Marriages

In the 1840's when the first Italians arrived in Sheffield. they appeared to integrate into the English way of life much quicker. Records show that the unmarried early settlers married English partners. This was probably due to living in a predominantly English community, they had to adapt. 

There was a limited choice of Italian single people of marrying age therefore they

met fell in love and married into English families. I am not sure how this would have been viewed by the local people, one would presume that the foreign nationals were somewhat of a novelty at first, therefore there wasn't such a stigma attached to marrying an immigrant. As time went on this this would change.

Over the next few years the Italian population in Sheffield grew due to high emigration levels and so was formed the community in the West Bar area that became known as "Little Italy".

As the community grew so did the options, there rapidly became more single available Italians that had either arrived with their families or by the padrone system thus paving the way for more appropriate marriages. The more Italians there were the easier it was to find someone from the same ethnic background and religious beliefs.

Towards the end of the 1800's the local people started to look down on the Italians, they became less of a novelty and more of an alien community. Their work took them to the streets amongst the English people but they were not looked on favourably. Returning to their own "Little Italy" must have been a welcome haven.

Over the years there were many marriages between families and even between families in the surrounding communities eg Manchester and Huddersfield.

Anyone who has tried to trace their family history will tell you that it becomes increasing difficult to separate one family from another due to all inter marriages.

With notes taken from records I have tried to list details of marriages, this may give some insight in to how everyone is connected.

Some of the Marriages listed do not have dates this due to the fact that some had already married in Italy, and others I have just found records for.