How to Find My Italian Ancestors
Researching your Italian ancestry can be easier and more enjoyable if you take time to understand the Italian migration to the United States. Knowing its patterns can give you valuable clues for finding your Italian ancestors. The Italian influx to the United States lasted from 1876 to 1976. But from 1876 to 1900, the population grew from 44,000 to over 480,000. Most Italians emigrated from Southern Italy, came through Ellis Island and settled in urban areas. They often lived near others from their home districts in Italy, filling blocks, neighborhoods and even towns. Communities centered around Italian Catholic churches.
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Instructions
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Record what you know of your family history beginning with yourself and working back as far as you have knowledge. List names, birth dates, birth and death places, occupations, children's
names and any other details you can find. Interview family elders to capture details you may not already know. It is especially important to know if the family attended a church where they were baptized, confirmed, married and buried. Church records are usually thorough and will be crucial to your search both in the United States and in Italy. -
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Make an appointment to look through church records. Go armed with your lists of names and dates. Find out what you can about military enlistments. These records can be accessed at the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, as can naturalization records.
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Contact cemeteries where family graves are found and request copies of the burial registers. Request birth and death certificates and wills from court houses where your family lived. Continue the process of getting details and confirming them with securing documentation. The Ellis Island data base (available online) will tell you if your ancestors were checked in through there. The Ellis Island records should be consulted for arrivals between 1892 and 1924.
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The National Archives, Ancestry.com and other sources hold ships' manifests, on which you may be able to find the name of the ship the ancestor sailed on, his age at time of passage, others with the same name on the ship, the point of departure and sometimes even a picture of the ship.
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Consult the United States census (available online) to fill in many details. It is good to have an idea of where your family lived at the time of each census. Each census includes more information than the previous one and, after 1850, each household member is listed by name. Research the census to put together more of the puzzle of your family in America. Remember to check various spellings of the family name whenever you hit a brick wall in your research.
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Continue research of your family in Italy if you have discovered the name of the village they came from. Knowing the point of departure or district is not enough. Keep hunting on the American side until you know the village or town. Many Italian civil and church records can be accessed at Ancestry.com for a fee or at the FamilySearch.org for no charge. A good list of Italian resources can be found at Cyndi's List.
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