Italian Prisoners of War WW2 that came to Australia from Sellia Cantazaro region

[ginatherese]

Hi my name is Gina,
I am searching for a list of surnames of any Italian Prisoners of War (ww2) that came to Australia and specifically worked on farms in Northern NSW (Australia) around 1942, 1943
I recently did a DNA test that indicates my grandfather may have been a POW that came from this region.
I have been searching for the last couple of years, my mum was adopted so we do have the name of her birth father however we do know he was a POW staying on a farm at the time my mum was conceived.
Any information would be helpful
Many thanks
Gina

[AngelaGrace56]

Hi Gina, welcome to the forum.

Have you tried National Archives of Australia? https://www.naa.gov.au/
That would probably be my first call.

There are also two good Facebook Groups where stories, group pictures and/or lists of Italian POWs in Australia are sometimes posted. If you know the name and number of the camp your grandfather may have been held in, just include that initially.

Documenti dei prigionieri di guerra italiani WWII: https://www.facebook.com/groups/4670135163025595

Prigionieri di guerra in India e Inghilterra : https://www.facebook.com/groups/155788294767649

I know that the second link is to POWs in India and England but I'm sure I've seen posts about POWs in Australia as well, but maybe not of late.


Best to you with this.

Angela

[AngelaGrace56]

I've just had another thought - as you said you’d recently taken a DNA test, you should be able to search your "DNA Matches" by town. I don’t know which company you used but I use Ancestry and what I do is go to my DNA Matches page, click on Search on top far right, and then enter the town I’m interested in, so you would type in Sellia, Catanzaro, Calabria, Italy. (You don’t have to fill in the other two boxes there (Match name or Surname in matches’ trees). It would be interesting to see what comes up there.

Angela