Greek immigrant 1870,S

[Linbold]

Can anyone help me please. My GGG grandfather was born in Kefalonia,Greece in 1853 and was married in Kirkdale in 1879. His marriage certificate states his name to be Demetrius Zivarona (which later became Zeverona as per census records and children’s surnames). He was killed in a warehouse accident in 1892 in Luton Street, Kirkdale. His Greek surname was not Zeverona as the only people in the world with the same name are descendants of him. He states his fathers name as Nicholas (a gentleman). I assume he could write but only in Greek and the Greek alphabet is very different to ours with many different symbols eg D is a triangle. Can anyone tell me how I could find any documentation of his arrival into this country which might lead to me discovering his real surname ? Any help or tips would be

[MaryA]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

This is a new sphere of research to me and I'll be watching with interest to see if anybody has any suggestions.

The only things I can think of at present is to check the National Archives site and perhaps see if there were naturalisation papers.

There is also a Facebook Group called Greek Cypriots growing up in the UK, perhaps you may find others with similar stories and suggestions of where to search.

The Greek Church in Liverpool may have kept records, it's a place well worth visiting just to see the beauty of it, but they could be the ones to ask for help

[Blue70]

Looking online at the history of the island it was a British protectorate when he was born. His family could have come to the island from elsewhere in the Mediterranean just as various nationalities are known to have settled in other British territories. The surname doesn't look Greek to me. It sounds more Italian to me and seems to imply a place of origin, Verona in Italy.


Blue

[Blue70]

Looking at US immigration/travel/census records there are Greeks called Varona, Verona, Varonis, Veronis, Vronis, Vironis etc which could be a similar surname.


Blue

[Blue70]

There was a Scottish singer called Lena Zavaroni her grandfather was from Italy according to wiki. That surname could have similar origins.


Blue

[Linbold]

Thanks so much for your thoughts and suggestions. The Italian theory is definately something to consider as the Venetians dominated Greece for 300 years didn’t they. I have searched the record books in the town hall in Argostoli, the capital of Kefalonia and there is no surname remotely like Zeverona and I agree it really doesn’t sound Greek. But he states that he was born there. This is why I think he has arrived with papers written in Greek - maybe unreadable to the marriage resgistrar and has pronounced his name for them to write. There are people on Kefalonia called Svoronos and they claim that this would be his name - the Greek letter S is like an old fashioned Z. Hmmm. I think trying the Greek church is well worth doing as they may shed light on what must be a common problem for Greek immigrants of this time - and also the greek/Cypriot web site. I will let you know how I get on. Thanks so much xx