A. Records Sources There are two main sources for online Italian birth, marriage, and death records: Antenati and FamilySearch. You need to be familiar with both Antenati and FamilySearchsince they provide different record sets.
Antenati The National Archives of Italy Free to use. Does not require an account to access.
B. How to Use Antenati and FamilySearch The websites and videos below are from Antenati and FamilySearch. They provide valuable information, strategies, and guidance on how: (1) to use their resources; (2) to navigate their webpages and screens; and (3) to begin genealogy research.
Click the buttons above to view examples of birth, marriage, and death records. There are 8 records in each group (PDF format). For these records, you will see:
Key genealogical facts underlined in red.
Narrative created from key genealogical facts.
Link to original record and link to associated index. These links take you to the Antenati or FamilySearch records. Browse around, explore, see how navigation works, and begin to get an idea how Antenati and FamilySearch have built their websites.
How the structure of Italian birth, marriage, and death records has changed over the years.
D. Tips for Your Research
1 - Be patient. Explore. Have fun. This work can be done. You can find your Italian ancestors for many generations. While this now seems confusing, start by exploring Antenati and FamilySearch, and getting comfortable with their resources and screens. This process can be rewarding, exhilarating, and frustrating. But when you find someone, it's amazing. You have established a legacy for generations to come. Just have patience!
2 - Work backwards. Work backwards. Start with a recent ancestor, e.g., a Great-Grandfather who married in Italy and immigrated in 1900. If you can find a marriage record, that record should include his age. Knowing age and year of marriage, you can determine estimated year of birth. Now search for his birth record for that year. This becomes an iterative process in which clues in one record lead you to more searches. BTW, search for the estimated year first. If a record is not found, move forward-or-back in years as necessary to cover possibilities.
3 - Know the structure of a record. Italian records provide a wealth of details. Most have "similar" structure and format. This means there are consistent locations within the record for names and facts. With practice, you will be able to quickly pinpoint key locations and words. You can then begin to easily identify names, dates, ages, residences, towns, relationships, occupations, parent's names, spouse's name, etc. Take a look at the examples shown in "Examples of Birth, Marriage, and Death Records" [see Section C above].
4 - Search both Antenati and FamilySearch. You must search both Antenati and FamilySearch. They provide different record sets.
If Antenati does not provide records for your province and town, then check FamilySearch (and vice versa).
Also, let's say you are looking for a 1845 birth record. When you check Antenati, they may only have birth records for 1866-1910. If so, then check FamilySearch for earlier years, perhaps 1806-1865.
Antenati is free and no account is required to access.
5 - Search for your ancestor "by name" in the INDEXED Records first. You may get lucky and find your ancestor in one of the "name indexes" below. These are records in Antenati and FamilySearch that have been completely indexed. This means you can search for your ancestor "by name" using a computer search box. It would be helpful if you knew the province or town of origin, but that is not absolutely necessary (especially if the name is unique). The links below take you to the "search by name" boxes for Antenati and FamilySearch:
6 - Search for your ancestor in the IMAGE-ONLY Records. There are millions of scanned images of birth, marriage, and death records on Antenati and FamilySearch that have not been indexed. You will have to scroll through these unindexed IMAGE-ONLY records to find the desired record. Regardless, this is where the gold is!
Antenati Tips - Scroll down the page to the State Archives section. BTW, State Archives are Provinces. Find the State Archive (Province) you are looking for. Click on the link. You will be taken to a profile page for the State Archive that shows "indexing status" as well as other relevant information about the State Archive. "Indexing status" is critical! If you see "complete," the indexing project has been completed. You may see partial, not scheduled, not contemplated, etc. If records have been digitized and are available for the State Archive, click "Search the registries" button and get started with your search.
FamilySearch Tips - These records are sorted by Province. Scroll down the list to find your province. They may be several collections for a specific province. If so, you may need to check each collection to find your town.
7 - Learn how to navigate IMAGE-ONLY records. Here are suggestions for managing IMAGE-ONLYrecords:
Quickly locate the Index. It has the names and record numbers. Typically, the Index is located at the end of all the records. If it is not at the end, check the beginning. If there is no Index, you will need to scroll through the records one-by-one.
Advance through IMAGE-ONLY pages in chunks (e.g., 50, 100 pages at a time). Your objective is to find a specific reference number within a span of hundreds of pages for a targeted year. You want to move through the pages as quickly as possible.
8 - Records are not yet available for all towns in Italy. Unfortunately, it is possible birth, marriage, and death records for your town have not yet been digitized. If so, check back often. Antenati, FamilySearch, Ancestry, and MyHeritage are adding and indexing records every day. Your town could be next.
9 - Check Ancestry and MyHeritage for Italian records. If you are an Ancestry or MyHeritage user, check them. Ancestry has Italian records (although not as many as Antenati and FamilySearch). I do not have a MyHeritage account, so I am not sure about their holdings.
10 - Know the Time Periods for Italian vital records. Civil registration began in Italy in the early 1800's. You may see records grouped in the following three time periods: 1. Stato CivileNapoleonico [Napoleonic] ... 1806-1815. 2. Stato Civile Restaurazione [Restoration] ... 1816-1865. 3. Stato Civile Italiano [Italian] ... 1866-most recent year digitized.
11 - Get ready for Italian & Latin. Italian Civil Records are written in Italian. Church Records in Latin. Not many of us know either. There are many resources, online or in the bookstore, that provide a quick-start to Italian and Latin. Also, look at Resourcesto see help for Italian and Latin translations.
12 - Review Resources for help with Italian genealogy. Look at Resources for recommended articles and videos to help with your Italian genealogy. In addition, there are many other Italian genealogy resources available online or in the bookstore.