Darin clan in 1934

The family of Marco Giovanni Battista Da Rin Zoldan had a few important dates in which we can stop to gaze upon and imagine how happy or sad the Clan was at that particular moment in time. Marco Giovanni was born on 11 November 1971, which makes that date the most important of his life. 

Marco's father was Giovanni Battista Antonio Da Rin Zoldan, born on 7 June 1839 married Maria Antonia Da Rin de Lorenzo born on 9 June 1939. Man & wife were born only 2 days apart. Both had extensive names but both were known by Antonio and Antonia and as both had Da Rin as surname with Zoldan (for him) and Lorenzo (for her) makes one wonder think they must have been cousins of some sort. 

I'd like to tell a little story about the popularity of the Da Rin surname in the Cadore region of Belluno. Once in the 1990s, while I was living in Sydney, Australia, I paid a visit to an Italian friend who worked at the Italian Consular legation in that city. While I was waiting for him to see me, I went into a corner where there were dozens of Telephone Books of all regions of Italy and made a point of getting the telephone book of Vigo di Cadore. I soon I realized there were hundreds of Da Rin entries. Then I realized Da Rin was a 'general' name linked with another surname which I thought was the 'real' surname like Zoldan, Sandrè, Lorenzo, Nicolo etc. The great irony is that when it came to 'shed' one of his surname Marco Giovanni dropped his 'real' surname which was Zoldan and kept the 'general' surname Da Rin (from the brook) which would soon become Darin. 

We don't know much about Marco's early life except that at a young age (12 or 13) he entered a Catholic seminary in order to become a priest but due to poverty (couldn't pay the fees) he didn't stay there too long. We also know that their native Vigo di Cadore, a village in that beautiful alpine region suffered a major fire in which many houses burned down to the ground. Unfortunately, one of the houses destroyed in the great fire belonged of Antonio & Antonia Da Rin so they were in dire straits. That's when someone had the bright idea to leave for America in search of better days. Even though Antonio Zoldan had 11 siblings and Antonia Lorenzo must have had quite as much they up and left Cadore, first travelling to Genoa and then boarding the great vapor Fortunata Reggia which would take them to Brazil in September 1888. 

Antonio Zoldan (49), Antonia Lorenzo (49) with Marco Giovanni (17), Marianna (15) and Appolonio Francesco (13) arrived in Santos on 1st October 1888.