Mavros - Sclavos

The paratsoukli 'Mavros' has been a part of my family for at least 4 generations. My paternal great-grandfather was known as 'mavronikolaki'.

I'm not sure whether the Mavros paratsoukli stuck after a stroke of bad luck ('o mavros' can mean poor thing) or whether it refers to the physical description of one of my ancestors.

The change in spelling of my family's surname from Sklavos to Sclavos was the brainchild of my grandfather Evangelos who arrived in Australia in 1938 at age 26. The change was made shortly after his arrival. At the time he enlisted the help of his good friend and accountant Peter Stathakis in altering the spelling to Anglecise it.