Hello Listers, Whilst on a recent trip to the PRO in Kew I had a look at some registers and indexes for above. Before I left Canada I had ordered the HO5 numbers I thought I would need for my own research: EROTTI and variants. A very kind friend, previously met over the London List and had visited in person on another trip to London, accompanied me to help guide me around at the PRO. Imagine my excitement, after the mandatory orientation tour and gleefully picking up all and sundry leaflets etc., when I finally sat down with my first box of goodies pre-ordered. Dismay quickly shadowed my countenance! The first book I had ordered was for 1856, first quarter. It was a good ten inches thick. Seemingly, ship's Captains had to create a separate list for 'alien' passengers. It was obvious with some entries, that the 'aliens' had written their own names. So many were indecipherable. Now, as Martha would say, this would be a good thing, but no, not here! Most strokes of the pen seemed to form the same letter or groups of a few letters. In other instances, the Captain had created the list, but with questionable deciphering of how the person said their name. I next attempted to search the Country of Origin column. This didn't work too well either. Italy was not united at this time, as it is now (or is it!!) and some entries simply noted 'Italy' and others the names of the cities or towns, i.e., Naples, Pisa etc., All in all, I found it difficult. It would take me a month of Sunday's to go through the years 1856 - 1859, years of my particular interest. I gave it up and decided to go for something that may produce quicker results. The Indexes themselves. These are on open shelves in one of the reading rooms. But, the indexes list only those 'aliens' who had applied for Nationalization or Denization (I didn't even take the time to discern the differences between the two - perhaps someone will enlighten me?) I did, however, armed with a little list of request from Listers, look for names. Below are my results. I'm terribly sorry if the information is incomplete, not your name of interest or leaves you further frustrated. Ciphering out Italian names would be a great project for the AIFHS provided one knows what they were doing better than I. My apologies for being so long winded, here goes with the info: Good luck! Alien Register Names: FERRIE, Dominick and Ralph GIOIA, closest I found was GIOVO, Sefano CECE, ditto, CELLA, Luigi, Italy 26 Oct., 1880, St Leonard's on Sea, certificate #A3359, HO Paper # 97938 RIOZZI, ditto, RIOLA, Henri, Russia, 6 Nov, 1876, Place of residence not listed, C = A2051,HO = 59105 PARETTA, ditto, PARIENTE, Isac; Jacob de Judah, Jacob Gaston, Morocco, 26 April, 1850, Res. no listed, C = 1107, HO = none 14 Aug, 1850, Res. no listed, C = 1170, HO = none. 26 Fec, 1894, London, C = A7806, HO = B15726 FERRATA or RIVOLTA, Domenico Antonio, Italy Cert # none, see RIVOLTA or FERRATA - the entry was as follows: RIVOLTA or FERRATA, Domenico Antonio, Italy, 23 Dec, 1844, no place of resid. cert # = 19, No HO paper or remarks. GIOVA, Stefano Andrea OR Stephen John, Italy, Date of Cert = 18 April, 1889, Place of resid. = Cardiff, Cert # = A6102, # HO Paper = B5778 CERRITO, Joseph, Naples, 22 JUne, 1847, no place of resid. Cert @ = 620, no HO paper #. PERONI, Luigi, Italy, 10 Sept, 1880, resid = London, Cert # = 3334, HO # = 96679 PEROSSI, Achille, Italy, 2 May, 1887, resid. Plymouth, Cert. + A5398, HO =B 1239 PERROD, Jeane Louise Favre, Switzerland, 5 March, 1856, Res. none, Cert = 2219, HO = none. DeLARA, Rinaldo Carlo Luigi Ferdinando (Count D'Albani), Italy, 11 Jan, 1859, Res. no given, Cert + 2821, no HO paper. [would love to know what happened to this man!] Denization Entries: BERCHET, Ambrose, Italy, 12 June, 1844, HO # none, O.S # 8949 [don't know what the O.S means] BEZZI, Giovanni, Italy, 22 March, 1828, no HO # BIANCHI, Gaetteano, Italy, 8 May, 1832, no HO # BOLONGARO, Dominic, Italy, 7 Dec, 1837, no HO # BORINI, Peter, Italy, 22 Feb., 1828, no HO # deLANNAI, Emanual Henri Louise Alexander (Count D'Autraignos), Italy, 31 Oct, 1808, no HO # D'ISRAELI, Benjamin, Italy, 24 Aug, 1801, no HO # [guess this is the fellow who became PM ??] GREGO, Anthony, Italy, 13 May, 1836, no HO # PEDUZZI, Antonio, Italy, 2 Apr. 1835, no HO # PECCHIO, Joseph , Lombardy, 8 May, 1832, no Ho # PIOZZO, John Salusburg, Italy, 30 June, 1809, no HO # POGI, Giovanni, Italy, 21 Nov, 1843, no HO #, OS 8947 VIOTTI, Jean Baptiste, Italy, 14 Sept., 1811 RG. Shipping & Seamen. BT 158 Passengers, @ sea. Board of Trade. [I did a quick look for my name of interest, but the ref. may be of interest to some of you - check the online PRO catalogue though!] From: List of Aliens, HO 3/83 April - June, 1856 Dominic ELGGEN [?] Quality/Profession listed under Pittore [sounds more like a name of person rather than a profession [ perhaps I didn't take enough care with this one, maybe someone can make sense of it if they own it!] Native Country listed at Milano. "Panther" from Boulagne, 8 Apr, 1856 PACCEEI, Giacia[nmiaj], Prof. indecipherable, Native Country = Milano. "Calais" 6 April, 1856 PAROLLI, Bastiano, occupation ???oshis [doesn't look right does it, but this is how it looked in the register!] PAROLLI, G?l?B? atto , occupation ditto, place name looks like Lardrigne or Sandrigne - ?? My apologies for inconsistencies, by this time I was getting anxious to look at the 1901 Census fiche before it was closing time, and would you believe, I didn't find what I was lookin for there either. Oh well, it was an experience and I look forward to another visit some time to the PRO and England, of course. Cheers, Diane