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Italians in Birmingham

MWS

MWS

from Bham
Having recently been looking into 3 family trees with Italian ancestry, I noticed that, interestingly, the town of Sora cropped in all 3 of them.

A coincidence, I'm not sure. They all seemed to have come to Bham around the same time, late 1890s, early 1900s.

Searching the 1921 census for residents of Bham and Aston born in Italy returned 188 results, whilst searching for residents born in Sora returned 36 results. Meaning that almost one fifth at least of the Italian born residents of Bham/Aston came from one small town in the Frosinone province of Lazio. This also represented more than a quarter of 1921 population of England who listed their birth place as Sora (another 16 lived in the surrounding area).

What was the reason for this I wonder. Was it something particular to that town at that time? And why Birmingham?

A link to the Wikipedia entry for Sora...

en.wikipedia.org

Sora, Lazio - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
MWS said:
Having recently been looking into 3 family trees with Italian ancestry, I noticed that, interestingly, the town of Sora cropped in all 3 of them.

A coincidence, I'm not sure. They all seemed to have come to Bham around the same time, late 1890s, early 1900s.

Searching the 1921 census for residents of Bham and Aston born in Italy returned 188 results, whilst searching for residents born in Sora returned 36 results. Meaning that almost one fifth at least of the Italian born residents of Bham/Aston came from one small town in the Frosinone province of Lazio. This also represented more than a quarter of 1921 population of England who listed their birth place as Sora (another 16 lived in the surrounding area).

What was the reason for this I wonder. Was it something particular to that town at that time? And why Birmingham?

A link to the Wikipedia entry for Sora...

en.wikipedia.org

Sora, Lazio - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
Click to expand...
A very interesting, ancient town with tumultuous long history! I wonder what caused the exodus to Birmingham and were there other places that the populace went to and why?
 
MWS said:
Having recently been looking into 3 family trees with Italian ancestry, I noticed that, interestingly, the town of Sora cropped in all 3 of them.

A coincidence, I'm not sure. They all seemed to have come to Bham around the same time, late 1890s, early 1900s.

Searching the 1921 census for residents of Bham and Aston born in Italy returned 188 results, whilst searching for residents born in Sora returned 36 results. Meaning that almost one fifth at least of the Italian born residents of Bham/Aston came from one small town in the Frosinone province of Lazio. This also represented more than a quarter of 1921 population of England who listed their birth place as Sora (another 16 lived in the surrounding area).

What was the reason for this I wonder. Was it something particular to that town at that time? And why Birmingham?

A link to the Wikipedia entry for Sora...

en.wikipedia.org

Sora, Lazio - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
Click to expand...

Have you any surnames ?
 
As an aside, came across this. Italian ice cream sellers used to cry “Gelatiecco un poco” a little ice cream. It was the origin of the term “hokey- Pokey.
Never new that.
 
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MWS said:
A third of them appear to be ice cream sellers.

Names include - D'Ambrosio, Castellucci, Cerrone, Faccini, Lombardi, Musticone, Petricca, Recchia, Sperdute, Valente, Yafrati
Click to expand...
Interesting!
There was a Cerrone in my class at Junior school. I don't know what her father did for a living but I do remember him, they lived fairly near us in Perry Barr. I can also remember her grandmother who lived with them, a little lady who I guess was a widow as she wore the traditional black clothes.
 
Richard Dye said:
A very interesting, ancient town with tumultuous long history! I wonder what caused the exodus to Birmingham and were there other places that the populace went to and why?
Click to expand...
I think Bedford and also Scotland might reveal some more results , I was made aware in the 70's by a rep from an electrical company that was based in Bedford they employed a very high number of Italians .
 
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A Sparks said:
Interesting!
There was a Cerrone in my class at Junior school. I don't know what her father did for a living but I do remember him, they lived fairly near us in Perry Barr. I can also remember her grandmother who lived with them, a little lady who I guess was a widow as she wore the traditional black clothes.
Click to expand...
Just like my wife’s grandmother who was born in Italy, always wore black except for our wedding! I remember dancing with her and she reminded me ( my wife was the middle child) that I had taken her out of order. The protocol in Italian families was always the eldest child was married first. I tried to explain that I had met her through her brother the eldest child, didn’t matter. Sorry off topic but just a little trivia.
 
Richard Dye said:
Just like my wife’s grandmother who was born in Italy, always wore black except for our wedding! I remember dancing with her and she reminded me ( my wife was the middle child) that I had taken her out of order. The protocol in Italian families was always the eldest child was married first. I tried to explain that I had met her through her brother the eldest child, didn’t matter. Sorry off topic but just a little trivia.
Click to expand...
You want to watch Don Corleone is not watching you haha
 
Pedrocut said:
Came across this term “chain migration. Early migrants find work, and then help friends and relatives to join them.

Also many Sora migrants settled in Bordesley, Digbeth, and later Sparkbrook. Would this tie in ?
Click to expand...
Chain migration also applies to family members (usually not varifird) who are allowed into a country without that country’s certification.
 
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Pedrocut said:
Came across this term “chain migration. Early migrants find work, and then help friends and relatives to join them.

Also many Sora migrants settled in Bordesley, Digbeth, and later Sparkbrook. Would this tie in ?
Click to expand...

In 1911 (51) & 1921 (61) almost a third of the Italians in Bham lived on Bartholomew St or New Bartholomew St. For people born in Sora it's almost a half.
 
MWS said:
In 1911 (51) & 1921 (61) almost a third of the Italians in Bham lived on Bartholomew St or New Bartholomew St. For people born in Sora it's almost a half.
Click to expand...
Many Italian families that emigrated like my wife’s parents/grad parents, aunts and uncles all lived in the same neighborhood. In this case NYC. It was a support thing with a common language and common foods etc. the “neighborhoods” built a support system for the new residents. I am sure that happened in Birmingham and elsewhere. When I was dating my wife and the families had spread out, many gathered for the holidays and holy days as a celebration. For me who never experienced that it was entertaining and as I became accepted in was something I looked forward to and now miss today. Our children were the first grandchildren in a very close Italian family and were over the top at Christmas, with gifts but with Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year celebrations, that was something that I had not witnessed before, to that level. My apologies for veering off topic! BTW my in laws were offended at the Sopranos especially since much of the show was photographed in their neighborhood and the school that the daughter went to was the same school that my wife went to.
 
With regards to MWS post no 6 and ice cream manufacturers I noticed one name missing from that list and that was Verraccia as a kid and then being a teenager that was the only name I knew for ice cream that visited our streets they seemed omnipresent. I remember they had an ice cream parlour on Dudley Road when I was going to St Patrick's School on Dudley Road in the 50's
I felt very sorry to read in the mail at the time of Tony Verreccia it was Tony I alway's saw when I went for an ice cream end of an era for me that was . I remember one Saturday evening late Summer as a kid I heard the jingle went outside and boy did I get a shock Verreccia's had gone fluorescent and believe me it lit the street up to my knowledge they were the first with this type of Lighting
 
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MWS said:
On the 1911 census there is a Mary Veraca (Verrecchia) listed as an ice cream vendor. She's born in Italy but not listed as Sora, which is the reason Verrecchia wasn't listed.

I don't know of Tony is a descendant.
Click to expand...
My apologies MWS I wasn't paying attention to your search
 
My Wifes tree has an Italian link from Newcastle Under Lyme. I think they were coal miners there but the one man who married wifes Mothers half sister left there with all his large family in 60's and set up as an Ice Cream maker in Dudley. The family name is Calleia and were / are famous in Black Country. They still run the ice cream business. I have no idea where in Italy they originated from though.
 
We also had a POW camp just up the road on Groveley Lane Longbridge just before The Austins........its said they built Lowhill Lane the at runs alongside Cofton Park and the Airfield area at Austins.......its all concrete sections and is still a functioning surface ( albeit a bit noisy/bumpy now).
I have always wondered if any of the prisioners stayed on in Brum after the war.
 
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