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Italian BMDs

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goonergirl

goonergirl Report 19 Apr 2008 18:08

Hi, Can anyone tell me how I can access Italian BMDs? Thanks Gill

Chris in Sussex

Chris in Sussex Report 19 Apr 2008 19:42

If you haven't already looked...

Cyndislist has a page devoted to Italy so a good place to start for information on research.

http://www.cyndislist.com/italy.htm

Chris

Researching:
Avatar...My darling Dad. 1931-2019 'Take nothing on its looks, take everything on evidence. There is no better rule' Charles Dickens, Great Expectations. 'A brickwall is a problem that you haven't solved yet' Dave Annal http://media.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php/brick-walls-and-lost-ancestors/

MaryfromItaly

MaryfromItaly Report 19 Apr 2008 20:17

Italian research is practically impossible unless you know the exact place where your ancestors came from, and there are no records online (apart from a handful on familysearch).

These sites explain the situation fairly well:

http://genealogy.about.com/od/italy/a/family_tree.htm

http://www.anzwers.org/free/italiangen/free_genealogy_research.html

http://www.anglo-italianfhs.org.uk/

Kaz in a Tizz

Kaz in a Tizz Report 20 Apr 2008 00:07

Mary,

I thought ancestry were going to put italian records online - or maybe I was imagining it as would make things too easy lol

My OH parents are both Italian and I know the village where they came from so how would I go about doing their tree when I eventually get over there! Do you know how far back the records go?

Kaz x

MaryfromItaly

MaryfromItaly Report 20 Apr 2008 00:30

If you have a look at the links I gave Gillian, it explains it better than I can, because I don't have any Italians in my tree, so I haven't needed to do any Italian research.

There are no central records - each "comune" (town) keeps its own, dating back to when civil registration began (1866, I think).

Before that, records are held by individual parish churches, and sometimes by state archives.

One of the links I posted contains some form letters in Italian that you can send to the comune or the priest if you know where they came from.

Italian bureaucrats tend to be very slow, and often unhelpful, but it depends on the district involved. Some are OK.

I don't think Ancestry have put anything online for Italy - it'd make a lot of people happy if they did.

MaryfromItaly

MaryfromItaly Report 20 Apr 2008 00:33

I've just checked - there is a www.ancestry.it site, but there seem to be hardly any records on it.

Kaz in a Tizz

Kaz in a Tizz Report 20 Apr 2008 00:33

Thanks Mary and apologies to Gillian for hijacking her thread!

Kaz x

MaryfromItaly

MaryfromItaly Report 20 Apr 2008 00:42

I think the LDS have microfilmed some Italian records, which you can view at their centres.