Finding Your Italian Ancestors: A Beginner's Guide

By Suzanne Russo Adams

For millions of Americans, home means Italy, where their roots started years ago. In Finding Your Italian Ancestors, you'll discover the tools you need to trace your ancestors back to the homeland. Learn how and where to find records in the United States and Italy, get practical advice on deciphering those hard-to-read documents, and explore valuable online resources. The guide also includes maps, multiple glossaries, and an extensive bibliography.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ancestry.com
• Release date: Jan 1, 2009
• ISBN: 9781618589897

Book preview

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Other titles in the Finding Your Ancestors series:

Finding Your Irish Ancestors

Your Swedish Roots

Finding Your African American Ancestors

Finding Your Canadian Ancestors

Finding Your German Ancestors

Finding Your Mexican Ancestors

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Adams, Suzanne Russo.

Finding your Italian ancestors : a beginner’s guide / Suzanne Russo Adams.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

9781618589897

1. Italian Americans—Genealogy—Handbooks, manuals, etc. 2. Italy—Genealogy—Handbooks, manuals, etc. I. Title.

E184.I8A33 2008

929’.1072—dc22

2008048571

Copyright © 2008

The Generations Network, Inc.

Published by

Ancestry Publishing, a division of The Generations Network, Inc.

360 West 4800 North

Provo, Utah 84604

www.ancestry.com

All rights reserved.

All brand and product names are trademarks or

registered trademarks of their respective companies.

No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form

without written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer,

who may quote brief passages for review.

First Printing 2008

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

ISBN-13: 978-1-59331-324-1

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Other titles in the Finding Your Ancestors series:

Title Page

Copyright Page

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION

1 - GETTING STARTED

2 - BEGINNING YOUR SEARCH IN THE UNITED STATES

3 - FINDING YOUR PLACE OF ORIGIN

4 - ITALIAN CIVIL RECORDS 1866 TO THE PRESENT

5 - PRE-UNIFICATION CIVIL RECORDS

6 - ECCLESIASTICAL RECORDS

7 - READING THE RECORDS

8 - RECORDS IN ITALIAN ARCHIVES

9 - RESEARCHING ITALIAN ANCESTORS ONLINE

APPENDIX A

APPENDIX B - TIMELINE OF ITALIAN HISTORY

APPENDIX C - SAMPLE LETTERS

APPENDIX D - SOCIETIES

APPENDIX E - RESEARCH RESOURCES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Years ago a friend of mine told me, Once you visit Italy, your heart will be in two places for forever more. I wasn’t sure I believed her. But now that I have been there I must admit that she was right.

For this work I must first thank God for the love of family, culture, and Italy that has been instilled in me. Although they have passed on, I am grateful to my nana and nanu for sharing their Sicilian culture, food, stories, and memories and for helping me to know the importance of family. I am especially grateful to my parents and to my siblings for their encouragement. I am also thankful to my husband and daughter for the joy they bring to my life and for their patience with me while working on this project. I am also grateful to many colleagues and friends for their advice, experiences, and expertise and for reading and editing the manuscript, sharing documents, and helping with transcriptions and translations. For all these things a special thanks goes to Ruth Lapioli Merriman, Paola Manfredi, Kerry Farnsworth, and George Ryskamp. I must also thank my great friends at Ancestry Publishing—Jennifer Utley, Loretto Szucs, Tana L. Pedersen, Matthew Rayback, and Rob Davis—for making this all happen; I most definitely could not have done this without you.

INTRODUCTION

Our people have to emigrate. It is a matter of too much boundless life and too little space.

—Pasquale D’Angelo, Son of Italy

Italian family history is a thrilling and fascinating adventure. For centuries, Italians have been explorers of new lands, inventors, and adventurers. Their modern travels to America are no less thrilling.

Genealogy is said to be one of the fastest growing hobbies in the United States. In a market research study done in 2005 more than 73 percent of Americans said that they were interested in researching their roots, and the fact that you are reading this book shows that you are among a great majority of people who are curious and want to learn more about their ancestors.

There are various reasons to search out one’s ancestry, from a simple curiosity about where you came from to a desire to know who your ancestors were, where they lived, and what they did. Other reasons might include a love of solving puzzles, researching your health history, leaving a legacy for future generations, or just the emotional satisfaction that comes from a fun hobby. Whatever your reasons are I hope that you are excited about getting started and eager at the prospects of what you will find.

Over the years the definition of genealogy has changed and expanded. You now hear the term family history used quite a bit to describe the process of tracing your family tree. This book is designed to help you find and extend your family tree as well as give you ideas about places to look and record sources to search that will add interesting facts to your family tree other than just the names, dates, and places that many of us associate with genealogy.

I first became interested in my family tree in college, I couldn’t seem to get enough of Italy and the culture ... perhaps it was because for the first time in my life I was away from home and needed something with which I could genuinely identify. Something that made me just a little different than everyone around me—my family. Each of us has a different reason for choosing to begin our family history. I hope for you that this is the beginning of a very rewarding experience and lifelong pursuit of learning!

In bocca a lupo (good luck), Suzanne Russo Adams

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1

GETTING STARTED

It is very important when beginning your family history to start with a plan. Having a plan will ultimately save you time and prevent you from barking up the wrong family tree. Here are a few tips to get you started.

WRITE DOWN WHAT YOU KNOW

When first starting our family history, sometimes we try to do too much at once. The first step is to start with what you know. Write down information you already have on a pedigree chart, or input the information into a genealogy program. There are several programs available, including Family Tree Maker, Legacy, Personal Ancestral File (PAF), Reunion (for Mac users), and others. After you have chosen the program that best suits your personal needs, you are ready to get going.

Record facts such as birth and marriage dates about yourself and then work backwards. Always work from the known to the unknown. In other words, start with you, your parents, and your grandparents and steadily work through each generation, filling in as much information as you can about your family. If you don’t know all the answers, don’t panic. That is what this exercise is all about.

FREE TREE-BUILDING OPTIONS

Several types of tree-building programs are available for free on the Web. Here are some great options:

Personal Ancestral File

<www.familysearch.org/Eng/default.asp>

Legacy Family Tree Starter Edition

<www.legacyfamilytree.com>

Online Family Trees at Ancestry.com

<www.ancestry.com>

LOOK FOR THESE SOURCES AT HOME

Alien registration cards

Birth certificates or announcements

Marriage certificates

Death certificates

Family Bibles

Journals or diaries

Obituaries

Remembrance cards

Passports

Passenger ship tickets or papers

Photos

Naturalization papers

Military service records, certificates, or medals

Wills

Land records

Newspaper clippings

HOME SOURCES

The best place to start your family history is at home. Look around. Do you have any old documents that may be helpful, such as birth, death, or marriage certificates; obituaries; photos; or family Bibles? If you don’t find them in your house, ask parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other extended family if they have any keepsakes. Certain precious heirlooms, photos, or family papers may have been passed to a family member, and you were not aware of it. It doesn’t hurt to ask everyone what they have that may contribute to piecing together your family’s history.

There are many other types of family memorabilia you may find around the house. Start digging and see what you can find.

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Figure 1-1: An alien registration record like this is an example of a home source you might find for your immigrant ancestor. Not only does this include important dates and places, it also has a personal description, photo, signature, and fingerprint of the individual.

ASK FAMILY MEMBERS FOR INFORMATION

Italian Americans, for the most part, are only a few generations away from their immigrant ancestor. Since many of our grandparents and great-grandparents came to this country, there may be living members of the family who know the town of origin in Italy or have documents that can prove a connection to the Old World. It is usually in your best interest to talk to as many family members as possible. You will find that each member of the family has a different view of growing up and what they remember about the stories they may have been told as a child or how the family really was. Don’t forget to ask them if they have any old documents or photographs they’d be willing to share.

Sometimes, one member of your family will tell you not to talk to another relative, claiming that the other individual will not have the information that you are looking for. No member of the family is off limits when it comes to researching; each member of a family has a unique view and could potentially provide valuable information for your research.

ORAL HISTORY RESOURCES

If you’re interested in learning more about conducting your own family interviews, consider the following books:

Huberman, Rob and Laura. How to Create a Video Family History: The Complete Guide to Interviewing and Taping Your Family’s Stories & Memories. Margate, NJ: ComteQ Communications LLC, 2003.

LoVerde, Mary. Touching Tomorrow: How to Interview Your Loved Ones to Capture a Lifetime of Memories on Video or Audio. New York: Fireside, 2000.

Seligman, Marc A. Preserving Family Memories: A Guide to Creating Oral Histories. Ringoes, NJ: Blue Tree Books, 2004.

Shumway, Gary L., and William G. Hartley. An Oral History Primer. Salt Lake City, UT: Primer Publications, 1975.

You can also find great information on the Web. Check out Cyndi’s List, Oral History & Interviews at <www.cyndislist.com/oral.htm>.

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Figure 1-2: Photographs passed down through the family are a great way to start your search. Don’t forget to check the back for names, dates, or other identifying information.

You might also want to consider conducting oral histories of certain family members. Begin by making a list of the people in your family you would like to interview and put them in order of age from oldest to youngest. Start with the oldest and ask the questions you would like to know about your family. Make sure the questions are open-ended enough that the person has an opportunity to expound and add detail to what they are saying. If you can, record these interviews so you can go back later and get all of the details. Besides, if you tape the interviews, you have just preserved priceless stories about your ancestors and living relatives.

WHAT’S ALREADY BEEN DONE?

Compiled sources are records that have been compiled from many different places and in many instances are called or considered secondary sources. Secondary sources are records or other information created after an event occurred. For example, compiled (published or non-published) family histories, newspaper obituaries, and town or county histories are all considered secondary sources.

There are many compiled sources that may be helpful in doing your Italian family history. Try searching online for family trees that have already been researched. For example, Ancestry.com, Genealogy.com, and FamilySearch.org all have large databases of family trees that have been submitted to them from people all over the world. You may find that a distant cousin has been working on the same family tree as you. You may also be able to find useful information that will help you to begin researching. Organizations such as P.O.I.N.T. (Pursuing Our Italian Names Together) are great ways to network with other researchers.

Just because someone else has done research that seems to match your family doesn’t mean that it’s accurate or that the people are your relatives. Weigh out all the possibilities in your mind and ask yourself if the data makes sense. Then, with the family records you find, you can prove or disprove what has been said or published previously. This is all about piecing together a puzzle; some pieces may look like they fit at first but may not be exactly the one that you are looking for.

DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT TO KNOW

It’s time to make a plan. Look at the information you have and the facts that are missing. Decide which person or family you would like to learn more about and set a goal. For example: I know Giuseppe Calandra was born in Palermo, Palermo, Italy, in 1851. And I discovered that he married Pietra D’Agostino in 1874, but I don’t know when he died. My goal is to search for his death record and add its information to my pedigree chart.

FIND THE RECORDS

After you’ve gathered all your home sources, talked to your relatives, and found out what family information has already been published, you’re ready to start your own search for records.

Locate It

There are many ways to accomplish this. You can locate records in libraries; archives; courthouses; or county, local, and state offices. This book will explore many possibilities that exist for you to locate records relating to your Italian family.

Evaluate It

After you have located a record about your ancestor, you will want to analyze it. Ask yourself, did I find the information I was looking for? Does the information match what I have found previously or know about the family already? Does it contain clues that can help me locate other records or information?

Document It

Don’t forget to document what you have found—and not found, for that matter. Let’s face it. All of us lead very busy lives and in an information age it is often difficult to remember who said what and keep track of when we learned certain bits of information. I often have to write down or store on my computer the things I need to accomplish in any given day, so why should it be any different for my family tree?

Documenting the progress you have made helps you determine where you need to go next as well as figure out what you have already done. Suppose you have a few hours to research one day, but then don’t have a spare moment again for a few weeks or even months. A lot can happen in that time, and it is difficult for anyone to remember what they had for dinner last night let alone what research they did a few months ago on a particular family line. Sometimes if we don’t write the information down we can end up searching for the same record time and time again and not get anywhere with our research, but with good documentation we can simply pick up where we left off on our research trail.

Early in your genealogical research it is important to get acquainted with how to handle sourcing your records. Books and more books have been written on this subject. One of the best is Evidence! Citation and Analysis for the Family Historian by Elizabeth Shown Mills. You might also try A Manual for Documenting Family Histories and Genealogical Records by Richard S. Lackey.

ORGANIZE YOUR RESEARCH

So, what’s the best way to record the research you’ve already done? The following page contains an example of a research log, or research calendar. Many people like to use preprinted forms to record their research path; however, a notebook or computer program of your choice works just as well. The main things that you will want to record are: your ancestor’s name, your objective (i.e., what you are trying to accomplish), the locality/area you are searching, the date and time of your search, the location or call number where you found the information, a description of the record/source