Deportation.

[John Wassall]

Hi, i have been trying to find out what happened to my gt grandfather, family say that he was deported [he was Italian who moved his family to Birmingham UK] for his part in a shooting or stabbing in 1905 in Birmingham he did 3 months in prison, i have been through newspapers for the whole of 1905 and 1906 but found nothing also court records of Birmingham without success.
I know that he went to USA in 1906 i have his ship record for this. He later died in Italy although the rest of his family stayed in the UK.
His name was Giovanni Farina, any help or advice appreciated.
Thank you.

[Christine in Herts]

Welcome to FTF, John.

When you say that you looked in the newspapers - where you using the online digital images (i.e. Gale, with ,say, a library ticket) or actual microfilms at a records office or library?

I ask because I don't know how many tricks you've picked up for searching databases: sometimes "less is more" is a particularly helpful approach, especially with an unusual name which is vulnerable to mistranscription.

For instance, I don't know how they would have managed it, but there will be some people who don't know that Giovanni is a recognised name, and so could hazard all sorts of things from handwriting - and Farina could certainly get mistranscribed. Given that some transcribers wouldn't recognise John Smith in an English name list, we shouldn't be too shocked - and sometimes they have good reason because the handwriting can be horrendous. If it's digital images using OCR, then the accuracy of that will depend on how clear the copy of the paper was.

There's an Australian site where the OCR is a work-in-progress, but it really does illustrate the pitfalls.

Christine

[John Wassall]

Thanks for reply, i looked at microfilm of actual newspapers, there is a lot of news about Italians, [there was a small Italian community in birmingham] and a lot of misspellings, but nothing to do with my search. Dont know what else to try.

[Olde Crone Holden]

Forgive me if I am being thick, but why would an Italian be deported to the USA?

OC

[Christine in Herts]

There's a Giovanni Farina coming into Liverpool in October 1907 from Boston, Massachusetts. There's no age showing so can't be certain he's yours.

I can't see him leaving the country, per the FMP lists. But that could be a matter of mistranscription, of course!

Christine

[John Wassall]

Thanks Christine, i have that record and the one when he went out to USA, he tried for US citizenship but got refused, maybe the shooting/stabbing is a family myth, but older members of my family all say he was deported after spending 3 months in prison, but none of them know anymore,
and i am stuck, also he came back to england, but used aliases and different dates of birth etc, and he eventually died back in Italy, so whatever he did or was, he was certainly a "dodgy" character" thanks for your help and time, i think i will never discover the truth.

[Christine in Herts]

I think he's probably someone you need to "keep on the back burner".

I had imagined that I'd never find out anything about my paternal grandfather who walked out on the family in 1916 when my father was a baby, but bit by bit - with a couple of spectacular break-throughs - I've ended up finding out a great deal about him - including his memorial in Florida.

You just need to keep a corner of your brain aware of likely references or resources. In my case it was the SSDI being recommended for info about someone in my mother's tree.

Christine