I need help with Italian Research for birth father search

Question

Hello All! I have been working on a birth parent search for 2 years. I have been stuck partly due to smaller DNA matches than I'd like, but mostly because I can't build out the trees. I have very little knowledge of Italian records.

The birth parent is 100% Italian and likely a first or second generation Italian-American.

I need someone who knows Italian records well and will commit to helping me build out the trees that will lead me to the birth father. Most common locations I'm working with are Potenza, Italy and Casalbore, Italy.

I would love to complete this search and give this lady the gift of her family. Thanks!

Comments

I've added the three different lines I"m working on to WikiTree. These are the starting person for the tree:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Cocco-51

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Brancato-46

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Giorgio-90

I need at least one more generation on each tree.

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Thanks to Frank who helped me previously on the Giorgio line!

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The Brancato line is now built to where we need it (meeting up with the Giorgio line). The Giorgio line, we need the other kids of Giuseppe and Carmela Giorgio. I am going to guess one of their children married someone from the Cocco line based on the amount of shared DNA I'm working with.

Answer 1

Emma,

Is this the same family group from this Post ?

Is the tree you're building out here, so I could review where you're at with it? 

Comments

Hi Nick, yep, same post. Before, I was willing to find records myself, but I now realize that isn't working for me. I tried and failed to make sense of the records. I realized last night I should add the tree to WikiTree so others can edit and add. Can I do that and message you to have a look when I've got it added? Thanks!

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Yes to both!

Just a framework for the immigrant ancestor(s) and some idea of how you've traced them to their origin town(s) would be a great help.

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Hi Nick, Here are the three main trees I'm working on and their starting person (click on trees and tools for each person to see their tree I've added). I most likely need at least one more generation on each line and all the kids for each generation. For the birth father, he's either a 1st or 2nd generation Italian-American who ended up in Ohio.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Cocco-51

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Brancato-46

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Giorgio-90

In the case of Giorgio, I've had some help with Italian records to build out some of these. Everyone else it's either been those who have come to America, so some records are available or I'm using people's unsourced trees which means the confidence level isn't super high on accuracy.

I am working with DNA on this so I know for certain the two main locations I'm looking at are Potenza and Campania. Thanks!

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OH MY GOSH NICK YOU DID IT!!! The grandparents of Rosa Romaniello are Giuseppe Giorgio and Carmela Centola. These are the same parents of the other Giorgio DNA group (Giorgio-90). This is the connection I needed for Brancato. I now need to figure out how the Cocco line (Cocco-51) meets up with this Giorgio couple and I've got my birth father! Thank you so much for this amazing work.

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Happy to be of some help!

Are you thinking that the connection is from Michael  Brancato?

(I see that none of the other children of Gaetano & Rosa have profiles.......)

And Domenico Cocco?

(since he appears to be an only child)

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No, based on DNA, I don't think Cocco is where the link is going to happen, but somewhere on the Lamparelli line. However, I tried looking at records yesterday (slow as molasses for me!) and couldn't find another child for Giuseppe Lamparelli and Maria T Gallo. It could also be one of the children of Antonio Lamparelli/Teresa Bruno who married a Giorgio. The Coccos are too close to work for this scenario unless there's another marriage. For instance if Maria Rosanna Lamparelli had another marriage.

I didn't need more children for Gaetano and Rose Brancato because the amount of shared DNA on this line tells me I need to look further back in the tree. In the case for this line, the Giorgio couple were the important part of the tree. Knowing that now, I don't need any more on this tree. It's all about how one tree links to another through marriage or parents. That's where the adoptee is related in the tree.

When there aren't high DNA matches to work with, a lot of this is guess work until the pieces start to fall in place.

Answer 2

Are you familiar with Italian Civil records at http://www.antenati.san.beniculturali.it/?lang=en Not every region is currently online, but they are making progress.

Just discovered something is going on at the site ... the links for the registers are not working! Hopefully it will be up and running again soon.

Some records are at FamilySearch, but unfortunately you need to be at a FHC, which are, unfortunately, closed.

Edit ... problem seems to be with the page in English, the Italian pages apparently work. Potenza records are here http://dl.antenati.san.beniculturali.it/v/Archivio+di+Stato+di+Potenza/Stato+civile+della+restaurazione/Potenza/

Comments

I've tried finding records myself, but they are extremely hard to read and not at all indexed. So I"m looking for someone already experienced to help me.

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Lack of indexes does complicate searching. I have used some Italian records, but my grasp of Italian is quite limited.

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Well, they ARE indexed, but not necessarily computer-indexed. There are generally handwritten indexes for each year.

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Recommend these resources if you've not checked them out:

- https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Italy_Civil_Registration (contains translation templates)

- https://www.familysearch.org/blog/en/italianindexing/ (road maps to understanding post-1874 civil records)

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I've been indexing italian records for Antenati through FamilySearch these past few month. Some are no easy to read due to bad or sloppy calligraphy but they all follow the same formula more or less. Also some towns have merged with others or shortened their names over the centuries. I don't have a lot of experience with pre-1800 records, but I can try! Tell me what you need.

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Hi Christina, I've added the families to WikiTree. See my answer under the comments above with the links to the profiles. Thanks!