How To Locate an Italian Birth Certificate

Introduction

Yes, it’s possible! You can still locate your ancestor’s Italian birth certificate and many other records for that matter. Throughout history, many countries have recorded their citizens’ important life events such as births, deaths, and marriages through a process called Civil Registration. Thankfully, during the 1800s, many Italian municipalities under Napoleonic rule adopted it. Today, descendants of Italian immigrants can call themselves lucky as these records have proven an invaluable resource in learning more about their family’s history. Now, what if we told you that the majority of these documents are available online and that digital copies are easily downloadable at no cost to you?

First things first

Before you get too excited let’s talk about the first important requirement: knowing the town of origin of your ancestors or the location of the events you want to investigate. Because only a fraction of the records are indexed, searching by name only may not get you very far. And resorting to Plan B means browsing through tons of documents, one page at a time. Fortunately, you can find your ancestor’s town of origin by searching through US immigration files hosted at the Ellis Island Passenger Search database. These have been all indexed and are freely available online. Involving your extended family is another option. In other words, take some time to interview your older relatives and have them go through their heirlooms. Sometimes, all you need is an old photograph with an annotation describing its location or the store that developed it.

What’s math got to do with an Italian birth certificate?

If you need to determine an event’s date, try applying some math and logic. For example, adding 18 years to a male’s birth date will usually get you close to his marriage date, and 16 years for females. If there are no results, search backward and forward a few years. Children were usually born within the first year of marriage, so finding one child should lead you to the other siblings, and eventually to the couple’s marriage.

Basics facts about an Italian birth certificate

Three different sections classify Italian birth certificates based on the historical period in which they were produced: before 1866, between 1866 and 1912, and after 1912.

• Stato Civile Napoleonico (Napoleonic civil registration)
• Stato Civile della Restaurazione (Civil registration of the restoration)
• Stato Civile Italiano (Italian civil registration)

Let’s see each of these in more detail:

Stato Civile Napoleonico (1805-1815)

During this very brief period, civil registration was mandatory in the different parts of Italy under Napoleonic rule (click on the map below to see it in more detail). The initial date for each area depends upon when its annexation. For example, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies began civil record-keeping as early as 1805. Unfortunately, this process did not take place in areas not under Napoleonic rule, and in other cases, it ended once the French lost power. The technique consisted of having local clerks and officials narrate the facts using handwritten paragraphs with pre-established language or filling out pre-printed forms with the important details about the event.

Map of Europe, 1812 CE (© Alexander Altenhof, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)

Stato Civile della Restaurazione (1815-1866)

After Napoleon’s defeat, Italy was once again split into independent kingdoms and duchies. Most Comuni in southern Italy continued using the civil registration process, while others, mainly in northern Italy, discontinued it. At the time, the Roman Catholic church had a very strong influence all over Italy, and civil records were cross-referenced to church recordings. For example, birth records included annotations showing that the event had been reported to the church, which, in return, confirmed that the child had been baptized. In other cases, military conscription used extracts from church records. Records from this period can appear either in printed forms or in paragraphs.

Stato Civile Italiano (1866-present day)

The most recent period of civil registration began in 1866 and continues up to this day. As mentioned earlier, some years before, the Kingdom of Italy annexed the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and some of the northern states. Other areas joined later on, so this type of record-keeping started at a later date. In sharp contrast with the past, from 1866 onwards the Roman Catholic Church was divested of much of its power. As a consequence, civil authorities did not consider baptisms as proof of birth, nor were religious marriages recognized as legal marriages. This meant that children of couples married only by the Church were considered illegitimate until registered by the state. Different record formats existed during these years, ranging from handwritten paragraphs to printed forms.

Locating an Italian birth certificate on the “Antenati” website

The Italian “Ministero della Cultura” (Ministry of Culture) has been hosting a free dedicated website for several years now. Eventually, this will hold all of the digitized images of all duplicate Italian civil registration records which by law have been sent to the State Archives, grouped by Province and Comune. The website is known as “Portale Antenati” (Ancestors Portal). If your province does not appear yet, just check back often, as more records are added periodically.

Searching the records for an Italian birth certificate

From the main page, you can see that there are two options: Search registries or Search by name. We explain the differences below:

Search registries

This type of search will help you get closer to the event by filtering the material with the following fields:

• Location
  • This is the most important one, as it limits the records of the town you are searching for. As you type the letters of the Comune, an updated list of possible names appears just below the field. Click on the one with the closest spelling.
• Year
  • To further limit the number of results, you may enter the “Year” of the event in the “Year” field. If you want a range of years, click on the arrow on the right (“v“) contained within the same field. Then, use the slider to select a range of years, moving the buttons back and forth. The actual selected values will appear in the fields on each side.
• Typology
  • If you want to search for a specific type of record, enter its Italian name in this field. For example, by typing “Nati“, you will see all of the available options for birth records. Select the one that closely matches what you are looking for.

For all possible choices and their translations, use the following table. Keep in mind that aside from the general “Nati” (Births), “Matrimoni” (Marriages), and “Morti” (Deaths), other options are not always available for each location.

Registries with nominatives

The website indicates that by checking “Registries with nominatives” search results will only include indexed registers. In this case, it’s much easier to find a person by using the type of search explained below.

Search by name

This type of search only includes indexed records. Just a very small portion of the total. Keep in mind that if you do not find your ancestor with this type of search, it does not mean the records aren’t available. It just means that the name is probably not present in the indexes and you will have to search for it by browsing the images. Luckily, many volunteers donate their time for this ongoing indexing effort and so more records will be available periodically.

This type of search has four fields:

Results

The results list allows you to filter the results even further, or access the records directly by clicking on the “View the register” button. To interpret the documents, refer to the Italian genealogical word list, found at https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/Italian_Genealogical_Word_List.

This concludes part 1. We hope you will have fun searching for your relative’s Italian birth certificate, or similar document, through the books. If you want to know even more tricks on how to find the records you need, look out for my upcoming posts on this subject.

If you need help, please use this contact form for a free consultation about locating the records you need to extend your family lines.