Page 215 - Upland Families, Elites and Communities

Urban Opportunities

Employment in domestic service was the most common path for girls from
the countryside to enter the labour market of Trieste. It represented an
immigrants’ prerogative, for girls from the city and the surrounding area
tended to avoid this type of work due to the burdensome and obligatory
cohabitation with employers (Kalc 2004; 2014). After a few years of service
(life cycle servanthood), during which the girls contributed materially to,
or at least relieved, their family’s economy, they often married and per-
manently settled in Trieste. The grooms from Tomaj arrived in Trieste at
about the same age as the girls, very likely as apprentices or journeymen.
In the marriage registers, they are listed mainly as craftsmen, specifically
as barrel-makers, carpenters, tailors, leatherworkers, and bakers. The pres-
ence of wedding witnesses from the ranks of professional companions and
members of the upper social classes indicates that they were well integrat-
ed into the urban social environment by the time of their marriage.
Additional information about the Tomajans in Trieste can be found in
the city population censuses. The census register of 1765 mentions 27 of
them (bcts, ad, Due Anagrafi 1735, 1765), while the one from 1775 lists
23 (bcts, ad, Coscrizione Generale Della Città e Porto Franco di Trieste
fatta nell’anno 1775 da me G. A. Tognana de Tonnefeld). However, there
were likely more people from Tomaj, as many of them are hidden among
the hundreds of immigrants from the Karst region, with no indication of
their specific place of origin. The data regarding age and length of residence
in the city again indicates that individuals from the Tomaj area were sent to
Trieste continuously, with almost all being young (up to a maximum age of
25). The few older cases represent exceptions to the predominant pattern
of migration as a socio-economic choice in the life cycle of individuals and
as a strategy employed by their families of origin.
The censuses also indicate that males mostly held occupations that re-
quired vocational apprenticeships, such as masons, carpenters, and shoe-
makers. Shoemakers were the most numerous, and provide insight into
the career paths of immigrants from Tomaj in Trieste, from apprenticeship
to the role of journeymen and eventually to the status of master craftsmen.
Inthelattercases,byemployingjourneymenandapprentices,theybecame
anchors for new immigration. Some Tomajans lacked vocational training
and earned their living through unskilled labour. Many of them worked
as porters (facchini), a widespread occupation in the port town, while fe-
males were often employed as laundresses. Married or widowed women
were involved in both laundry work and porterage, while single girls typi-
cally worked as domestic servants.

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