Re: Elizabeth Steel born Messina Sicily 1816
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In reply to:
Re: Elizabeth Steel born Messina Sicily 1816
Nicola Bridgwater 1/01/10
There are two possiblities firstly and most likely he was serving in the Army in Sicily - Britain was allied to the Kingdom of Naples fighting against Napolean in Italy, I have a CD of the discharge records for soldiers from Yorkshire regiments leaving the army at that time and could check that if you let me know his name. Otherwise you may find a record of the birth on the regimental registers or army chaplain returns. The Yorks and Lancs were moving from the Mediterreanian to northern Spain about that time.
Alternatively she may have been born at sea on a British ship either in Messina harbour or on a ship on route to Messina.
I had no luck with Elizabeth although tantalizingly there was a James Steel who lived a few hundred yards away from her who was "born on board ship at Spithead" in about 1825, so maybe a brother with a father in the Navy, but as I have no information on Elizabeths father it is also possible she was Italian and had changed her name from Stilli and falsely claimed to be a British subject, that her father was in the army but the birth wasn't registered (the registers are far from complete),that her father was one of the many British merchants in Sicily at the time or that her father was in one of the German regiments in the British Army in Italy at the time - Steel is also a German name. So she remains a mystery
More Replies:
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Re: Elizabeth Steel born Messina Sicily 1816
Nicola Bridgwater 1/09/10