Now that you have filled in all of the more recent information for your family tree and you know where your ancestors came from in Italy, it’s time to start using the excellent Italian vital records. To better understand the Italian record system and what is available, it’s necessary to have a very brief Italian history lesson.


Prior to 1809, all vital record information in Italy was maintained by the Catholic Church. From about 1809-1815, when Napoleon Bonaparte controlled large parts of Northern Italy, towns began creating civil records, now called Napoleonic records, of birth, marriage and death. When Napoleon was defeated and Northern Italy went back to being an assortment of Kingdoms and Duchys, most towns stopped making civil records and reverted to having the Catholic Church maintain vital information about citizens. Meanwhile, in the Kingdom of Two Sicilies, which extended from roughly Naples south through Sicily, civil records were begun in 1820 and continued until 1865, when Italian Unification was in full swing and the entire country was beginning to be united under one flag. At that point, all towns from the north and the south began making civil vital records in very similar formats. From 1866-1874, they are entirely handwritten, but after 1875, pre-printed forms were used and they continue to this day.
So, in brief, northern towns may only have civil records for 1809-1815 and then from 1866 to the present. Southern towns, including those in Sicily, have civil records from 1820 to the present. Catholic church records for all of Italy generally extend from around the mid-1500s (after the Council of Trent) to present. Now, how do you know what’s available online and how do you access them?
FamilySearch and the Italian State Archives have partnered together to make a large portion of civil records available to the public, entirely for free. Catholic Church records are also available for some towns.