Hello Daphne, I read your message with great - several factors gel with my gtgranmother's family. The surname EROTTI / EROTY (possibly the English variant) arrived in England 1858/59 and on ggrandmother's first marriage certificate her father's occupation is listed as 'musician'. I have been unable to find any variant of the name on any Census record. London was given as her birthplace but I have nothing more than that. Does your publication "TheItalian Factor..." say anything about Italian migration around the late 1850's? In regards to my family, another researcher turned up the name EROLI / Guiseppe, merchant marine and suggested this is probably my family, some of the documentation supporting this theory looks like it could fit but it belies the story gg'mother told about her family's background. Oh dear, just what does one believe! Anyway, thank you for your informative message. Diane -----Original Message----- From: Daphne Dashfield [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, April 12, 2002 5:24 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [Anglo-Italian] Re: Ice Cream Colpi, 1991, "The Italian Factor : The Italian community in Great Britain" describes the development of the Italian catering industry in Britain. (Highly recommended reading) It seems to start with the declining popularity of street musicians (by 1880s) and introduction of importing and selling roast chestnuts from the Garfagnana, Lunigiana, Val Taro (Pr) and Val Magra areas. (Not Naples) Gatti (an ice importer) introduced ice cream in the 1850s and in 1864 Domenico Santorelli from Longarone (Bl) brought an handpainted ice cream cart shaped like a gondala with him. Ice cream making was carried out at home and became very popular as a mainly summer activity, with chestnuts in winter. Fleets of barrows were owned by Padrone (ie bosses that employed other Italians) with about 900 ice cream barrows in Clerkenwell, London at the turn of the twentieth century. (It took place in other areas too and I don't see why it couldn't involve someone from Naples - although the term 'Neapolitan' was used more generally for Italians) My gg grandfather from northern Italy, probably Parma province, previously a musician, was an ice cream maker in 1876 then an ice cream seller (1881) and back as a street musician by 1891 (in Clerkenwell). Seem to be typical occupations for this community. It's probably important to grasp the padrone system whereby the "bosses" brought in friends and family from their home areas and employed them in their businesses. Perhaps a padrone had labouring businesses as well as ice cream? Certainly later on some of my family (sons of the musician/ice cream maker) ran an asphalting business employing others as labourers. Dirty work that Italians would take on where British were reluctant. Daphne Dashfield (Geradine) GHIRARDANI etc. ==== ANGLO-ITALIAN Mailing List ==== Italian Research http://www.dreamwater.net/anglersrest/Italian.htm ============================== To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237