Italy Genealogy

Europe

Italy

Guide to Italy ancestry, family history, and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records.

Italy Wiki Topics
Beginning Research
Research Strategies Record Finder Finding Place of Origin
Record Types
Census Church Directories Church Records Civil Registration Court Records Directories Emigration & Immigration Genealogies Heraldry Italian Infant Abandonment Jewish Records	Military Records Nobility Notarial Records Occupations Online Records Other Records Periodicals Place of Origin Probate Records Religious Records School Records Taxation
Italy Background
Biography Church History Gazetteers Handwriting Historical Geography History Italian Word List	Latin Word List Languages Letter Writing Guide Maps Names, Personal Social Life & Customs For Further Reading
Cultural Groups
Cultural Groups
Local Research Resources
Archives & Libraries Societies Family History Centers

Country Information

Italy is a country in Southwestern Europe bordered by France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, and Vatican City. It became a unified country in 1861. The official language is Italian.

Getting Started

Getting Started with Italy Research Links to articles on getting started with Italy research. Italy Research Guide Italy Genealogy Research Using the Wiki – Video Series: Fourteen five-minute instructional videos training you in how to use this Wiki to find civil registration and church records for Italy. "How to" Guides Italy Gathering Information to Locate Place of Origin Research Strategies Guided Research See More Research Strategies

Italy Research Tools Links to articles and websites that assist in Italy research. Latin Genealogical Word List Italian Genealogical Word List French Genealogical Word List German Genealogical Word List Italy Letter Writing Guide Italy Civil Registration Italian Birth Document Translation (pre-unification) Italian Birth Document Translation (post-unification) Italian Marriage Document Translations Italian Civil Death Document Translation (pre-unification) Italian Civil Death Document Translation (post-unification) Surname Maps See More Research Tools

Italy Online Genealogy Records

Ask the Community

Locating Town of Origin in Italy

In order to research your family in Italy, it is essential that you have identified the place where they came from. You must know the city, town, or parish that they came from. A few records are indexed, but many records will require going directly to photocopied local records, which are only available by town name. It will be difficult to identify the place of origin by going directly to Italy sources. Therefore, you will need to search in United States (or other country of arrival) sources first. See Italy Gathering Information to Locate Place of Origin to learn how to search for the Italian place of origin in United States records.

Italy Clickable Map

Genealogy records are kept on the state, province, and local level in Italy. Click on a province or use the list of province links under Jurisdictions.

Jurisdictions

Regions

Italy is subdivided into 20 regions (regioni, singular regione). Five of these regions have a special autonomous status that enables them to enact legislation on some of their local matters, and are marked by an asterisk (*). It is further divided into 109 provinces (provincie) and 8,101 municipalities (comuni). Records are kept at the town level.

• Abruzzo
• Aosta Valley*
• Apulia (Puglia)
• Basilicata
• Calabria
• Campania
• Emilia-Romagna
• Friuli-Venezia Giulia*
• Lazio
• Liguria
• Lombardy (Lombardia)
• Marche
• Molise
• Piedmont (Piemonte)
• Sardinia (Sardegna)*
• Sicily (Sicilia)*
• Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol*
• Tuscany (Toscana)
• Umbria
• Veneto

Provinces

Agrigento, Sicily Alessandria, Piedmont Ancona, Marche Aosta, Valle d’Aosta Arezzo, Tuscany Ascoli Piceno, Marche Asti, Piedmont Avellino, Campania Bari, Apulia Barletta-Andria-Trani, Apulia Belluno, Veneto Benevento, Campania Bergamo, Lombardy Biella, Piedmont Bologna, Emilia-Romagna Bolzano or South Tyrol, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol Brescia, Lombardy Brindisi, Apulia Cagliari, Sardinia Caltanissetta, Sicily Campobasso, Molise Carbonia-Iglesias, Sardinia Caserta, Campania Catania, Sicily Catanzaro, Calabria Chieti, Abruzzo Como, Lombardy Cosenza, Calabria Cremona, Lombardy Crotone, Calabria Cuneo, Piedmont Enna, Sicily Fermo, Marche Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna Florence (Firenze), Tuscany Foggia, Apulia Forlì-Cesena, Emilia-Romagna Frosinone, Lazio Genoa (Genova), Liguria Gorizia, Friuli-Venezia Giulia Grosseto, Tuscany Imperia, Liguria Isernia, Molise La Spezia, Liguria L’Aquila, Abruzzo Latina, Lazio Lecce, Apulia Lecco, Lombardy Livorno, Tuscany Lodi, Lombardy Lucca, Tuscany Macerata, Marche Mantua (Mantova), Lombardy Massa and Carrara, Tuscany Matera, Basilicata Medio Campidano, Sardinia Messina, Sicily Milan (Milano), Lombardy Modena, Emilia-Romagna Monza and Brianza, Lombardy Naples (Napoli), Campania Novara, Piedmont Nuoro, Sardinia Ogliastra, Sardinia Olbia-Tempio, Sardinia Oristano, Sardinia Padua (Padova), Veneto Palermo, Sicily Parma, Emilia-Romagna Pavia, Lombardy Perugia, Umbria Pesaro and Urbino, Marche Pescara, Abruzzo Piacenza, Emilia-Romagna Pisa, Tuscany Pistoia, Tuscany Pordenone, Friuli-Venezia Giulia Potenza, Basilicata Prato, Tuscany Ragusa, Sicily Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna Reggio Calabria, Calabria Reggio Emilia, Emilia-Romagna Rieti, Lazio Rimini, Emilia-Romagna Rome (Roma), Lazio Rovigo, Veneto Salerno, Campania Sassari, Sardinia Savona, Liguria Siena, Tuscany Sondrio, Lombardy South Tyrol (Bolzano – Alto Adige), Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol Syracuse (Siracusa), Sicily Taranto, Apulia Teramo, Abruzzo Terni, Umbria Trapani, Sicily Trento (Torino), Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol Treviso, Veneto Trieste, Friuli-Venezia Giulia Turin, Piedmont Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia Varese, Lombardy Venice (Venezia), Veneto Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, Piedmont Vercelli, Piedmont Verona, Veneto Vibo Valentia, Calabria Vicenza, Veneto Viterbo, Lazio

More Italy Research Strategies

Research strategies give guidance on how to research or what records to search for first. Below are additional research strategy Wiki articles for Italy.

• Interpreting Italian records
• Finding Records of Your Ancestors, Italy 1809-1910
• Locating Italian Birth Records: 1520-1808, 1809-1865, 1866-Present
• Locating Italian Marriage Records: 1520-1808, 1809-1865, 1866-present
• Locating Italian Death Records: 1520-1808, 1809-1865, 1866-present

More Italy Research Tools

Research tools can include resources that assist in locating correct records to search and determining the correct locality to search in. Below are links and Wiki articles to research tools in Italy.

• Italian Occupations List
  
• Italy Websites
• Translation of printed civil marriage forms
• Translation of printed civil death form
• Italian names in the 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881 and 1891 England censuses. (Anglo-Italian Family History Society)
• Family History Research Outline - contains many out-of-date links

FamilySearch Resources

Below are FamilySearch resources that can assist you in researching your family.

• Facebook Communities - Facebook groups discussing genealogy research
• Historical Records
• Family History Center locator map
• Related FS blog article

Italy Research Tutorials

• You Tube Wiki Wizard in Italy: Thirteen instructional YouTube videos on research in the church and civil records of Italy.
• Basic Italian Research: Many online records became available after this tutorial was created.
• Reading Italian Handwritten Records:
  • Lesson 1: The Italian Alphabet
  • Lesson 2: Words and Phrases
  • Lesson 3: Reading Italian Records