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Italy Online Genealogy Records Ask the Community For information about records for non-Christian religions in Italy, go to the Religious Records page.

Online Collections

 * 1806-1900 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index; Also at Ancestry ($), MyHeritage ($)
 * 1809-1900 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index; Also at Ancestry ($), MyHeritage ($)
 * 1809-1900 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index; Also at Ancestry ($), MyHeritage ($)
 * 1575-1908 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; images
 * 1740-1938 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; images
 * Italy, Biella, Ponderano, Parrocchia di San Lorenzo, Catholic Church Records - FamilySearch Historical Records
 * Italy, Caltanissetta, Diocesi di Caltanissetta, Catholic Church Records - FamilySearch Historical Records
 * 1560-1950 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; images
 * 1515-1941 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; images
 * 1502-1942 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; images
 * 1606-1941 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; images
 * 1568-1910 at FamilySearch - How to Use the Collection; images
 * 1671-1929 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; images
 * 1659-1929 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; images
 * 1630-1929 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; images
 * 1670-1929 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; images
 * 1905-1929 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; images
 * 1641-1929 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; images
 * 1633-1930 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; images
 * 1531-1998 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; images
 * 1593-1941 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; images
 * Italy, Rovigo, Arquà Polesine, Parrocchia di Sant'Andrea Apostolo, Catholic Church Records - FamilySearch Historical Records
 * 1562-1937 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; images
 * Italy, Terni, Catholic Church Records - FamilySearch Historical Records
 * 1548-1937 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; images
 * 1597-1941 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; images
 * 1679-1969 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index & images; Also at: American Ancestors ($)

Italy Church Records
Church records (registri ecclesiastici) can list birth, marriage, and death information in the parish registers or church books kept by priests. They include records of christenings (baptisms), marriages, and deaths (burials). In addition, church records may include confirmations, first communions, and church census records.

Coverage

 * 1563 In general, the church began keeping records in 1563 because of reforms proclaimed at the Council of Trent.
 * 1595 Most parishes have kept registers from about 1595 to the present. A few parishes kept records as early as the 1300s. The church records of Palermo, for example, start about 1350, and the baptistry in Firenze has records from the early 1400s.
 * Roman Catholic Church is recognized as the state church, although the Italian government recognizes other religions. References to church records in Italy usually refer to Catholic records. For more information about other churches in Italy, see Italy Church History.
 * Some Italian church records were destroyed in the various wars, fire, and lost to insects, vermin, and moisture.

Baptisms
Children were generally baptized within a few days of birth. Baptismal registers usually give:
 * Names of the infant and parent
 * Status of legitimacy
 * Names of witnesses or godparents
 * Baptism date

Sometimes include:
 * Child’s birth date
 * Father’s occupation
 * Residence of family

Death or marriage information has sometimes been added as a note in the margin. The street name or family’s address may also be given for larger cities.

Earlier registers typically give less information. They may give only the names of the child and father and the baptism date. They may not contain the mother’s name, or they may contain only her given name. Early records only record the baptism date; later records may include the birth date.

Marriages
Couples were generally married in the home parish of the bride. Typically, girls married between ages 18 and 25. Men married in their twenties.

Marriage registers give:
 * the date of the marriage and
 * the names of the bride and groom,
 * whether the betrothed were single or widowed
 * the names of witnesses.

They usually also include other information about the bride and groom:
 * such as their ages,
 * residences, occupations,
 * names of parents, and
 * birthplaces.

For second and later marriages, the records may name previous spouses and their death dates. A note is sometimes made whether a parent or other party gave permission for the marriage.

In addition to the marriage date, marriage registers sometimes give the dates on which the marriage intentions (banns) were announced.

Marriage Banns
A wedding was generally was announced for three consecutive Sunday masses prior to the wedding. These announcements, called banns, gave opportunity for anyone to come forward who knew of any reasons why the couple should not be married.

In addition to or instead of the actual marriage registers, some Italian churches kept separate books to record marriage banns.

Burials
Burials and deaths were recorded in the church record of the parish where the person died or was buried. The burial usually took place within a day or two of the death in the parish where the person died.

Burial registers give:
 * the name of the deceased and
 * the date and place of death or burial
 * the person’s age,
 * place of residence,
 * cause of death and
 * the names of spouses and if they are living or deceased.

The registers, especially early registers, may also give the date and place of birth and even the parents’ names of the deceased. The birth date and birthplace on a burial record may not be accurate since the informant may not have had complete information.

Burial records may also exist for individuals who were born before the earliest birth records and marriage records, and they may start later than the baptismal and marriage records of the same parish.

Stillbirths were sometimes recorded in church baptismal or burial registers. In most cases, however, the birth is not recorded.

Church Census
In Italy the parish priest was often required to collect taxes for the state from his parishioners. He would sometimes record information about his parishioners and the tax in a special set of volumes, which were called church censuses. In Italian the church census is called the stato delle anime. In Latin it is status animarum. Both terms mean "state of the souls."

Not all priests regularly kept church censuses. Where the censuses do exist, the registers list all family members living in a household and their ages or birth dates. Deceased children were not listed. Married children, if living in the same household, were recorded with the family but as a separate household. Familial relationships and addresses were also noted. The information recorded in church books varied over time. Later records generally have more complete information than the earlier ones.

Indexes

 * These registers were usually written in freehand with about three to eight entries per page. Sometimes an alphabetical index arranged by Latinized given name at the beginning or end of the volume. [Correction. It is much more complicated than this. Actually, when inserted in the record (not the stand-alone index) the “internal” index may be in the beginning, the end, or anywhere in the middle of the record, or in the proceeding record or nowhere at all! There may be no index, one index, two indices or possibly even three indices per record.
 * When part of the record (as opposed to the stand-alone index) it is almost always organized alphabetically in a group based upon the first letter only, of the first name (nome) not family name (cognome) and may be in Latin (uncommon) Italian or Sicilian, or somewhat transliterated.
 * The same person could have his name spelled four different ways, or a nickname used, or any one of five different “nome” used in different places. Furthermore the name in the stand-alone index may be an “Italianized” version of a name originally written in a variation of the Sicilian language (note I did not say dialect). It is then organized in sequence of entry (with corresponding page number, not image number), which is usually based upon date, but not always. Names are often abbreviated.
 * When in the stand-alone index names are organized in groups based upon the first letter of the family name (cognome), and then by date. Any missed entries may be bunched together in semi-random dates at the end of the entries for any particular letter.
 * Frequently the name of the principle person or persons identified in the record will be noted in the left hand margin. Another helpful church record is the stato delle anime or status animarum (church census).

Finding Church Records
Church records were kept at the local parish church, thus a town of origin is required. The term parish refers to the jurisdiction of a church priest. Parishes are local congregations, usually in one town only, but sometimes they included other villages in their boundaries. Larger towns frequently have more than one parish.

The headquarters of the parish is the town where the church building is located. Although most church buildings were usually named for a saint, the FamilySearch Catalog may refer to a parish by the name of the town where the parish church was located. In large cities that have many parishes, the catalog usually uses the parish church name (such as San Giovanni) to distinguish the records of different parishes.

Duplicate Church Records
If the original church records have been lost or destroyed or are illegible, find a duplicate church record. It was standard practice to keep duplicate records starting in the 1900s. However, some dioceses, such as that of Torino, made duplicates as early as 1820.

Duplicates, when they exist, are normally located at the curia vescovile (diocesan archives).

Local Parishes
Virtually all church registers are still maintained by the local parish. Some duplicates, for limited time periods, may be housed at the central archives of the diocese. For example, duplicates exists for the Diocese of Torino from 1820 to about 1899.


 * Italy: Tuscany: Church Parish Records: This is an index of over 5,000 parish registers from Tuscany, Italy, containing baptism, marriage, and burial records. For some, it gives date ranges and names, and for others it shows types of record available in which date ranges, and a link to where they are physically located with an address to contact the diocese.

Search Strategies
Effective use of church records includes the following strategies:


 * Find an ancestor’s birth or baptismal record and also search for the births of the siblings
 * Search for the parents’ marriage record. Typically, the marriage took place one or two years before the oldest child was born. Use information from the marriage record to find the parents’ birth records
 * Search for the parent’s birth records
 * Search neighboring parishes if records cannot be found
 * Search the death registers for all known family members

Reading the Language
Catholic records were written in Latin into the twentieth century, but some have been written in Italian. Protestant church records were generally kept in Italian. In both Catholic and Protestant records from areas near the country’s borders, records can be written in French, German, and other languages. Local dialects may have affected the spelling of some names and words in the church records.

In most areas, printed forms were not used until the late nineteenth or early twentieth centuries. Printed forms were used as early as 1820 in the Trentino-Alto Adige region.


 * Italian Genealogical Word List
 * German
 * French
 * Latin
 * Italian Script Tutorial
 * Italian Birth Document Translation
 * Italian Marriage Document Translations
 * Italian Civil Death Document Translation

Records of Non-Catholic Religions
Although the Roman Catholic Church is the dominant religion in Italy, other churches do exist and have kept records.

The FamilySearch Library has some records for the following denominations:


 * Waldensians [Valdesi]. These records follow the format of most church records but are written in French.
 * Eastern Orthodox [Chiesa Ortodossa or Chiesa Greca]. Where they exist, these records are virtually identical to Roman Catholic Church records and are available at the local parishes.
 * Jewish [Ebrei]. Jewish records are somewhat sparse. Two main record sources are available: the book of circumcisions and the marriage books. To identify where these records are today, contact an Israeli consulate. See also Italy Jewish Records.

Italy Genealogy Research Using the Wiki - Video Series

 * Italy Research With the Wiki Part 7a of 13: Finding a Church Baptism Record Online, Lesson: Using the FamilySearch Research Wiki to locate online Italian baptism records in church records for genealogy. Learn how to translate the certificate.
 * Italy Research With the Wiki Part 7b of 13: Finding a Church Baptism Record Online, Case Study: A case study demonstrating using the FamilySearch Research Wiki to locate online Italian church baptism records for genealogy. Learn how to translate the record.
 * Italy Research With the Wiki Part 8 of 13: Finding a Church Marriage Record Online: Using the FamilySearch Research Wiki to locate online Italian church marriage records for genealogy. Learn how to translate the record.
 * Italy Research With the Wiki Part 9 of 13: Finding a Church Death/Burial Record Online: Learn to use the FamilySearch Research Wiki to locate online Italian church death and burial records for genealogy. Learn to translate the record.
 * Italy Research With the Wiki Part 10 of 13: Writing to a Priest for Church Records: Learn how to use the Italy Letter Writing Guide to write to a priest in Italy to ask him to search the church records for you.

Related FamilySearch Blog Articles

 * Your Italian Heritage
 * Italian Genealogy Research—How to Find Italian Records

Italie - Registres paroissiaux Itália, Registros da Igreja Registros eclesiásticos de Italia