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The railway age · Emigration

On the Patris to Chicago: Mila and Stavros Kouvalis

24 April 1911 Proven

Zacharia Mila (38) and fifteen-year-old Stavros Kouvalis sailed from Piraeus on 4 April 1911 on the Patris, the first Greek liner to New York, and arrived twenty days later. Both were going to Angelos Kouvalis, Stavros's brother and Mila's brother-in-law, at 417 North Wells Street, Chicago. The list gives "Kalamaki, Myli" as home and "Kalamakion" as birthplace, the oldest written mention of the hamlet we have.

Read the full story: From Kalamaki to Chicago

Where
Kalamaki, Myloi (the village)
Who
Zacharia Mila, Stavros Kouvalis, Angelos Kouvalis
Threads
Emigration
Certainty
Proven confirmed by primary sources

Pictures

  • The passenger list of the Patris, April 1911, lines 25–26: "Mila, Zacharia, 38" and "Kouvalis, Stavros, 15". Below: their families at home, "his wife Marigo" and "his father Johannis", both in "Kalamaki, Myli, Greece", and their destination: "Ill. Chicago".

    The passenger list of the Patris, April 1911, lines 25–26: "Mila, Zacharia, 38" and "Kouvalis, Stavros, 15". Below: their families at home, "his wife Marigo" and "his father Johannis", both in "Kalamaki, Myli, Greece", and their destination: "Ill. Chicago". NARA T715, via FamilySearch

  • The back of the same sheet. Mila had been in the United States before ("yes, 1902–1906, Chicago, Ill.") and was going to "his brother-in-law Angelos Kouvalis, 417 N. Wells, Chicago Ill." For Stavros: "the same, as above".

    The back of the same sheet. Mila had been in the United States before ("yes, 1902–1906, Chicago, Ill.") and was going to "his brother-in-law Angelos Kouvalis, 417 N. Wells, Chicago Ill." For Stavros: "the same, as above". NARA T715, via FamilySearch

Sources

  • New York, Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island), 1892–1925, NARA microfilm T715, via FamilySearch / Statue of Liberty – Ellis Island Foundation: Patris, arrived 24-04-1911, list 1, lines 25–26 (ID JJ29-NX7, JJ29-NM9) Open

Also in this period

  1. 1890–1944

    Born in Kalamaki, buried in America

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  2. 1902

    Zacharia Mila, the first known emigrant, goes to Chicago

    Zacharia Mila from Kalamaki leaves for Chicago in 1902, which makes him the earliest emigrant from Myloi and Kalamaki we know of. He works there until 1906 and then returns to his wife Marigo in Kalamaki. We know this…

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  3. 1906

    Andes Candies: a founder from Myloi or from Achladokampos?

    In 1934 the New York Greek daily Ethnikos Kiryx wrote that Andreas G. Kanelos (Kanellopoulos), founder of the Andes Candies shops in Chicago, "comes from Myloi of Argos" and arrived in America in 1906 at the age of…

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  4. 1909–1914

    Young men from "Myli" and "Mylous" on the Ellis Island lists

    A search of about 10,300 Ellis Island records found some twenty Greek travellers who gave Myli, Mylous or Milon as home, most between 1909 and 1914. They were mostly single men of 17 to 27, sailing from Patras or Piraeus…

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