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Genealogy in Italy -The Basics
Looking to do genealogy research about Italy? Have you tracked down a marriage or death certificate that indicates your ancestor was born somewhere in Italy? Here are the basic ways to get information on Italian genealogy.
Narrow Down the Search
Looking in "all of Italy" is rather tough. Make sure you research the death certificate, marriage certificate, census listings, newspaper obituary listings. Any of these might mention the city as well as the country of Italy. Check immigration records, and naturalization records.
After 1860, Italy was a Nation
In 1860, the various parts of Italy merged together into one nation, and began to consolidate their record keeping. If you are looking for a relative recent ancestor, that is after 1860 or so, you can usually contact the regional storage location for the records. Also, you can be pretty sure that the records do *exist*.
Before 1860, Italy was many separate entities
Each region of Italy had its own rules about what records they kept. In some areas, they kept strict records for birth, marriage and death. In other areas, only births and marriages were noted. Keep in mind that death records are always a bit suspect, because they are recorded by people OTHER than the individual, who might get locations and dates wrong.
On Line Resources
VERY few Italian towns are on line. You will probably have to write a real, snail mail letter (IN ITALIAN) to the town hall of the area you're interested in to get results.
Here is an on line tool to help you track down the address you need to write:
Daddezio Italian Town Finder
It provides sample letters in Italian and what each area stores. When you sent along a check, send about $10 per name to research, and send it in an International Money Order. Do not send US money!
Sample Italian Letter
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Note - Lisa Shea wrote this content for the genealogy site at BellaOnline.com - you might still find this content there as well. That's fine :) I gave permission!
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