Italy Archives and Libraries

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Italy

Archives and Libraries

• Archives collect and preserve original documents of organizations such as churches or governments. Libraries generally collect published sources such as books, maps, and microfilm.
• If you plan to visit a repository, contact them and ask for information about their collection, hours, services, and fees. Ask if they require you to have a reader’s ticket (a paper indicating you are a responsible researcher) to view the records, and ask how to obtain one.
• Although the records you need may be in an archive or library, the Family History Library may have microfilmed and/or digitized copies of them.

Archives

National Archives

Archivio Centrale dello Stato (ACS)
Piazzale degli Archivi, 27
00144 Roma, Italy
Telephone: +39 06 545481
E-mail: acs@beniculturali.it
State Archives by Region
Hall of the Heraldry and Special Collections
ARCHIVES OF FAMILIES AND PEOPLE

Numerous sources, both public and private, are kept in the State Archives, which are indispensable for genealogical research and for the history of individual families and individuals. The main ones are:

• The civil status with the relative original annual and ten-year indices;
• The documentation relating to military enrollment and career;
• The notarial archives;
• Family and personal archives;
• Nominative sources and sources for emigration;
• all other archives and individual documents, public and private, that the State owns or has received as a gift or deposit, such as archives of families, businesses, religious corporations and non-state public bodies.

State (Provincial) Archives--Archivio di stato]

• State Archives by Region
  
• Antenati Gli Archivi per la Ricerca Anagrafical This is a helpful site for searching indexes of multiple Italian state archives for civil records. You can search ancestors by names and dates and find the records online.
  

In Italy each state has its own archive. Most records of genealogical value are kept by state archives. They serve as repositories for records about their particular area.

Records of genealogical value at state archives include:

• Church records (some)
• Civil registration
• Census
• Court records
• Military records
• Notarial records

The state archives of Italy are open to the public. In addition, the Family History Library has microfilm copies of many of the records from these archives.

There are forty state archive sections in the country.

Church Archives

Some dioceses of the Catholic Church have gathered duplicates of their older church records into a diocesan archive. You can write to these archives and request brief searches of their records. See Italy Church Records.

Church Parish

Catholic records are usually kept by the local parish. You can write to local parishes and church archives for information. See Italy Church Records.

Jewish archives, which were mostly destroyed during World War II, are found at the synagogue for each city where a Jewish community existed or exists. The archives of the Waldensians, the oldest Protestant group in the world, are in Torre Pelice in the province of Torino. For more information regarding these groups, see Italy Church History  and Italy Jewish Records.

Libraries

Some of the sources you will want to use are also available in major libraries in Italy. These sources include local histories, ancient manuscripts, and unpublished works regarding heraldry and genealogy. Contact these libraries and ask about their collection, hours, services, and fees. A good source regarding Italian libraries and their collections is:

Annuario delle biblioteche italiane (Yearbook of Italian libraries). Three Volumes. Roma, Italy: Fratelli Palombi, 1958. (FHL book EUROPE 945 J5an, 1958; film 962678, item 1–2.)

Historical and Genealogical Societies

Italy has some organized historical and genealogical societies. Some of these societies maintain libraries and archives that collect valuable records. For more information, including addresses, see Italy Societies.

Record Offices

Local Civil Offices [Comune]

In Italy all records created by the local government since 1865, including birth, death, and marriage records, are kept in local civil offices. These records are available to the public. Civil offices are comparable to town halls in the United States.

Duplicates are kept at the tribunale. You can get information or copies of the records kept at the comune or tribunale by correspondence. You can find a list of archival addresses in:

Archivum; revue internationale des archives publié e avec le concours financier de l’Unesco et sous les auspices du Consil internationale des archives (International review on archives published by the International Council of Archives with the financial aid of Unesco). Paris, France: Presses Universitaires de France, 1952. (FHL book EUROPE REF 020.5 Ar25 v. 38.)

For more information about civil offices and their records, see Italy Civil Registration.

Inventories, Registers, Catalogs

Some archives have catalogs, inventories, guides, or periodicals that describe their records and how to use them. If possible, study these guides before you visit or use the records of an archive so that you can use your time more effectively. The Annuario delle biblioteche italiane, mentioned above, is a guide to Italian archives and libraries.

The Family History Library has copies of some Italian libraries’ published inventories and other guides, catalogs, directories, and inventories. To find them look in the FamilySearch Catalog under:

ITALY- ARCHIVES AND LIBRARIES

ITALY, [PROVINCE]- ARCHIVES AND LIBRARIES

Websites

• Archives Portal Europe provides access to information on archival material from Italy as well as information on archival institutions throughout the European continent.

• Archival Resources in Italy (Oxford Library Guides)
• Italian Libraries and Archives (UCLA Library)