Italian Roots Resources

Profile managers: Chris Ferraiolo [send private message], I. Caruso [send private message], Frank Santoro [send private message], and Italy Project WikiTree [send private message]

Team Leader: Frank Santoro

The Italy Project has a number of resources at its disposal from all over the Internet. Here is a comprehensive list of links that can help serve you on your journey to find your Italian roots, including some helpful pages on WikiTree.

How to source

• Help:Sources
• Sources-Italy
• New app for creating Antenati source citations

Primary sources

• Vinny DaBody's Big List of Italian Civil and Church Records available online - the list is sorted by region, and then by province and comune within each region. If you don't know which province your ancestor's comune is located in, use a tool like Italian Wikipedia to find out.

• Portale Antenati: Gli Archivi per la Ricerca Anagrafica - FamilySearch is working with the Italian State Archives to index Italian civil records; the original digital images are available at this site.

• FamilySearch holds separate collections of Italian civil and church records. Note: due to a new agreement between the ‘Direzione Generale degli Archivi’ of the Italian Ministry of Culture and FamilySearch, digitized documents in Italian state archives will no longer be visible in any way on the FamilySearch portal, not even by going to a FamilySearch Center or FamilySearch Affiliate Library, but only on the Antenati portal. (This new agreement applies only to holdings in the State Archives. Church records and civil records filmed in the tribunale or in comune offices are not subject to this agreement so will remain on FamilySearch unless those separate agreements change.) See also: Italy on FamilySearch.org

• Italian Parish Records - a project working to film and index church records from all over Italy

• Ellis Island - http://ellisisland.org

• List of Newspaper Archives - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:List_of_online_newspaper_archives#Italy

• Register of the Fallen During the Great War (World War I) - https://www.cadutigrandeguerra.it/Default.aspx

• Database for Fallen during Prima Guerra Mondiale (WWI) and Seconda Guerra Mondiale (WW2) - https://archiviostoricogalvanin.altervista.org/ricerca-dei-caduti-italiani-elenco-caduti-prima-guerra-mondiale-elenco-caduti-seconda-guerra-mondiale/ (Might not be working properly at the moment Caruso-344 13:37, 1 May 2022 (UTC) )

• Sicilian Riveli Records- Early Censuses of Sicily - https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/Italy_Sicilian_Riveli_Records

Secondary sources

• Italian America, Magazine of Italian American Heritage

Regional sources

• Archivio Storico Diocesano Agrigento - Parish registers for the Diocese of Agrigento

• Archivio Storico Diocesano Reggio Calabria - Bova - Parish registers for the Diocese of Reggio Calabria - Bova

• Fonti per ricerche genealogiche nella provincia di Reggio Calabria - Reggio Calabria Genealogy Resources

• Valledolmo Genealogy Resources - For those descended from the people of Valledolmo, Sicily

• Modugno Genealogy - Indexes of civil records from Modugno, Apulia

• Finding Your Agnone Ancestral Families - Indexes of church and civil records of Agnone, Molise

• Polizzi Generosa Genealogy - Resources for descendants of Polizzi Generosa, Sicily

• 20th Century Vital Records of Polizzi Generosa

• Ariano Irpino Genealogy - Indexes of civil records from Ariano Irpino, Campania

• App to find deceased persons in the cemeteries of the comune of Milano - https://www.comune.milano.it/servizi/trova-un-defunto-in-un-cimitero-scarica-l-app

• App to find deceased persons in the cemeteries of Asti - https://www.asp.asti.it/servizi-cimiteriali/app-asticimiteri/

Italian names

• Italian Surname Tool

• Italian Surname Distribution Map

• Origin of Italian Surnames (in Italian)

• Italian Male Given Names

• Italian Female Given Names

• History/derivation/locations for Italian surname - :http://www.ganino.com/cognomi_italiani

• Italian Surnames: Their History and Meaning-https://ancestralfindings.com/italian-surnames-their-history-and-meaning/

• Italian Journal article: "How did Vincenzo become James? " - http://magazine.italianjournal.it/how-did-vincenzo-become-james/

Vocabulary

• WikiTree: Extracting Information from Italian Records

• Records Extraction Guide - https://script.byu.edu/Pages/Italian/en/guide.aspx From the BYU Department of History and the Center for Family History & Genealogy

• Italian Genealogy Word List - https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/Italian_Genealogical_Word_List

• Italian Professions list - https://script.byu.edu/Plugins/FileManager/Files/Documents/Italian_Extraction_Guide-Section_D.pdf" - From the BYU Department of History and the Center for Family History & Genealogy

• Wikibooks List of Italian Vocabulary for Professions - https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Italian/Vocabulary/Professions

• Professions in Italy and Sicily"'

• Writing to Italy:-http://www.angelfire.com/ok3/pearlsofwisdom/saviello2.html

• Italy - Obtain a Family Status Certificate-http://www.wikiprocedure.com/index.php/Italy_-_Obtain_a_Family_Status_Certificate

Translations and Research Communities

• Genealogical Translations Italian Documents Translation Resources

There are numerous Facebook groups that are very helpful. Most members go out of their way to help with research and translations:

• Southern Italian Genealogy Network
• Sicilian and Aeolian Islands Genealogy
• Abruzzo Italy Genealogy
• Italian Genealogy
• Italian Genealogical Group
• My Italian Family Tree
• Southern Europe Genealogy Research Community

• WikiTree Discord Italy Channel
• Genealogy Discord
• Reddit - Italian Genealogy

Notables

• Wikipedia List of Italian-American Entertainers - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Italian-American_entertainers

Helpful websites

• Family Search Wiki - https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/Italy

• GeneaIndex: A collection of Italian genealogical resources (in Italian)

• ItalianGenealogy.com

• From WikiTree Member Arora Anonymous: Research Links-Italy

Helpful books

• Holtz, Melanie D. 2017. Family Tree Italian Genealogy Guide: How to Trace Your Family Tree in Italy. F & W Media, Incorporated. ISBN: 9781440349058 (Worldcat)