“A One Way Ticket”

In our research and in interviewing families for their stories, we came across many who attended Marist Brothers as it was called then and prior to that St. Kevins.

Italian migrants are Roman Catholic and we found that migrant children attended St. Anthony’s, St. Charles (which was also a high school in the day. This helped the migrants in one aspect of assimulating by continuing their catholic faith in Australia and in their children. In fact, there is also a religious chapter where we cover the 6 Italian catholic associations formed in the area, the oldest one being Madonna del Terzito in Gladesville operating for over 90 years and Lady of Grace Fraternity, Marsfield will celebrate 70 years in 2025.

I came across an interesting story (Cincotta family) living in Rutledge Street at the time, the boys attended your school for a short time as they moved to Concord. They were so poor that the 2 brothers shared one pair of “good” shoes. So one brother would go to early mass, go home and then give the shoes to older brother and he would attend later mass. Albert went on to start the first Cincotta Discount Pharmacy group.

We also found that many of the descendants are still living in the area.”