Italian church records can be helpful in your Italian genealogy research. Unlike civil registrations, church records were recorded without a lull since the 1500s. Italian civil registration began at different times in different locations, but most start after 1866 after Italy became a country.
When looking at Italian records compare each search result with what you know to find a match. You may need to look at multiple records. Remember many older records were completely hand written while later records were preprinted forms that the registrar filled in. Many of these volumes have indexes at the end.
Sometimes individuals went by a nickname, middle name, or an abbreviation of their given name so be sure to check variations. Today, we are looking at Italian birth/baptism records.
The civil registers are divided into separate volumes for each year. The records are in Italian except for records kept during the rule of foreign powers. In the northern regions, many records are in French and German. Births are registered within a day or so of birth. The midwife or father would bring the child into the civil registrar office. The baptism may be recorded on the same page. Otherwise, it would be in the church register.
Births (nati/nascite)/Baptisms may contain:
- Name of the child
- Gender
- Date and place of christening
- Date and place of birth
- Names of parents
- Ages of parents
- Residence of parents
- Names of witnesses
Here is an example of a civil birth record with the baptism record attached.
If you notice on this record from the municipality (town) of Licata in Sicily, the province name is Girgenti (today it is Agrigento). Be aware of any changes in province or municipality names.
Let’s take a closer look at the record. The notice of birth (Atto Di Nascita) begins with standard information about the registrar and the registrar location. The record indicates who came in to register the birth, their information, and the mother’s information. Then we learn the baby’s information. Finally, we have information about the witnesses. Next to that is the baptism record. Because this form is preprinted, the information you’ll want is the handwritten part. That narrows it down! Since the first part is standard civil jargon, you’ll be moving to the second part to extract information.
As we mentioned in a previous post, there are word lists on FamilySearch and other sites that can help you extract/translate the information needed.
Locating Records
You can find many of these records online at FamilySearch, Ancestry (Indexes), and Portale Antenati (The Ancestors Portal). Ancestry has a research page to help you get started.
FamilySearch has the largest number of online records plus they also have a research page. Not only does FamilySearch have records of births, marriages, and death, but also census, military conscriptions, and other Italian records (many images as well). Some are indexed and others can be browsed.
Portale Antenati has many civil records from 1809 online held in State Archives throughout Italy. Not all records are digitized yet, but the site also has contact information and archive collection details. Another option is Comuni-Italiani which has information and statistics on the regions, provinces, and municipalities. This is helpful in locating town archives. The site will have contact information for municipal offices and lists of towns in each province to help you locate ancestral town.
ChiesaCattolica.it, the Italian Catholic Church website, can assist in locating active town parishes and churches. It can also help if records of a church not in use have been transferred to another church.
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