Italy Civil Registration: Difference between revisions

For birth, death, and marriage records before 1809 or 1820, see "[[Italy Church Records|Church Records]]".

The earliest vital records in Italy were kept by the churches. In 1806 Napoleon, Emperor of France, annexed large parts of Italy, including Roma, Venezia, and the Piemonte region. He also initiated civil record keeping at that time. As he gained control of most of Italy, he enforced new laws that required local civil registration.

These records do not exist for areas that Napoleon never ruled such as Sardegna, Sud Tirol, and Sicilia.

After Napoleon’s defeat in 1815, many areas discontinued civil registration.  

Civil authorities did not record many of the births, marriages, and deaths that happened between the end of the Napoleonic era and the time when the Italian government began keeping civil registration records. You must rely on church records as your main source for these years.  

Birth, marriage, and death records are the most important civil registration records for Italian research. Most of these records retained the basic format introduced by Napoleon in the early 1800s. The registers are divided into separate volumes for each year. Records kept in the south used standardized forms. Many records in the north are handwritten, although they contain basically the same information.

Some church records were transcribed into civil registration records. This transcription usually happened to meet documentation requirements for marriages [''processetti or allegati'']. Transcribed church records are in Latin, and each volume is usually indexed.

Birth records generally give the child’s name, sex, birth date, and birthplace, and the parents’ names. Many of the early records and all of the later records provide additional details, including the parents’ birthplaces, ages, and occupations and the mother’s maiden name. The baptism date is usually included with the civil birth record.

Births were generally registered within a day or two of the child’s birth, usually by the father of the family or by the attending midwife. Corrections to a birth record may have been added as a marginal note. In later records, marginal notes are frequently found, providing marriage and death information.

After 1809 Napoleonic law required that the marriage ceremony be performed first by a civil authority and then, if desired, by a church authority. It was then recorded in the civil records. At first, some people resisted this law and had their marriages performed by church authority only. Later when it became legally necessary for their children to be recognized as legitimate, a civil ceremony was performed. In rare cases, you may find a marriage record for a couple in their 50s who were actually married 30 years earlier. In most cases you may find marriages recorded in both civil and church records.

'''Supporting documents''' '''[''processetti or allegati''].''' These documents were often filed by the bride and groom in support of their intent or "solemn promise" to marry. Records proving their births and their parents’ births and deaths and sometimes documentation on earlier generations may be included. The names of former spouses and their death dates are also provided.

You may find the following records that document the legal completion of the marriage.  

There are two types of printed forms found when researching Italian civiil marriages.  The first is a "solemn promise" to marry - a document created when a couple appeared at the city offices and promised they would marry one another (the banns had already been posted by this time). This document is usually found in pre-unification records (1866-1871). The second is a post-unification record and is the actual marriage document. [[Italian_Marriage_Document_Translations|See translations of these pre-printed forms.]]

Before 1970 divorces were illegal in Italy. Divorce records are not open to the public. The Family History Library does not have any Italian divorce records.

Death records are especially helpful because they may provide important information about a person’s birth, spouse, and parents. Civil death records often exist for individuals for whom there are no birth or marriage records.

Stillbirths are recorded in separate registers entitled nato morto. In later records they are included in the allegati. They were not recorded in either the birth or death records. If an infant died within hours after birth, the birth and death records should both be found.

A civil record unique to Italy is the stato di famiglia, or state of the family certificate. The comune keeps a record of each family and updates each change, including births, marriages, deaths, and emigration. All individuals in a household are included. Some households include more than one family.

Historical states of the family [''stato di famiglia storico''] are kept at the provincial archive [ufficio dello stato civile]. These records document past generations of families. Not all areas have kept this record, but where they exist, they are a valuable research tool.

Civil registration records were and are kept at the local registrar’s office [''anagrafe''] in each town or city. Therefore, you must determine the town where your ancestor lived before you can find the records. Your ancestor may have lived in a village that belonged to a nearby, larger town. Large cities may have many civil registration districts.

In addition to the town, you need to know at least an approximate year in which the birth, marriage, or death occurred. Annual indexes are usually found in each town’s civil registration.

Births, marriages, and deaths were written in the civil registration records as they occurred and thus are arranged chronologically. Where available, indexes can help you find your ancestor more easily.

Ten-year indexes are kept at the town level and are not separate records in the Family History Library Catalog. They will be included with the records of the town they index and a note will be in the catalog entry reflecting that fact.

The Family History Library has microfilmed the civil registration records of hundreds of towns and provinces up to 1866 and many towns up to 1910. Most of these records are from the central and southern area of Italy, but many records are also available from the northern regions.

ITALY, TOSCANA - CIVIL REGISTRATION

You may be able to find birth, marriage, and death records by contacting or visiting local civil registration offices or archives in Italy. To protect the rights of privacy of living persons, most modern records have restrictions on their use and access.

If your request is unsuccessful, search for duplicate records that may have been filed in other archives or church registers.

[[Category:Italy]]