@freakiness wrote:
@i-need-a-martini wrote:My story is a little like the authors.
Both my parents arrived (by boat) from Italy. My father to escape being enlisted in the army at a time when fascists soldiers were rounding innocent people up, lining them against a wall, and shooting them. He couldn't go back until the late 70's when an amnesty was announced. He would have been imprisoned otherwise.
My mother was sent out here with her older sister because her family was still suffering form the after effects of the war. Basically there wasn't enough food to feed the two sisters and no prospects of marriage because all them men of marriagable age were either dead of in America or Australia. So enough money was gathered by family members to send them to Australia (who was offering cheap one way tickets at the time as they needed unskilled labour). She was 14 at the time and had no idea where Australia was.
I have hardly any knowledge of how I got here.
One ancestor was a ship's captain bringing supplies, not sure if he also brought convicts. His wife stayed in the UK and he had kids out here. No idea who the mothers were.
Another was from Europe. They turned their back on the Catholic Church until eventually the area got reclaimed and the people got the boot. I haven't heard much about their stories and it's very hard to find information.
Freaky I could try and help you find some information if you like, or point you to some websites that may be more helpful than Ancestry.
I go back about 6 generations in Australia, mostly English/Irish/Scottish before that.
