Hello A Williams Some suggestions, although you may have tried them. One observation - Naples is a long way to walk from - unless they first moved north for work. Occupation What did the brothers do and who were their friends? This may confirm the area they came from. I've still got Colpi's book on immigration patterns - occupation would help. PRO I wonder if your PRO researcher looked for denization records? Denization didn't involve an act of Parliament, so perhaps is more likely than naturalization? There is an index for denizations 1801-73 - though this may be too early? I intend to try (via my sister) looking for denization for our relative, so would be interested to hear if anyone has looked at these. I used PRO reader's guide no. 22 to decide what records may be relevant. Alien passenger records are fairly patchy but you may be lucky here too. French records The passenger records in Boulogne that somone mentioned before may prove helpful. I have a copy of the article about them if you want to know more. Marriage If the bride was from Liverpool - could this couple have married in Liverpool but in a RC church and not registered it? Your Italians may have worked in Liverpool for a while before moving to Staffordshire. 1871 census for Liverpool - hope it's indexed. Forenames Your relatives with/calling themselves Ralph and Dominick may have wanted to seem English and would perhaps want an English spelling to their surname to go with their acceptable (but not original?) forenames. Spelling I certainly wonder about the spelling FERRIE, especially after my surname's history (see below). I wonder whether FERRIE is how it got written by the first British clerk they met (on arrival?), so the spelling stuck, and it's really FERRI you're looking for. Do you pronounce the 'e'? My surname went from Ghirardani to Geradine (think phonetically), probably courtesy of an English scribe who did not know Italian vowels and didn't think to double the 'e's, followed by a reinterpretation of the pronunciation by another clerk. The family merged into England by adopting the new spelling (which however I always have to spell for anyone new to it - although it doesn't look or sound Italian now). I'm fairly sure my gg grandfather must have been illiterate - probably only literate Italians could spell it correctly - eg the priest at his marriage in the Sardinian chapel. I don't know that I've been helpful - I wouldn't want to look for Ferri either! Daphne Dashfield (Geradine) GHIRARDANI etc. > From: [email protected] > > Does anyone have any fresh ideas for me to try - I feel like I'm running > round in circles, and because I'm trying so hard to solve this 2-year old > puzzle, I wonder if I've missed something? My great-grandfather Ralph FERRIE > was born in Italy (?where). <snip> > A Williams > [email protected]