Italian POW's held in the uk WW2

[poppyandlucky]

Hi,i'm looking for any help with a search for anyone that you may possibly know of any Italian POW that was held in Staffordshire, England, during WW2
that may have fathered a child (a boy) born in january 1946.
Unfortunatley we have no name for this man,this making our search hard and hoping that he may have told his own family or that other POW'S knew of the situation
We do believe he knew about my Dad,my Granmother kept his I.D a secret i believe she did want to get him into trouble or to be sent away.
My Grandmother's name is ADA FARMER and she was around 17 years old when my Dad was born.
My Dad was to be adopted out but it never went through at the last minute thankfully.
I'm just hoping that someone out there in the world may knowand this man did know and it was circumstances of the war that he could do nothing,

[suanj]

Hi,i'm looking for any help with a search for anyone that you may possibly know of any Italian POW that was held in Staffordshire, England, during WW2
that may have fathered a child (a boy) born in january 1946.
Unfortunatley we have no name for this man,this making our search hard and hoping that he may have told his own family or that other POW'S knew of the situation
We do believe he knew about my Dad,my Granmother kept his I.D a secret i believe she did want to get him into trouble or to be sent away.
My Grandmother's name is ADA FARMER and she was around 17 years old when my Dad was born.
My Dad was to be adopted out but it never went through at the last minute thankfully.
I'm just hoping that someone out there in the world may knowand this man did know and it was circumstances of the war that he could do nothing,

Hi: for some probability of success, are better to send an email with all detail in your possess to RAI TV italian, http://www.chilhavisto.rai.it/CLV/English/Clvhomee.htm
this Tv program is very great for search of this type.. send an email in english language mailto:8262@rai.it
if are some person that know some info, you have reply!
regards, suanj

[ptimber]

Go to www.wartime-memories.fsnet.co.uk/answer.html for startrers. Peter

[poppyandlucky]

thanks for your replies,i will contact the Italian tv station, also i've been on the War Time Memories board and left message on the forum board.
Thankyou once again, Kathryn

[PPaolo]

A lot of time passed since you posted your message, but with a bit of luck you will receive this.
My granfather was pow in england, I don't know where, just know that he was in England.
After a few years after he was back, my grandmother 'intercepted' a letter sent to him with a foto of a little boy. My grandmother destroyed the letter and it was a secret untill a few years ago, when my mother happend to know about it.
If you read this message, please contact me, because I am trying to track a similar situation.

Paolo

[poppyandlucky4]

Hi Paolo, I got your e-mail thankyou as its been some time since i was last here i had to change my account name although it was poppyandlucky i've had to put poppyandlucky4 as a new name.

Its great to hear from you i'm not sure what help you would like but i will help you all i can, as i said in the first posting i'm from Stafford, England and this is where my Gran came from and where she met this man as from what i have found out recently there where POW'S working on farms in around Stafford, and there was a POW camp at Shugborough where German POW'S were held too, there were around 40,000 people held there from what has been said to me.

I do have photo's of my dad as a young boy and i'm sure that he would look like his natural father, my dad has half brother's but there is no real resemblance to them and my younger brother is a double of my dad perhap's i could send them to you to looke at.

I have been told by my step mom that when she was to marry my dad that a woman who knew my gran and the man in question said that he was an Italian POW but never gave his name i think my step mom regrets asking this lady, i don't know why my gran never told her family this man's name i can only assume she did'nt want to get him onto trouble or to be sent away, i know that POW'S where still held in the UK for sometime after the war had finished and if he were still here i'm sure that this man would have known about my dad.

After my dad was born my gran married a man who took on my dad as his own but he never gave his surname to my my dad.
I'm not sure what else to say at the moment but it would be great to hear back from you.

Take care from kathy

[poppyandlucky4]

Hi Paolo, I got your e-mail thankyou as its been some time since i was last here i had to change my account name although it was poppyandlucky i've had to put poppyandlucky4 as a new name.

Its great to hear from you i'm not sure what help you would like but i will help you all i can, as i said in the first posting i'm from Stafford, England and this is where my Gran came from and where she met this man as from what i have found out recently there where POW'S working on farms in around Stafford, and there was a POW camp at Shugborough where German POW'S were held too, there were around 40,000 people held there from what has been said to me.

I do have photo's of my dad as a young boy and i'm sure that he would look like his natural father, my dad has half brother's but there is no real resemblance to them and my younger brother is a double of my dad perhap's i could send them to you to looke at.

I have been told by my step mom that when she was to marry my dad that a woman who knew my gran and the man in question said that he was an Italian POW but never gave his name i think my step mom regrets asking this lady, i don't know why my gran never told her family this man's name i can only assume she did'nt want to get him onto trouble or to be sent away, i know that POW'S where still held in the UK for sometime after the war had finished and if he were still here i'm sure that this man would have known about my dad.

After my dad was born my gran married a man who took on my dad as his own but he never gave his surname to my my dad.
I'm not sure what else to say at the moment but it would be great to hear back from you.

Take care from kathy

[joyse]

Kathy

I am from Stafford but now live on the south coast.

Have you thought of the possibility that the Italian man could have been a person who was interned during the war? These were men (don't know about women) who lived in England and because of their nationality kept in a certain amount of confinement, but not quite as prisoners, during the war.

I have heard my Dad talk about Italian men he used to visit while they were interned. He used to take them food etc and it was somewhere near the Chase but I'm not sure about Shugborough.

Unfortunately my Dad is no longer alive for me to ask. I think maybe you will find it very difficult to find your Grandfather now as he would be at least 80 but wish you the very best of luck.

Joy

[poppyandlucky4]

Hi Joy, Shugborough is the same place as its on cannock chase,where they were interned. i have thought about if this man was interned, i dont know what i was looking for when i started to look and ask questions about searching for my grandfather if i'm to be allowed to call him that, i understand that he may be very old now or may no longer be here.
I think all we ever wanted to know is really is his name and what happened, he may not have even told his family if he had known about my dad and if he did'nt the last thing we ever want to do is to cause upset to another family.
But the chances of ever finding out are slim or actually were never gonna find out, and i have almost given up on continuing to search which is sad the only thing that i can perhaps do is a ethnic dna test.

[PPaolo]

Hi, thanks for the reply.

I must say that my recent curiosity is triggered by the fact that I moved to England for work and knowing about that story I am wondering if I can get some more info.

I asked my mother to search for more information. Unfortunately my grandfather died some years ago and the only person who can help is my grandmother, now 90. But she is the one who destroyed the evidence when she was a young and jealous south italian woman.
I will try to know where he was staying and exactly when.
What I know is that he was captured in Libia and transported to SouthAfrica first (by Dutch) and then to England, where he was quite free.

I'm aware that there were dozens of thousands italian pows, but you never know!

Please send me the fotos you have. My mother's brother is a double of my gran too and I have a couple of old fotos that I attach here.

Thanks,
Paolo

[joyse]

Keep your fingers crossed maybe Paulo is relative !!!!

If you had the DNA then at least that would confirm or otherwise about the nationality - hopefully.

Best wishes

Joy

[banjo]

Hi, I've just discovered this site and was wondering if my story is of any significence. I was born in Hednesford,Staffordshire in 1946. My mom & Dad split up in 1952 and my Dad took me to to Birmingham where I have lived ever since. In 1985, after a visit to Hednesford I came to meet my Mother again for the first time in 33yrs.It was then that I was told that my biological Father was an Italian POW. All I know of him is that his name was Mario Strefani or Steffani and,as he told my Mother,was training to be a doctor.So if that was true,I guess that he would have been in the Medical part of the Italian Army.Aparently,he wanted to take my Mother back to Italy but because she was already married,she declined.The only other thing I know about him is that being 21yrs at that time, he was born about 1924. My Mother died in 1990 and I now regret not asking her more about Mario.If anyone out there has any information relevant to my story,or has a website I could visit,Iwould be happy to hear from you. Thankyou Barry Jones

[PeterTimber]

Dear Banjo (nice name) There is no Strefani listed as an Itaklian surname and there none listed c urrently in Italy BUT BUT BUT there is Steffani which are found in 33 cities, towns and villages in the following regions Lazio, Piemonte, Lombardia, Veneto and Friuli venezia Giulia regions of northern Italy save for Lazio where Rome is located in Central Italy.

Now for the good part. There is one mario Steffani listed in the Italy directory. This does not mean there are not any other Mario Steffani in Italy but this is the only one listed. Go to www.paginebianche.it and insert in the first line Steffani, mario in the second line and Lazio (for entire region) and then click CERCA and up will spring Mario Steffani, Comune Latina, Postale 04100, (LT)=province. Lazio region, Italy.

His telephone number is 0773-643431.

You may wish to either write or call him. If you wish to write him in Italian you can go to a website www.mangeruca.com where you can pen a form letter in Italian language to a potential relative.You have nothing to lose and everything to gain so go for it.=Peter= (PS please let me know)

[banjo]

Dear Banjo (nice name) There is no Strefani listed as an Itaklian surname and there none listed c urrently in Italy BUT BUT BUT there is Steffani which are found in 33 cities, towns and villages in the following regions Lazio, Piemonte, Lombardia, Veneto and Friuli venezia Giulia regions of northern Italy save for Lazio where Rome is located in Central Italy.

Now for the good part. There is one mario Steffani listed in the Italy directory. This does not mean there are not any other Mario Steffani in Italy but this is the only one listed. Go to www.paginebianche.it and insert in the first line Steffani, mario in the second line and Lazio (for entire region) and then click CERCA and up will spring Mario Steffani, Comune Latina, Postale 04100, (LT)=province. Lazio region, Italy.

His telephone number is 0773-643431.

You may wish to either write or call him. If you wish to write him in Italian you can go to a website www.mangeruca.com where you can pen a form letter in Italian language to a potential relative.You have nothing to lose and everything to gain so go for it.=Peter= (PS please let me know)

Hi Peter, Thanks for the information.I did phone him but, it's not THE Mario I'm looking for. I will carry on trawling through the internet and who knows, I might get another lead. Thanks again Banjo

[suanj]

Hi Banjo, maybe the italian spelling of surname, it could be STEFFANI, DE STEFANI, DI STEFANO, DE STEFANO... as you can see they are very similars....
because he repatriated, sure by RED CROSS; you can write in RED CROSS of UK, asking the search, they have all repatriated lists, and you can descover all ... if they find it...
regards, suanj