Italian Genealogy and Surnames

Italian Military Records - Lists of Leva and Ruoli Matricolari

genealitalia@gmail.com — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 21:12:00 +0000

The Liste di Leva contain the name of all those young residents in an Italian province who were twenty years old and in conditions to go to the military service. The Ruoli Matricolari contains a list of those young enrolled in the army. The government established a number of youth had to do military service.

The particularity of these military records is that they were generated in the provinces.
Not knowing the name of the commune in which our forbear was born, and knowing only the province’s name, these records become a very important source. That’s why some Archives of the State had load up these recruitment records on line.

Read more about these important records
Author: Daniela Massolo (ItalyGen)+

Historical Archive of the Bank of Naples (Banco di Napoli)

genealitalia@gmail.com — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 22:44:00 +0000

Italian Immigrants who sent money to Italy via the Bank of Naples.
That Italy of our immigrant grandparents was a country devastated by successive wars. A very poor country, with a high level of mortality due to malnutrition and lack of basic social services, even in the 20th century.
In the economic restructuring of the country, avery important factor played a predominant role. It was known as the factor R, and it helped to the national reconstruction.

This factor R (R = rimesse, risparmio = savings) was, essentially, the saved money sent by the immigrants to their families from the countries where they were working. The transference of money the immigrants used to do from foreign countries towards Italy, to their families, was a common practice.
From 1901 the Bank of Naples obtained from the government the exclusivity in the collection of savings of emigrants and it started to open branches in all the recipient countries.

Author: Daniela Massolo (ItalyGen)+

Fallen Italian soldiers in the First and Second World War

genealitalia@gmail.com — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 15:19:00 +0000

Here is a list of websites with information about fallen Italian soldiers in both World Wars.

Read More. Author: Daniela Massolo (ItalyGen)+

On the research of disappeared “Garibaldini”

genealitalia@gmail.com — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 03:03:00 +0000

The soldiers who came along with Garibaldi, as volunteers, during the campaigns for the Italian Unification (1860) are usually known as I Mille (The Thousand), but they were several thousands volunteers who went to fight under the command of Garibaldi, giving a huge contribution to the project’s success.
The project Alla ricerca dei garibaldini scomparsi (On the research of disappeared “Garibaldini”) is supported with funds deposited in the Archives of the State of Turin and Genoa.

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Lists of Italian Surnames

genealitalia@gmail.com — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 20:51:00 +0000

There are some sites in Internet where genealogists can add the surname they are interested in, giving the reference of their own e-mails to be later contacted. The goal of these databases is to contact people searching for the same surname, to exchange information and perhaps to discover that they have some common relative.
When a surname is found, we can contact the visitor

who left his or her e-mail on there. There are several websites in English containing these lists:

Casellario Politico Centrale – Political Central File

genealitalia@gmail.com — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 15:08:00 +0000

The Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali have put online a list of people included in the Casellario Politico Centrale (Political Central File).
This file was created at the end of the 19th century. Since that time, and especially during the Fascist Era, the police practiced a close watch over people considered suspicious or dangerous for the public order: political opponents such as anarchists, socialists, republicans; and, since 1921, also over communists. The surveillance included an indeterminate category of people: bums, vagabonds, foreigners and other ethnic minorities, especially in Venezia-Giulia.

Police departments were constantly monitoring people with records, recording their travels, movings, any encounters with other subversive people, and everything new on their activity.
All this content makes this information a very valuable genealogical record.

In this file we found 6965 Italians considered subversives by the authorities living in United States, 152 Italians living in London and 220 Italians living in Australia.

Click Here for more information.

Author: Daniela Massolo (ItalyGen)+

Batch Numbers and the New Version of FamilySearch.org

genealitalia@gmail.com — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 19:54:00 +0000

For many decades starting in the mid-1960s, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints copied key information from the vital records of many countries worldwide and entered that information into a computer. Most of these records were from the early 1500s to 1885.
The batch number identifies the specific collection of historical records that an extracted record came from. For example, batch C740153 refers to the collection “Bivona Agrigento - Births - 1830-1834”

Most of the extracted records were published in the International Genealogical Index (IGI). Some were published in the Vital Records Index collections. These resources were searchable indexes to many of the world’s vital records—a valuable resource for genealogists.
Many of you who used the previous site will be pleased to know that you can now search for historical records using batch numbers from the International Genealogical Index.

Because these extraction projects occurred so long ago, the extracted records are not yet connected to online images. If you want to see the original record, find the microfilm number. You can then either come to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah or have the microfilm sent to a family history center near you.

More information and instructions
Batchs Numbers for Italy

SS Arandora Star victims list

genealitalia@gmail.com — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 02:45:00 +0000

Within hours of Mussolini’s declaration of war against Britain and her allies on June 10, 1940, Winston Churchill issued the command to arrest and intern all Italian males living in Britain. He is reputed to have said, in his inimitable style, “Collar the lot!”

Wives and mothers of most Italian families living in the UK had to fend for themselves - not only were their movements severely restricted but many of their adult males were shipped to Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man or Orkney with the intention to deport them to such places as Canada and Australia. Many of the women were also later interned and were sent to towns such as Beauly, Huntly and Tomintoul.

Almost all the men and boys taken into custody were later taken aboard the ships Arandora Star and Ettrick to be taken to Canada. The ships were not marked by the conventional use of a red cross to warn enemy vessels that the passengers were civilians.

However, the Arandora Star met its fate on July 2nd 1940 when a torpedo from a German submarine, the U-47, struck the ship, off the Irish coast. There were 734 Italians on board the ship, 486 died. Of the 479 Germans on board, 175 died.

To view the list of casualties, click on this link --> http://www.valcenoweb.it/pagina-culturale/galleria/galleria-EMIGRANTE/vittime-arandora-star.htm
Italian casualties: http://www.colonsay.org.uk/AStarItalian%20Notes.htm

Sources:
http://edithswar.com/id11.html
http://www.scotsitalian.com/arandora.htm
http://edithswar.com/id11.html

Nomi e Cognomi - Etymologies and an index of Italian surnames

genealitalia@gmail.com — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 14:32:00 +0000

Available online a list of surnames that Angelo Bongioanni studies in his book Nomi e Cognomi - Saggio di ricerche e Storiche etimologiche. This is a rare book, published in 1928. This index facilitates the search.

To check the index, click on this link You can also view the digitized book.

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Italians emigrated to Alpes Maritimes

genealitalia@gmail.com — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 12:38:00 +0000

From 1861 to 1985 30 millions of Italians immigrated to different places of the World. Around 50% of those Italians were to other European countries, as France or Germany. Our ancestor perhaps tried their luck in France, because of the short distance and then decided to travel to the Americas. In the website of the Departmental Archives of Alpes Maritimes, France, you can consult a list of Italian immigrants between 1880 and 1935.
Maybe we can find a branch of our family tree that was installed in France. The database contains records of immigrants from other countries, including the United States. Only people migrated to the department Alpes Maritimes (Nº6).
This site's URL is: http://193.48.79.11/os-html/immi/home.html
You must type the surname in the search box and then click on Chercher.

Italian vital records digitized by FamilySearch

genealitalia@gmail.com — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 03:41:00 +0000

FamilySearch digitized and put online collections of microfilm for civil records and Italian parishes. And there are frequent additions.

On 17 March we added new collections of records. The provinces which have been placed online collection are:

Cagliari

· Caserta

· Mantova

· Napoli

· Nuoro

· Oristano

· Padova

· Pescara

· Rovigo

· Teramo

· Trieste

Clicking on the name of the province you will see a list of communes and microfilmed records.

Ancestor Approved Award

genealitalia@gmail.com — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 03:19:00 +0000

Thank you Astrid from of Trolls and Lemons for nominating me for the Ancestor Approved Award. Astrid surprised me with this nomination. I am very happy and grateful!!

Astrid wrote on her blog: The Ancestor Approved Award was created in March 2010 by Leslie Ann Ballou at Ancestors Lived Here. It has traveled far and wide returning to some bloggers a few times while making its rounds. Leslie Ann asks two things of those who receive it (surprisingly more involved than one might think):

1. List 10 surprising, humbling, or enlightening aspects of your research; and

2. Pass the Award on to 10 other researchers whose family history blogs are doing their ancestors proud

As a recipient of this award, this is my top 10 list of genealogy blogs.

Gen Briand - http://www.genbriandenglish.blogspot.com/

Hispanic Genealogy - http://hispanicgenealogy.blogspot.com/

Renee's Genealogy Blog - http://rzamor1.blogspot.com/

Storybooking - Preserving Heritage - http://preservingheritage.blogspot.com/

Italian Surnames - http://italiansurnames.blogspot.com/

Lucie's Legacy - http://lucieslegacy.blogspot.com/

Steve's Genealogy Blog - http://stephendanko.com/blog/

The We Tree Genealogy Blog - http://wetree.blogspot.com/

I thought other blogs, but they have their reward.. I'm translating the surprising, humbling, or enlightening aspects of my research. I do not write English very well, I speak Spanish and Italian.

Italians arrived in New York between 1880 and 1891

genealitalia@gmail.com — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 03:59:00 +0000

The Documentation Center on the People and Cultures of Italian Origin in the World, set up by the Giovanni Agnelli Foundation in 1993, offers three separate data banks containing the transcription of the information contained in the passenger lists of the ships that arrived in New York, Buenos Aires and Vitoria, (Italian nationals only).

The following information is available for each passenger: name, surname, sex, age, level of education, any relationship with other passengers, port of embarkment, last residence, destination, type of transit, accommodation on board, profession, name of ship, date of arrival The United States. Data bank was created by Temple University - Balch Institute - Center for Immigration Research (Philadelphia), directed by Ira Glazier. It contains the files on about 200,000 Italian emigrants recorded in the Ship Passenger Lists who arrived in New York between 1880 and 1891.
This database, also called Radici is available again. Now, the search engine offers more search criteria: port, ship, place of origin.

The new url is:
http://apps.imginternet.com/altreitaliericercaradici/Ricerca.aspx?ln=usa

Clandestine immigration (Italian Immigrants)

genealitalia@gmail.com — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 23:46:00 +0000

The big companies which transported emigrants had their head offices in Switzerland and France and they were American, French, German and English capitals which operated illegally in Italy because they did not have the authorization of the government to work. To attract immigrants they developed intense advertising activities per each city and valley offering comfortable low cost voyages, which they never complied with and which turned out to be humiliating for the voyagers.

This underground work did not consist only of the people who emigrated not to comply with the law or avoid their military obligations. Within this frame, there were people who were recruited by immigration agents who acted without any authorization. They emigrated in this way because the cost was lower but they lost the state’s support.

The law punished the outlaw recruiter but the immigrant was free to board a boat in a foreign port without protection. The ports which received the largest number of illegal immigrants were Le Hâvre, Marseille.

In this link we can read the news items for the trial against Domenico Bernardini, the unauthorized emigration agent, at the Courts of Law in Civil and Criminal cases in Perugia in 1896.

Sources:
Storia dell'emigrazione italiana - Di Piero Bevilacqua, Andreina De Clementi, Emilio Franzina. Pubblicato da Donzelli Editore, 2001
Emigrazione e storia d'Italia - Di Matteo Sanfilippo. Pubblicato da Pellegrini Editore, 2003

Departure of Italian immigrants from French and English ports

genealitalia@gmail.com — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 23:16:00 +0000

A large number of Italian immigrants left for the Americas from French and English ports for various reasons --> Read More

French immigrants to America

genealitalia@gmail.com — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 03:55:00 +0000

Applications for passports in Bordeaux – French immigrants
The port of Bordeaux had an important role in the management of emigrants to the Americas since it was the place where many overseas companies and emigration agencies had their bases or offices.

In the Department Archives of the French department No. 33 Gironde, where the port is, we can find the M Series which corresponds to the Coast Guards Archives where it is possible to find “traces” of the passports requested by French immigrants (e.g.: certificates of good standing issued by the police which were necessary to obtain the passport).

This database contains records corresponding to the years 1859-1861 and 1865-1887 with some years missing. In these lists we find French emigrants who left for the Americas. In the case of North America, the destinations were New Orleans, San Francisco and New York. It also contains records of French citizens in the French Consulate in NewOrleans.

For consultation go to: Applications for passport in Bourdeaux

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Old Maps of Italy

genealitalia@gmail.com — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 13:28:00 +0000

A map is one of the important tools in genealogy research. In learning about your family history an old map can sometimes be your key reference & finding aid. Old maps can help locate old cemeteries, schools, county seats, etc. Old maps are useful tool in understanding family migrations. (Read More)
The David Rumsey Map Collection was started over 25 years ago and contains more than 150,000 maps. The collection focuses on rare 18th and 19th century maps of North and South America, although it also has maps of the World, Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania.

Digitization of the collection began in 1996 and there are now over 21,000 items online, with new additions added regularly. The site is free and open to the public. Here viewers have access not only to high resolution images of maps that are extensively cataloged, but also to a variety of tools that allow to users to compare, analyze, and view items in new and experimental ways.
Maps are uniquely suited to high-resolution scanning because of the large amount of detailed information they contain. In their original form, maps and atlases can be large, delicate, and unwieldy. Digitization increases their accessibility, and when combined with online catalogs, they can be searched in a variety of ways. The site allows public access to rare maps that have been hidden or available only to a few.
With Luna Imaging's InsightÂ® software, the maps are experienced in a revolutionary way. Multiple maps from different time periods can be viewed side-by-side. Viewers can also create their own collections of maps that hold particular interest by saving groups of images. Complete cataloging data accompany each image, enabling in-depth searches of the collection.

The collection features over 300 antique maps of Italy - Click here.

Sources:
http://www.jelleyjar.com/ancestor/maps.html
http://www.davidrumsey.com/about

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Italian surnames derived from the name Giovanni (John in English)

genealitalia@gmail.com — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 02:16:00 +0000

Emidio De Felice, the author of the Dizionario dei cognomi italiani is considered to be the only researcher who has made a census on all the Italian surnames which appear in the telephone directory. De Felice explains that a large number of Italian surnames derive from first names with a Latin origin.

A surprising variety of surnames derive from the names Giacomo (James), Giovanni (John) and Pietro (Peter). Giuseppe (Joseph), in fact, is a name which has hardly ever been used as a surname in Italy because it was reserved for the Hebrew communities until the Catholic Church determined its use by the XI century.

Giovanni is the name of two of the most worshipped saints in the Catholic Church: San Giovanni Evangelista (Saint John the Evangelist) and San Giovanni Battista (Saint John the Baptist).
(Click here to see the Italian surnames derived from the name Giovanni = John post)

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The 100 most common Italian Surnames.

genealitalia@gmail.com — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 04:05:00 +0000

The results will be presented in decreasing order of popularity.

With every surname, you’ll find an access to external links containing information about them: where the surname is geographically located in Italy, how it’s distributed into provinces; its origin and meaning.

Read More

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List of renamed cities in Italy

genealitalia@gmail.com — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 03:21:00 +0000

After the Italian unification and during the first half of the XIX Century, various government decrees ordered the change of the name of some comuni to avoid confusion between homonymous places. in some cases and...
...additional place name for those towns with the same name (e.g. about 13 Italian comuni are called Acquaviva) in other cases, a little variation was added to the name.
The fascism imposed the Italianization of the names of those towns whose name were more similar to a French or German name rather than to an Italian one. After 1945 these places recovered their original names.

This is a list of Italian cities which changed their name over the course of history --> CLICK HERE

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Italian Newspapers Digitized

genealitalia@gmail.com — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 17:53:00 +0000

Some Italian newspapers are being digitized and put online. In some of these newspapers appear vital registration news, such as deaths and marriage publications. That’s, of course, interesting for genealogists.

The following list summarizes the digitized major newspapers and a direct link in reference. Probably it requires you to install a plug-in.

BOLZANO (province) - Biblioteca Provinciale Claudia Augusta di Bolzano
CUNEO (province) - The Ministero per i Beni Culturali, through the Piedmont Region, has invested 250,000 Euros in a microfilming, digitization and online storage of the major newspapers collection of the old province of Cuneo.
EMILIA ROMAGNA - Il Comune di Bologna - a monthly magazine published between 1924 and 1939.
LOMBARDY (region) - Lombardy: newspapers from the 19th Century and 20th Century - Emeroteca Digitale Braidense
MANTOVA (province) - Biblioteca Teresiana di Mantova
PERUGIA - Biblioteca Digitale Augusta (digital emeroteca)
PIEDMONT (and Italy) - La Stampa (literally “The Press”) is one of the best-known, most influential and most widely sold Italian daily newspapers. Published in Turin, it is distributed in Italy and other European nations. Digital newspaper archive 1867-2005.
REGGIO EMILIA - Biblioteca Digitale Reggiana
TOSCANA (region) - Emeroteca Virtuale Toscana
TOSCANA (region) - P0LO, Biblioteca Universitaria di Pisa. Digitized Newspapers.
ROMA - Biblioteca Universitaria Alessandrina - Newspapers and Magazines
TRIESTE - TRIPEDI - Trieste digitized newspapers

Archives in Italy

genealitalia@gmail.com — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 02:20:00 +0000

To be able to do effective searches, it is necessary to know how the Italian archives which record documents with the information of our ancestors created by clerical and governmental organizations are organized.
We can distinguish at least four types of Italian Archives:

The State Archives (Archivi di Stato) (in each province)
The Town Archives (Archivi Comunali) - Many comuni archives keep important resources which are useful for our genealogic searches such as censuses, and lists of recruits
The Diocesan Historic Archives - In some Diocesan archives there are duplicates or the parochial records the bishops used to send and still send to be filed.
Other Private archives

In this link you will be able to find information of the Italian archives http://genealitalia.com/eng/genea/archives.html

Comuni, frazioni and and other inhabited centres

genealitalia@gmail.com — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 13:50:00 +0000

It can happen that although we look for information about one Italian comune we may not find anything for two reasons:
- It is a fraction or a populated centre which depends on a comune for its administration.
- Maybe the comune or fraction does not exist anymore or changed its name in the various territorial reorganizations that Italy made.

These searching resources may be useful:

- Comuni, frazioni and and other inhabited centres - In all, there are about 8,100 Italian comuni and 37,000 frazioni and the number of small inhabited places is 16,000.

- Changes in the political organization of Italy

Regions, provinces, circondari and mandamenti
Name changes
Towns which disappeared: called “the comuni soppressi”
Territorial reorganizations

- List of Italian towns (it includes place names in the local language, list of comuni which changed their names)

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Online cemetery records

genealitalia@gmail.com — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 15:26:00 +0000

Find online cemetery records and tombstone photos from some of Italian cemeteries, including transcriptions of tombstone inscriptions, burial records and other cemetery records on the Internet. The Internet is fast becoming a valuable source for cemetery records as well.

The cemeteries are listed alphabetically by Italian region. This list includes interments from the following cemeteries:

Abruzzo
- Torricella Peligna, Chieti
Basilicata
- Filiano, Potenza
Emilia Romagna
- Certosa, Bologna
- Ferrara, province - Include 37 cemeteries
- Imola, Bologna
- Parma
Calabria
- Badolato, Catanzaro
Campania
- Avellino (This database includes interments from the following cemeteries: Avellino, Baiano, Lauro, Marzano di Nola, Monteforte Irpino, Mugnano del Cardinale, Pago del Vallo di Lauro, Taurano )
- Montecalvo Irpino, Avellino
- Napoli (This database includes interments from the following cemeteries: Carbonara di Nola, Casamarciano, Cimitile, Liveri, Nola, Nola - Piazzolla, Palma Campania - San Gennaro Vesubiano, Poggiomarino, San Giuseppe Vesubiano - Ottaviano, San Paolo Belsito, San Vitaliano, Saviano - Sant'Erasmo e Sirica, Scisciano, Striano, Terzigno, Tufino, Visciano)
- Salerno ( This database includes interments from the following cemeteries: Angri, Corbara, Maiori, San Marzano sul Sarno, San Valentino Torio, Sant'Egidio del Monte Albino, Sarno, Scafati, Tramonti )
Friuli Venezia Giulia
- Cividale del Friuli, Udine
Lazio
- Bovila Ernica, Frosinone
Le Marche
Lombardia
- Arcisate, Varese
- Brescia, Brescia
- Monza, Monza
- Roncoferraro, Mantova
- San Benedetto Po, Mantova
- Venegono Superiore, Varese - Part 1 - Part 2
- Villimpenta, Mantova
Piemonte
- Biella, city
- Torino, city
Sicilia
- Leni, Messina
- Riposto, Catania
Toscana
- Arezzo, Arezzo
Trentino Alto-Adige
- Trento (city)
Umbria
- Brufa di Torgiano, Perugia
Veneto
- Padova, city
- Thiene, Vicenza

We welcome you to efi-traducciones

genealitalia@gmail.com — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 20:23:00 +0000

We welcome you to efi-traducciones, a team of certified sworn English, Italian and French translators among other languages, who have been in the translation market for more than 20 years.

This team does different types of translations and their members work as court experts.

They translate all kinds of business papers: promissory notes, bills, bonds, contracts, covenants, sentences, annual reports, audits, study certificates as well as sentences from foreign courts related to divorces and testaments.

The efi-traducciones group is in charge of translating the information included in Geneal Italia from Spanish into English. You may visit their website clicking here.

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