Campania, Italy Genealogy

Guide to Campania region ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records.

History
Sicily and Naples were separated in 1458 but remained as dependencies of Aragon under Ferrante. During 1501 Naples came under direct rule from France at the time of Louis XII, as Neapolitan king Frederick was taken as a prisoner to France; this lasted four years. Spain won Naples at the Battle of Garigliano and, as a result, Naples then became part of the Spanish Empire throughout the entire Habsburg Spain period. By 1714, the Spanish ceased to rule Naples as a result of the War of the Spanish Succession; it was the Austrian Charles VI who ruled from Vienna. However, the War of the Polish Succession saw the Spanish regain Sicily and Naples as part of a personal union, which in the Treaty of Vienna were recognised as independent under a cadet branch of the Spanish Bourbons in 1738 under Charles VII.

During the time of Ferdinand IV, the French Revolution made its way to Naples. Ferdinand was forced to retreat and fled to Palermo, where he was protected by a British fleet. Naples' lower classes (the lazzaroni) were pious and Royalist, favouring the Bourbons; in the mêlée that followed, they fought the Neapolitan pro-Republican aristocracy, causing a civil war. The Republicans conquered Castel Sant'Elmo and proclaimed a Parthenopaean Republic, secured by the French Army. A counter-revolutionary religious army of lazzaroni was raised; in which they forced the French to surrendered the Neapolitan castles and were allowed to sail back to Toulon.

Ferdinand IV was restored as king; however, after only seven years Napoleon conquered the kingdom and instated Bonapartist kings including his brother Joseph Bonaparte. With the help of the Austrian Empire and allies, the Bonapartists were defeated in the Neapolitan War and Bourbon Ferdinand IV once again regained the throne and the kingdom. The Congress of Vienna in 1815 saw the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily combined to form the Two Sicilies, with Naples as the capital city.

Jurisdictions
The region of Campania is divided into five provinces (similar to counties in the United States):
 * Avellino
 * Benevento
 * Caserta
 * Naples
 * Salerno

Learn more about Campania jurisdictions.