Individual Details

Birth

Birth year estimated at 20 years prior to dowry contract date of 1864

Marriage

Metropolis of Sparta, Marriage Index Book
Book: Sparta, 1860-1866; Year: 1864; Entries 163-170
Entry #165
License Date: July 10, 1864
Marriage Date: not given
Groom: Nikolaos Kanakakos; no father listed; residence: Sikaraki
Bride: Marigo Kavvouri; father: P., residence: Agios Ioannis
Church Name: Koimisi tis Theotokou
First marriage for both bride and groom

Image DSC_189
Photographed by Carol Kostakos Petranek, July 2017

Contract

Contract 463, 11.7.1864; Notary, Konstantinos Dimopoulos,Volume 12.1.2
Kanakakos, Nikolaos Athanasiosof Agios Ioannis,463/11.7.1864  - Dowry
http://arxeiomnimon.gak.gr/browse/resource.html?tab=tab02&id=197332
 
Contract 463, 11.7.1864, Dowry and Notary Deed
On this day, 11 July, Saturday, at 12:00 noon of year 1864, came before me, Konstandinos Dimopoulos, notary and citizen of Sparta, to my home and office, being east of the Church of Evangelismo of Theotokos,1  Panagiotis Kavvouris, estate owner and farmer of Agios Ioannis of Sparta on one hand, and on the other Nikolaos Athanasiou Kanakakos, farmer and citizen of the neighborhood, Sikaraki, of Agios Ioannis of the municipality of Sparta; both are familiar to me and of legal status. In my presence and the witnesses,they sign this dowry contract after my explanation of the laws.
 
Panagioti Kavvouris makes an agreement with Nikolaos Athanasios Kanakakos to give Nikolaos his daughter, Marigo, as his legal wife according to the holy rules of the Orthodox Church. The groom takes from the maternal and paternal legacy: 2 
 
1.  Two tall fezes (kind of traditional hat)
2.  Gemenia – women's head cover
3.  Three basinas – a bowl for cooking
4.  Three sets of kreponia - women’s clothing,dark in color
5.  Twelve madilia – women’s head cover
6.  One pair of vergetes– earrings, expensive
7.  One silver cross
8.  Three silver rings
9.  One pair of crystal dessert plates
10. Six dessert spoons
11. One serving dish
12.  Two men's vests, decorated with fur
13. Ten women's skirts
14. Two dresses
15. Twenty-five shirts
16. Twelve sets of underwear
17. Two men's fustanella 
18. Two disakia (small packages to hold items)
19.  Two paploma, bed comforters
20.  Ten soaps
21.  Two makatia. decorative sofa covers
22.  Eleven big pillows
23.  Four small pillows
24.  Two andromedes (unknown)
25.  One peskidi (a nice throw cover for thesofa)
26.  Two table scarfs/covers for the dining roomtable
27.  Two nice scarfs/covers for chair backs andarm rests
28.  Six fakiolia, small women’s headcovers
29.  Eight mpoiles, a kind of towel
30.  Twelve spoons, knives and forks
31.  Twelve plates
32.  Seven mpouxades, woolcloth which hold liquids when making cheese
33.  Eight vrakozones, traditional men'sclothing worn below the waist
34.  Two casellas, similar to a hope chest whichhold clothing and linens
35.  Two kapaki, cooking pots with covers
36.  One tapsi, circular metal roastingpan used in ovens3 
37. One harani – metal bucket that can hold one okres (aunit of measure)
38. Two siderostia – iron tripods to hang potsover an open fire
39. One pan
40. One stremma [unit of measure] with 14 olive treeslocated in the borders of Agios Ioannis, Sparta. The land is bordered:  on the east with a national estate [land which belongs to the municipality], on the west with Panagioti Kamarados, on the north with Giannis Giannos, in the south with Georgios Bakopoulos.
41. One individual estate, a small field, two stremmata with all it contains [perhaps a small hut] and 7 small trees located in the location Sourakaki of Agios Ioannis, Sparta; it borders:  on the east with a road, on the west with church fields, on the north with the national estate,and on the south with Pangiotis Pachigiannis.
42. Some trees that were planted in the national field in the location Kefalari of Agios Ioannis, Sparta; and borders on the east with Saltafilda [probably a neighborhood or other location], on the west with the road, on the north with Panagiotis Kavvouris and on the south with a road.8
43. Twenty barrels containing orange trees that the groomtook a few days ago to replant them in his own land.
 The total of the dowry and property (moved andunmoveable) is 1,463 drachmas.4
 The groom, Nikolaos Athanasios Kanakakos,5  expresses that he accepts Marigo as his legal wife and the dowry given by her father. He understands exactly the dowry that was previously reported and offered to him by Marigo. He also offers Marigo 500 drachmas [bridewealth].6
 The two sides additionally, with me the contract maker,evaluate the total value of all things as 1,963 drachmas plus the postcard [thenotary's fee].
 To verify this contract and this dowry, the two sideslistened to the dowry spoken aloud and clearly, and agreed to it.
 Called as witnesses: Georgios Stathopoulos, estate ownerand citizen of Magoula and Ilia Kalogerakos, farmer and citizen of Parori of the municipality of Sparta. They are familiar to me, they are Greek citizens without any legal exceptions, and they verify this contact because because neither of the two sides can sign their names.7
 ____________
 1  This exact description of the locationof the Dimopoulos home and office is given because Sparta in the mid-1800s had few roads and no street addresses.
 
2  Many of descriptive words come from the Ottoman period and are unrecognizable in today's language; they may be a hybrid mix of Greek, Ottoman and Venetian vocabulary and are no longer in use.
 3 When a meal is prepared using a tapsi, it is also served from it; the family would sit around and eat out of it together. A vethoura, the double pot on the right, is where sheeps' milk is stored.
 4 This is a sizeable dowry, indicating that the bride's family had financial means.
 5Kanakakos is a big family in Mani; members were officers in the Army and heroes in the Revolution of 1821.The Kanakaos family was not in Mystras before the 1821 Revolution; they were from Kippoula, inner Mani.
 6 As a bride brings a dowry, sometimes, a groom will offer a sum of money or property to the bride's parents to help establish the new home.
 7 Normally, there would be five signatures: thegroom, the bride's father, the two witnesses and the notary. In this contract,only the witnesses and notary signed as the groom and bride's father wereunable to write their names.
 8 After marriage, land named in the dowry belongs to the bride's husband. The property was given by her father to establish her new home. In 1800s Sparta, divorce was unheard of; and men were responsible for providing and maintaining financial security of the family.
 

See transcript under Memories tab.