Hello everyone,My great grandfather

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Mcveit
09/14/2019 - 06:05

Hello everyone,My great grandfather was born in southern Italy. Does anyone know which government office might be able to help me locate old archives or even connect me with possible relatives?Any information is appreciated!! Thank you

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Location

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I would look for old posts on here and elsewhere for tips on finding relatives, there have been many. It looks like the place you mention is very small indeed, which is good and bad, good that everyone will know everyone, bad as a lot are likely very old. Most comuni sites have email addresses but I could find nothing here on their site at a quick glance. I would call them if you are up to it or write before going. This site here has a bit more info, including the name of the Mayor which might be of help, do a search for him online.

Thank you so much! I really really appreciate it.I will have an italian friend help me to call the office of the mayor.Do you by chance know the contact information for the registry office of Calabria? or of Catanzaro? Most things I find on the internet are paid geonology services. I did find that I should be searching the “Archivio di Stato” (National archive) in Catanzaro e Reggio Calabria 

Hi,I have been researching my family history for the last couple of years. The advice I can give you is that most of the records will be held in the towns comune until about 1838 ish, before this time they are in the church. Go to the local comune and ask if you can search the records for your family history. I have done two trips so far, take a digital camera and search the birth records first. There are indexes in the back to search the surbame. Take photos of every record that relates to the name your looking for and review them later. It is very hard to get records when your not in Italy unless you already have all the details so use your time wisely and just photograph everything that could relate. Move on to any census records, these are incredibly useful, they will tell you lots of information about kids or parents not born in that town but one nearby etc. The next step is to visit the cemeteries nearby and walk them looking for plaques under the surname, again take photos and look at them later, this will tell you if there are other towns that the family may have come from. There is a great template online on translating birth records, they are really easy once you know how to read them and you don’t need to know Italian, the key words will give you what you need. I have used Legacy to enter all my information and then imported that into Myheritage. I have gone from just know my great grandthers name to 171 members in my family. more than happy to share some more tips and online resources but the best way is the town he is from first to get his birth record, this will tell you the town his father is from which will tell you if you need to stay in that town or move to a different one. feel free to ask any questions if you have any. laura