The known history of the Gallini family goes back to the 1600's in Florence, Italy and without the immense hard work, commitment and determination of family members during the past ten years to research into the history of the descendants of Giovanni Gallini born in Florence, to gather historical genealogy evidence and collate it, non of this information would have been so readily available for us all to share today on this web site. This web site aims to enable a visitor to see a "snap shot" about the lives, the times, the history and the troubles of our ancestors. For the best results, use Firefox internet browser.

Giovanni or Sir John Gallini as he would later be known in English Society of the day, had a profound effect on the Opera in London between 1750 and 1800 and under his regime, the Kings Theatre and Hanover Square Rooms began to produce performances equal to those of the major Italian opera-houses. For nearly fifty years, Gallini had led the opera and ballet in London, taught a generation of aristocrats to dance and married one of them, made a substantial fortune as impresario of the chief concert venue in London and proved to be one of the most successful opera managers of the eighteenth century. His marriage to Lady Elizabeth Bertie brought together into this family, the Bertie's and the Willoughby's stretching back before the times of the Norman Conquest. It is thought that Lady Elizabeth Bertie and the Bertie family can trace their ancestry back to Rollo the Viking, William the Conqueror's grandfather.

After the death of her husband Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, Catherine married Sir Richard Bertie and as history shows, they were at the centre of the politics of the day within the Tudor dynasty. A book by Paul Zahl summarises and takes seriously the theological ideas of five Protestant women in sixteenth-century England: Anne Boleyn, Katharine Parr, Jane Grey, Anne Askew, and Catherine Willoughby. Yattendon in Berkshire and Grimsthorpe in Lincolnshire, played a large part in the lives of our ancestors and these still exist today as they did in the eighteenth century.

Perhaps you did not fully appreciate the history of your ancestors and it is our hope that you will spend a few minutes looking at not only your ancestors but your other relatives in the family history.We want to try to add additional materials, like photographs, documents and other historical information relating to the activities of our ancestors. One of the pictures shows Her Majesty's Theatre, Haymarket, London today which, as the Kings Theatre or London Opera House was where Sir John (Giovanni) Gallini was owner, manager and impresario, one shows the life and times of Catherine Willoughby and Sir Richard Bertie and one the history of Yattendon.

If you read the various pages listed below, it will help you to build up a picture of the times and the people but if you want to know more detail, there is plenty of information readily available. In particular, please spend a little time looking at your immediate family members. Do you have photographs of your children, parents, grandparents even maybe great grandparents. Can you send a copy so that they can be included in the data. It is impossible to produce a family tree diagram at the moment but future releases of the software may offer this option. Please check your immediate family to ensure that the information we hold is accurate and do please tell other family members that this web site about their ancestors is now available.

Our aim is to update the family history with new pages in the future. You find details on the contacts page if you would like submit missing information. If you know the email address of a family member, please forward it and we can add it to our records. This will give us the chance to keep everyone updated with progress, news and events and can all digital images please be sent as jpeg images. Finally, please be assured that any details you send about living parents, siblings and children, will be kept strictly private.

Disclaimer: Data Protection Act (1998) - all data on this site is for non commercial family and domestic use.