About Us and Benefits of Membership

Our Story

During the latter half of the twentieth century a group of family historians, drawn together by a shared interest in Italian heritage, history and culture, began to harvest the documents, photographs and memoirs that told their ancestral stories. They stored them in homes and on computers scattered across the British Isles, Ibiza, Australia and New Zealand. Some researchers had links to a former monastic settlement in London, Clerkenwell, and to its Catholic Church, San Pietro for All Nations. The area became an important link in Chain Migration from Italy to the British Isles and beyond.* Lacking a designated venue, volunteer transcribers and content producers conducted administrative and research activities in their homes, public archives and libraries, storing their findings on everyday software such as Access, Word and Excel. They communicated with each other through a network of group emails and genealogy’s precursor to Facebook, Rootsweb. Founded in 1996 this platform was instrumental in creating a web of connections that was no longer parochial, but national and international. Superseded by more advanced platforms, Rootsweb was closed in August 2023.

In 2002 the disparate collection of family historians elected an Executive Committee, chose a name that reflected their origins, wrote a constitution and began their first communal project: transcribing the baptism and marriage records from the "Italian Church." The Anglo Italian Family History Society is now a not-for-profit organisation that largely operates online. Volunteer, Nello Ostacchini used his expertise to create a sophisticated website on which to store a rapidly expanding archive and share information. Many of the resources collected over decades can now be found in the new pages on our professionally run website , especially within the Searchable Transcription Database and our award-winning journal, Italian Roots.

The website's comprehensive content is evolving, guided by a small group of accomplished researchers who aim to lead our members towards an understanding of heritage, taking in places of origin and settlement, duality and the historic events which impacted on our ancestors' lives and the decisions they made.

The Anglo Italian Family History Society is run by experienced researchers whose passion for their work is so great they volunteer their time for free.

NB: All members may apply for a position on the annually elected Executive Committee..

Benefits of Membership 

Members may access the following resources in the Members Area by clicking on the relevant links:

Searchable Transcription Database

Members can use keywords to search our online database. Some of our transcribed records, such as the Guida degli Italiani in Gran Bretagna and marriages and baptisms from St Peter's Church of All Nations (also known as the Italian Church) are not available elsewhere online. 

Contained within the database is information collected and transcribed by the Society's researchers, from diverse sources within Britain, Italy and beyond. 

Records included in the collection are:

• transcripts from Italian and British church and cemetery records
• a digitised copy of a rare book, the Guida degli Italiani in Gran Bretagna
• family stories, documents and photographs handed down, often orally, through generations.

These record the influence our ancestors had on the localities through which they passed and in which they settled. They incorporate historic documents and photographs, reflecting a high degree of transience, creativity, diversity and duality amongst our ancestors and their descendants. The sources they used can be viewed by clicking on the following link:  

Research and Transcription Sources

Italian Roots, journals and newsletters    

Italian Roots began production in 2002, edited by Kay Lorenzato. Rosemarie Leonard took on the project, increasing the number of pages, adding photographs, digitised documents and links to additional information. Nello Ostacchini uploaded the journals to the website, adding download and keyword search facilities.

Although the archived journals are only available to read and download from the Members area, visitors to the website may view each Journal's list of contents below: 

Italian Roots: List of Contents 

Click on the above link to see a list of the contents of all of our searchable journal archive

Guida Generale di Italiani in Gran Bretagna

The Guida is a directory of Italians who were living and working in Great Britain at the time of publication (1939). Its lists of names and addresses was compiled under the auspices of the Italian Consular authorities and published by London-based printer Edoardo Ercoli.  This resource has been digitised and is not available on any other website. Members can search for a surname in the Searchable Transcription Database. Many business advertisements and historically important articles are included (in Italian), some with photographs. These can be viewed by scrolling through the book to page one. The Guida contains a number of biographies of notable Italians, including an expanded article on the book's publisher, Edoardo Ercoli. These are in Italian but we aim to translate them into English; they can be read in the Members Area of the website.   

St Peter's Italian Church, Clerkenwell, London

The Catholic Relief Act of 1791 gave Catholics freedom to worship ,but marriages between 1754 and 1837 had to be in the Church of England to be legally valid. St Peter's was opened in 1863 for Catholic immigrants in London and known at first as St Peter's Church for All Nations. The Society's volunteers transcribed the church's baptism and marriage records and these are available to view and to search on our website.

World War I Military Service Agreement with Italy

At the start of World War I the United Kingdom was the sole European country without compulsory military service. Britain passed legislation enabling agreements with allied governments to ensure aliens* could be brought within the UK Military Service Acts. In 1917 the Kingdom of Italy came within these Acts. The agreement required Italian men of military age, living in the United Kingdom, either to return to Italy for service or if they remained, to be subject to the UK conscription laws. With an increasingly desperate need for men in the trenches, Britain's government enacted legislation enabling agreements to be reached with individual allied governments including, in 1917, the Kingdom of Italy, the purpose being effectively to bring foreign nationals within the jurisdiction of the UK Military Service Acts. The agreement required Italian men of military age in the UK either to return to Italy for military service or, if they remained, to be subject to the UK conscription laws. Repatriation was to take place within a specified period from the date of the announcement of the agreement. 

Webinars and Podcasts

The Society runs online webinars that cover a wide range of topics helpful in genealogical research and also providing an opportunity for discussion. 

Some of these meetings are recorded and are available to view in the Members' area of this website.

Shared Research Interests

Members are invited to submit details of their research interests, for example, surnames, places (in Italy and elsewhere) and occupations. Interests may be added to or amended add in the Members Only area of our website. The list of interests is made available on our website so that contact can be made with current members, by agreement, who are researching the same surnames or topics.

NB: In order to comply with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) members will need to tick the privacy boxes in their accounts giving permission to share interests and for contact to be made by email.

 

Contact Us

Your ideas and suggestions on website content and on our in-person activities - such as attendance at events - are welcome.

The Anglo Italian Family History Society is a member of the Family History Federation: Family History Federation  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

* ‘Chain migration can be defined as that movement in which prospective migrants learn of opportunities, are provided with transportation, and have initial accommodation and employment arranged by means of primary social relationships with previous migrants.’ *John S MacDonald, and Leatrice D. MacDonald. “Chain Migration, Ethnic Neighborhood Formation and Social Networks.” The Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly 42, no. 1 (1964): 82–97.

^{* * Alien: in an era of science fiction movies such as ET (Extra Terrestrial) this term can sound out of place, even offensive. It was first used in the 14th century to describe something that felt strange or was of foreign origin. The UK government and institutions now prefer more neutral and respectful language when discussing immigration and foreign nationals. Instead of “alien” terms like “foreign national” or “non-citizen” are used in legal and government contexts. In 2021 US government agencies dealing with immigration were instructed to change their official language practices. Terms like “alien”, “illegal alien” and “assimilation” are no longer used. Instead, new vocabularies apply, including the words “noncitizen” for “alien” and “integration” for “assimilation”.}