Pictured are first cousins Yianni Raftopoulos (Bourlotos) and Kalypso (nee Raftopoulos) Sofianos in Kioni, the village in Ithaca from where they were from. The photo was taken before Kalypso migrated to Australia in 1936 where she married Dimitrios Sofianos in Melbourne on 14 February 1937. A sepia photograph of lady and man standing next to a stone house with a partial view of the surrounding countryside behind them.

The lady in the photograph is Kalypso Sofianos nee Raftopoulos. It was taken before she migrated to Australia in 1936. Kalypso was a staunch member of the IPS and in 1995 was made an Honorary Life Member. A faded photograph of a lady sitting on the edge of a bed with a patterned iron bedhead. It has a partial white border around two sides.

Kalypso Sofianos nee Raftopoulos is pictured in the middle. The other women are not identified. The group were photographed in Ithaca, in the village of Kioni, possibly taken shortly before Kalypso emigrated to Australia in 1936.Young people migrating from their homeland to a foreign county and unknown culture left behind family and close friends.A scanned black and white photograph of three women sitting on a stone wall with a stone cottage visible on the RHS of the picture and mountains in the background. A portion of the original photograph was torn on the LHS.

The photograph of Kalypso Raftopoulos (on the RHS of the group) is taken in Ithaca before she emigrated to Australia in 1936. In 1937 she married Dimitrios Sofianos and they had two children, Spiro and Nina. Kalypso and Dimitrios owned and operated a fish shop in Burwood, Melbourne for close to 30 years. A photograph of three women sitting on a rocky hillside overlooking a village and church in the distance. The girl in the middle of the group is waving to someone. There are mountains in the distance.

A young Kalypso Raftopoulos is pictured on the LHS of the photograph. The photograph was taken in Kioni, Ithaca the village where Kalypso grew up in. Kaypso migrated to Melbourne in 1936. A scanned sepia photograph of a lady holding a young child with a young girl on the LHS of the picture. There is a partial view of a stone cottage behind the group and a rough wooden structure which supports grape vines is also behind them.

Kalypso Sofianos (nee Raftopoulos) is standing 3rd from the left in the back row. The others in the group have not been identified. The ladies are all smartly dressed, wearing overcoats and some also wearing hats, indicating that are attending a special function in Ithaca.A black and white photograph off seven ladies dressed in overcoats while some are also wearing hats and standing on a paved area. A priest is standing with the group. They have been photographed in front of a house.

The photograph was taken in Ithaca, possibly in the village of Kioni where those in the photo are all from, hence the term Kiniotes (ie people from Kioni). Pictured from L-R: Diamando (Mando) Raftopoulos , Yianni Raftopoulos (Tsagaris) and Kalypso Sofianos (nee Raftopoulos). The identity of the little girl is uncertain. She could be Tasia Diamond (nee Paizis) the daughter of Nick and Dora Paizis. All in the photo eventually emigrated to Australia and settled in Melbourne. The population of Kioni, and the rest of the villages on Ithaca, began to decline from the beginning of the 20th century. By the 1950s, following the mass migration of the post war and post 1953 earthquakes, the population declined dramatically, leaving only a few hundred permanent residents.A black and white photograph of two ladies, a man and a little girl; standing in front of a hedge with some rocks behind them.

A passport photograph of Nick Vasilopoulos, father of Lula Psiliakos.Nick Vasilopoulos was one of the many Ithacan Greek migrants who settled in Melbourne in the intervening years between the two World Wars. A scanned black and white passport sized portrait photograph of a man.

Eleni Raftopoulos is sitting on the terrace of house in Ithaca together with a young female.A scanned photograph of two ladies sitting in a garden

Christos and Stathi Paizis (in the foreground) are photographed at a property in the Ithacan village of Kioni. A black and white photograph of two men standing in a garden with three other people behind them. They are in a valley and houses are visible on the hillside above them.

A coloured photograph with rounded corners of a man seated in a boat. Harbourside houses can be seen in the distance.

The dwelling belonged to the dentist in the village of Stavros, the main village of the northern Ithaca which services the smaller surrounding villages.With the decline in population in the surrounding villages of northern Ithaca, services such as the dentist and post office are now only available in the main town of Vathi located in the south end of the island. Some services are only provided intermittently by visiting professionals from neighbouring Kefalonia or the mainland.A black and white photograph with a white crinkled border of a house with vines growing across the front. There is a metal gate in front of thew porch.

The photograph is of Ag. Sotiros Church which is built in the traditional Byzantine design and stands in the village square of the village of Stavros in Ithaca. The festival of Sotiros is the biggest on the island taking place over two days, the 5th and 6th of August, and attracts large crowds. Stavros is the largest village in northern Ithaca. The larger villages on the islands hold feast days celebrating the saint of their local church. In the summer months when the island's population swells, these celebrations attract large crowds and generations of Ithacans gather together to enjoy themselves and raise money for their local communities.A black and white photograph with a white crinkled border of an Orthodox Church.

The building in the photograph was the post office at Stavros, the main village in the north of Ithaca. Like many small villages with declining populations, the Stavros post office no longer operates and locals must travel to main town of Vathi to access a post office and other services.The permanent population of Ithaca is approximately 3100 (2016) with the majority based in the main town of Vathi. The population in the 1940s was over 8000. Ithaca's population declined sharply after World War II as a result of immigration and movement to larger cities of Greece. This decline was further exacerbated following the earthquake of 1953 which caused widespread devastation across the island.A black and white photograph with a white crinkled edge of a white rendered house with vines growing across the front. The house has been built close to the road.

The mandolin orchestra was from Ithaca where that instrument along with the guitar is a favourite. The cantada style music of Ithaca is very lyrical and reflects the Venetian influence on the Ionian islands. Evriklia Kolaitou pictured in the middle row on the far right with the guitar. Evriklia later settled in Melbourne. She married to Spiros Kallinikos. Ithaca has experienced various cultural influences as it was under Venetian, French and British rule for periods of time prior to unification with Greece in 1864.A sepia photograph of a mandolin orchestra photographed in front of a building. There are eight women but one of them is a guitarist. Of the seven men three are guitarists and three are mandolin players while the other person is the conductor.

In the photograph Spiros Kallinikos on one of his many return visits to Ithaca. He is mending his fishing nets.Like most of the Greek islands, in the past many Ithacan men were fishermen. Fishing has become a contentious issue in the Mediterranean region and the Ionian Sea and there are ongoing initiatives to preserve ecosystems and biodiversity in the western Mediterranean.A black and white photograph of a man mending fishing nets.

The house was the family home of Yiannis Kallinikos, who was the grandfather of Poppy Doubaris nee Kallinikos. It is in the village of Stavros the largest village in Northern Ithaca. The word Stavros means cross roads.'Patriko' is the Greek word used for family home. Many old family homes in Ithaca have fallen into disrepair and ruin as a result of families having left the island and with each successive generation ownership has become very complicated. A coloured photograph of a stone cottage b y a road side.

The elderly female, Apostolo Raftopoulos, photographed with with her daughter (Anastasia) Tasia Florias and Tasia's then future daughter-in-law Joyia Raftopoulos. Joyia married Bill Florence (Vasili Florias). The male pictured, Bob Florence, is Bill Florence's brother. They were photographed in the village of Platrithia in 1949. Apostolo was from the Vrettos/Floria family from Kolieri/Exoghi and was married to Efstathios Raftopolous (Levendi). Bill and Joyia Florence are the parents of George Florence who owned and operated the Astor Theatre. George is a descendant of one of the early Ithacan families (Raftopoulos, Levendis) who migrated to Australia in the early years of the twentieth century and settled initially in Mildura. Other members of the family arrived later and eventually settled in Melbourne and opened businesses with in the CBD.A black and white photograph of a family group of a man and two ladies standing behind a seated older lady. There is a small house and trees in the back ground. The names of the people are printed across the bottom of the photograph.TASIA FLORIA, BOB FLORENCE, JOYIA RAFTOPOULOS/ APOSTOLO RAFTOPOULOU (LEVENTI)/ PLATRITHIA CA 1949

Pictured is Thalia Paizis (Papadopoulos/Pappas) in Athens together with her cousin Nonda who was the editor of the Athens newspaper Kathimerini. A sepia photograph of a lady and man sitting on garden chairs under a tree. The original photograph has been roughly cut around the edge into an oval shape.

The man in the photograph is Nicholas Koutsouvelis. Nicholas, came to Australia from Ithaca in the late 1800s and in 1922 returned to Ithaca where he married Katerini Chilianis. Together they returned to Australia and settled in North Melbourne and had one son, known by all as Bill Black, who was born in North Melbourne in 1929. A sepia photograph with rounded corners of a man sitting in front of a window on a chair inside a house. There is a wooden plant stand next to him.

A group family photo of the Vlassopoulos family (Kopela) from Lahos taken in 1925 in Ithaca. Eugenia Vlassopoulou (nee Raftopoulou) is pictured with her in-laws and five young children. Her husband, Dimitrios Vlassopoulos, was in Australia at the time. They did not reunite till 1950. Back row L-R: Panos and Eustathios (Stathi) Vlassopoulos. Middle row L-R: Eustathios and Erigoni Vlassopoulou, Eugenia Vlassopoulou, unknown. Front row L-R: Costa, Nikos and Erigoni ( Nitsa ) Vlassopoulos. Prior to migrating to Australia Dimitrios had been to America where he had worked in cafes. He brought with him many ideas which he introduced in his business in Red Cliffs. Stathi, Pano and Costa all migrated to Australia in the 1930; their mother, Eugenia and siblings Erigoni and Nikos in the 1950s. In the early years the family had cafe businesses in Red Cliffs and Hopeton. Like other Ithacans members of the Vlassopoulos family migrated to Australia during the first half on the twentieth century and went on to open businesses in country Victoria and Melbourne. Also like many Ithacan women of that era, the wife/mother remained on the island to raise the children, whilst her husband's travelled abroad for work and to support their families.A black and white photograph of a family group of a man, three ladies, four boys and a little girls. The group were photographed outdoors. Another lady is standing and looking on in the background.kopella

A wedding group photographed outside a cottage in the village of the ‘Kokkoseika’ area of Ag Saranta in 1928. Although unconfirmed, the bride and groom have been identified as possibly Vasiliki Vlassopoulou (Kokkosi) and Panourgo Varvarigos. Kokkosi is the 'paratsoukli' (nickname) of Vlassopoulos families from the village of Ag Saranta. This is a typical early village wedding group photograph in Ithaca where the entire village A black and white photograph of a large group of people photographed outside a house at a village wedding.

Photograph of Gerasimos and Marigo Sikiotis (Scotis) and their young daughter Loula taken in the village of Stavros, Ithaca. They arrived in Australia in 1923 when Loula was aged 2 and settled in Newcastle. Loula married Nicholas Moraitis (Morris) in Newcastle. The family then all moved to Melbourne where they ran a milk bar at 162 Toorak Road South Yarra. Loula and Nicholas had two children, Jim and Andrianna. A black and white photograph of a man and lady and little girl standing on a chair in a garden.

The lady in the photograph is Vassiliki Raftopoulos, Nina and Olga Black's maternal grandmother. A photograph of a sepia photograph of a lady dressed in a long dark outfit. Half of the original photograph has been torn off.

The wedding took place in an Ithacan village some time in the 1920s. Possible location is the village of Exoghi. The bride is Sevasti Sofianou nee Varvarigou. She was the aunt of Niko, Penelope and Evanegelio Raftopoulos. A black and white photograph of a wedding group taken outdoors in hilly country.

The boy in the photograph is a very young Gerry Lucas.A black and white photograph of a young boy. The photograph has been mounted on a dark brown board which has been damaged.

Enjoying an evening in one of Plaka's taverns are Yiannis Raftopoulos (Tsagari), unknown, Chrysaida Paizis and Manto Raftopoulos. A black and white photograph of three ladies and two men seated around a table in a taverna. A mural is on the wall behind them.

The lady seated at the singer sewing machine creating a embroidered handicraft is a young Adamandine (Mandina) Varvaregos. The photo was taken before she migrated to Australia in 1938. She married Nicholas Dracoulis and had five children, Anastasia, Peter, George, Andrew and Phillip. Mandina was very active member of the Society.Up until the advent of the sewing machine handicrafts and dowries were embroidered using linen and cotton fabric and all done by hand. However, in the late 20s and early 30's the SINGER Company came to Ithaca and taught the girls embroidery on the machine. Even in those days there were merchants who travelled to the villages and sold machine made goods for the trousseaus, but most of the dowries consisted of the beautifully crafted work of the women.A copy of a photograph of a lady sitting at a treadle sewing machine in an outdoor area.

The photograph is of the entrance to the Monastery of Panagia Kathariotissa which is situated the south eastern peak of the Homeric Mount Neritos at an altitude of approx 600. The bell tower offers the most commanding panoramic view of the island. Panagia Kathariotissa is the protector saint of Ithaca and every year on 8th September Ithacans from across the island as well as visitors from elsewhere observe the feast day of the monastery. The night before a traditional feast is held in the courtyard, followed the next day, by the litany of the miraculous icon.A coloured photograph of an arched brick entrance with a cross above the arch. Old stone walls are on either side of the entrance with an old white building in the background . A negative accompanies the photograph

The workmen are doing repairs to the arched walkway entrance to the Monastery of Panagia Kathariotissa, a project which the Ithacan Philanthropic Society supported as the Monastery was in need of extensive repairs.The monastery of Panagia Katharon dates back to approx. 1696. According to tradition, the monastery was thus named, because the icon of Virgin Mary was found untouched in burning “kathara”, dry vegetation, bushes, in the exact spot where the monastery was built. The bell tower, where one can view the most breathtaking view of the island and surrounds, was destroyed by the earthquakes of 1953 and was later rebuilt. A coloured photograph of three workmen standing on scaffolding while they lay bricks on an arched open walk way.