Talking with older relatives and searching through ship manifests, draft cards, or naturalization records are great ways to start.
However, Italy’s records are created at the town [comune] or parish (parrocchia) level, and research there requires a certain amount of detective work.
Table of Contents
Civil Registration Records
Civil registration birth, marriage, and death records—often called vital records—record important life events and are essential to family history research. Although these documents are not available in every location, most countries have some form of them. Some countries, such as Ireland and the United States, began statewide vital record keeping in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Other countries, such as Italy and Sicily, started the practice later.
Only recently, many Italian-Americans struggled to access these records because the language was complex, and the spelling needed to be more consistent. These problems were resolved with the release of Italian-language transcripts and translation tools.
While these resources are helpful, more is needed for some researchers. Family historians need more detailed information to identify ancestors, especially in the early years of a civil registration system.
One way to get this additional information is by examining church and town records and newspapers like the Italian Ancestry search for clues about an ancestor’s place of birth. Other sources of this information include family Bibles, genealogies, local histories and biographies, cemetery records, census records, land records, court records, immigration applications, naturalization papers, and obituaries.
The country’s most extensive Italian language and Italian-American newspaper collection is at the Immigration History Research Center (IHRC) Archives in Minneapolis. IHRC staff can help you find the correct record and arrange off-site research. IHRC also publishes a newsletter, Pursuing Our Italian Names Together, which includes articles about tracing Italian genealogy. You can learn more about the IHRC at their website.
Church Records
Depending on when and where an Italian ancestor was born, church records may be beneficial in extending family lines. Marriage supplements (allegati) help identify parents, grandparents, and previous spouses. They also contain a lot of other information that can be used for further research (for example, the names and locations of witnesses to the wedding and whether or not the bride or groom was underage).
Baptismal, marriage, and death/burial records have very similar formats; it is essential to understand those formats to find the appropriate forms. The church archives will also provide helpful historical material for congregational outreach efforts, such as heritage rooms or anniversary celebrations. The archival files will also help church leaders evaluate past promotional activities and programs and may aid in developing future procedures, policies, and statements.
While it is possible to do genealogy research in Italy without being fluent in the language, it is recommended that genealogists wishing to research Italian ancestry do so at least with some familiarity with nineteenth-century Italian script and social history. A researcher should also have a basic understanding of administrative practice in Italy, including that acts of birth, marriage, and death before 1860 can be consulted only at the stato civile office of the Municipio (city hall) where an ancestor lived.
Newspapers
Newspapers are regularly published collections of brief articles that report current events, opinions, and information. They can be general interests or have specialized topics. Most are published daily or weekly, but some are monthly, bi-weekly, or less frequently. They are generally printed on low-cost paper called newsprint, and most carry advertising. Newspapers have been around for centuries, their direct ancestors were the Acta Diurna (“daily acts”) of ancient Rome, and manuscript newsletters circulated in Europe after the Middle Ages.
Newspaper articles can contain information about births, marriages and deaths, political developments, crime, and other issues of public concern. They also include editorials (or columns) or political cartoons expressing opinions about various current events. Newspaper owners and editors usually have solid ideological leanings evident from their editorials.
Because of their wide range of topics, newspapers are a good source for finding many types of genealogical information. They are also a great way to see how a particular community lived at a given time, which can help you understand their beliefs, values, and attitudes. The most important thing to remember about using newspapers as a genealogy resource is that they must be used cautiously. Not all newspapers have been indexed, so searching for a specific name may not return matches.
Military Records
For many Italians, military records provide a glimpse of their family’s history. These records contain a wealth of information about an individual’s service and the details surrounding that service. They can also offer insight into the impact of war on those who remained at home.
The best way to understand these records is to view them in their original context, which may be difficult, depending on when your ancestor served. The first step is determining your ancestor’s town of origin. This can be done by reviewing their ship manifest, draft card, or naturalization papers. Naturalization records often provide a precise date of naturalization, which can help clear any confusion about the dates in other documents.
Once you know your ancestor’s town of origin, locating their records will be much easier. Unlike America, Italy does not have a centralized system of records, so all documents relevant to your search must be viewed in the provincial archives where they lived.
This can be daunting, especially for those who need more linguistic skills to do so in Italian. However, there are some helpful online resources to use to get started. For example, the New York City-based Italian Genealogy Group has several databases available that include an index to birth and marriage records and conscription records.
Also, Read – 5 Ways How Virtual Bookkeeping Can Save Your Business Finances
