Anglo Italian Family History Society

Welcome to the Anglo Italian Family History Society

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Do you have Italian heritage? Did your ancestors settle in, or pass through England, Ireland, Scotland or Wales after leaving Italy? The content of our website guides researchers and historians through centuries of British Italian social and cultural heritage, exploring places of origin and settlement and the historic events that impacted on our ancestors' lives and influenced the decisions they made.

Visitors are welcome. Much of our website's content is Open Access, but there are benefits to be gained if you take out a subscription: access to an archive of crowd-sourced records transcribed, digitised and shared by our volunteers. Many items cannot be found online elsewhere. We also offer opportunities to ask questions and share your research on our website's content pages or during our webinars.

Why not access our unique archive by becoming a member ?

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Orkney’s Italian Chapel: the True Story of an Icon

On Saturday, 14 Oct 1939, German U-Boat 47 sneaked into Scapa Flow through the eastern entrance at Kirk Sound, between mainland Orkney and the uninhabited island of Lamb Holm and torpedoed HMS Royal Oak.

Of 1,234 men and boys on board 833 were killed that night or died later of their wounds. Included in that figure were 126 boy sailors - the largest loss of youths in the navy's history. This act had little impact on the Allied Fleet‟s superiority, but an enormous impact on wartime morale. Scapa Flow was seen as an impregnable safe haven for the British fleet. The wreck of HMS Royal Oak lies almost upside down in 100 feet of water. It is a designated war grave. In an annual ceremony to mark the ship‟s loss, Royal Navy divers place a White Ensign at her stern.

I haven‟t eaten a Garibaldi biscuit for years and I‟m sure that, like me, you used to refer to them in your childhood as 'squashed (or dead) fly' biscuits? I certainly had no idea they had been named after a famous Italian general or that people had been enjoying them for over 100 years. They were just one of a variety of biscuits that my father stocked in his grocer‟s shop in Bedford, the town where I was born and brought up. It is now many years since I lived in the town, but my mother regularly sends me cuttings from the local newspaper that she thinks may be of interest.

Knowing of my "Italian‟ interest she recently sent me a cutting about a celebration which took place in Bedford in June of this year; the opening of the new Britannia Bridge. What has that to do with Garibaldi biscuits I hear you ask? The great-great-grand daughter of Giuseppe Garibaldi, Anita Garibaldi and the great-great-grandson of John Howard visited the site of the old Britannia Iron works in Bedford for the opening of a the new footbridge over the River Ouse.

The Anglo Italian Family History Society's extensive database holds a collection of records, photographs and documents which have been crowd-sourced, transcribed and shared over three decades by our experienced and dedicated volunteers.

Some cannot be found online elsewhere, such as our rare copy of the 1939 Guida degli Italiani in Gran Bretagna and transcriptions of baptisms and marriages at St Peter's Church of All Nations (also known as the 'Italian Church') in Clerkenwell, London.
An archive collection of our journal, Italian Roots, is also available to search, read and download.

The Search facility, using keywords, can be accessed in the Members Area of the website.

More news »

Welcome to the Anglo Italian Family History Society

Why not access our unique archive by becoming a member ?

News »

Orkney’s Italian Chapel: the True Story of an Icon

Ancestral Chimes: Garibaldi visits Bedford, England

'Searchable' Transcription Database and Journals (Members Area)

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