Italy Records Open at FS

Question

NEVER GIVE UP

Italian civil registration records are becoming increasingly available online via the portal at www.antenati.san.beniculturali.it/ (created by FamilySearch and the National Archives of Italy). FamilySearch also has many of these freely accessible. The earliest births, marriages, and death documents date from 1806 and can span into the early part of the 20th century. The availability/existence of records varies widely by location. My paternal grandparents hail from neighboring towns in Calabria, Italy. Their town’s online records (and their earlier microfilm counterparts) cutoff around 1860. For the last 20 years or so, I’ve done letter writing campaigns to the town halls seeking certain post-1860 civil records. For help, go to www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Italy_Letter_Writing_Guide. One town has been very accommodating, the other not-so-much. I kept at it, sending follow up letters every couple of years, then switching to emailing the town’s records office - the “ufficio anagrafe e stato civile” – still to no avail. Until a pleasant surprise arrived. In response to my last request, was a cordial email and PDF copies of the birth certificate of my great grandfather, and the death certificates of his parents!

By Joseph Grandinetti, Internet Genealogy author

Comments

Maybe many genealogists with interest in Italian records know that the "Stato Civile" site platform has changed, some others not. Please change the link to Antenati so it points to

https://antenati.cultura.gov.it

Thanks for your assistance,

Answer 1

The Italy project has a pretty comprehensive list of available records between FamilySearch, Antenati, Ancestry, and other locations:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Italian_Roots_Resources

Due to agreements with the Italian government, some of the FamilySearch records restricted to viewing at a FamlySearch Center (Family History Center) or at FamilySearch Affiliate Libraries. Others are freely available at home.

Answer 2

Thank you Joseph Grandinetti,

My wife's grandparents her Mother's side not put in my tree yet ( Folcarelli) and my Great grandparents (Luibil-Petronaci) are both from a small region in Sicily,

Cerami (Sicilian: Cirami) is a comune in Sicily, southern Italy, part of the Province of Enna. I have a lot of work ahead of me because I do not know dates.

Answer 3

Please note that the FamilySearch and Antenati database overlap for the most part but are not identical. 

For instance, Antenati deals only with civil records - birth, marriage, death, but also yearly and decennial indexes (very useful when the primary source is not available, even if they are secondary ones) and marriage processetti, which are the paperwork prior to the marriage itself, usually a wealth of info that does not appear in the marriage act itself. They are all freely available, but not all of them indexed (that is being done through partnership with FS, but only for B/M/D so far). 

On the other hand, if you search a particular location through the "Catalogue" option in FamilySearch, you may get lucky and find catholic church records that are not available anywhere else. Also census records (not indexed usually) that are not on Antenati and may be extremely useful . Many of them are freely available at home, some others at a Family Center or affiliated library. Some of the church records go back to the 1700' and even the 1600'. 

Good hunt!