863 attended by a delegation of Greeks, it was announced that the British government would cede the Ionian Islands to Greece in honor of the new monarch.