Maybe a last grasp at Peter Henry Harrison

[Mary from Italy]

Not all that many Italians have done DNA tests, unfortunately.

[Margaret in Burton]

Originally Posted by Mary from Italy

Not all that many Italians have done DNA tests, unfortunately.

Yes I’ve been told that

[Merry]

There are also a small handful of Italian men, married and unmarried, living in and around Rotherham in 1881/91 who could have had a legitimate family in the UK and living descendants here, so don't give up yet!

[Anstey Nomad]

Ancestry search is not playing ball for me in 1881. It's giving me a list of random people across Yorkshire who are mostly British Subjects who happen to have been born in Italy.

it's treating me better in 1891 where I have found the Federicci household, relatively recently moved from Sheffield.

[Margaret in Burton]

It’s as though Peter just didn’t exist until 1903 when he joined the army. I’m sure there’s a name change involved

It could be his mother that was Italian.

[Anstey Nomad]

Could be, but as so often happens with early waves of emigration, there seemed to be many more Italian men in Yorkshire than women.

I've always believed that he changed his name when he joined the army, so he could not be traced by whoever he left behind, but who knows?

Anyone up for a seance?

[Margaret in Burton]

Well, he wouldn’t tell you anything if you could make contact.
Refused to reveal any of his history when asked when he was dying. Did he even tell the truth about Rotherham on the 1911 and 1921 census? Ok he joined the KOYLI’s so a Yorkshire regiment but Yorkshire is a big county

[Merry]

When he joined the army I'm sure he wasn't thinking about his descendants trying to find historic records about him. Surely it must have been just that he didn't want to to be associated with the name he had before, or the people the name was linked to.

Marg, did he ever have a passport or have any issue with getting his old age pension?

[Olde Crone]

Merry

I see where you are going with that but I think if someone could not produce a birth certificate for a pension then they had to prove they had been known by their current name for x years, which would of course be held out by employment history and/or a reference from someone saying they'd known them for years. I believe it was not uncommon for people to appear not to be registered in the early years of the state pension., usually because they didn't know they were illegitimate as far as I can see.

OC