How far back can I conduct an Italian family search?

Question

I may have come from an Italian royal line, but need to do a family search

Answer 1

If your really thorough or get a good geneology business to help you, you theoretically could go all the way back to Adam and Eve. Depends how far you dig.

Answer 2

As far back as the records of your personal family lines will go.

The nearest branch of the National Archives can help you to find the naturalization papers for each of your immigrant ancestors. These, (depending upon the time they entered the country,) may show the town in Italy where they came from.

After that, you may write to the town clerk in each Itailian town to determine what further records exist.

Other sources for Italian research may be www.familysearch.org and websites dealing with Italian genealogy.

Answer 3

I have added additonal information at the bottom


Start with your family here and get as much information as possible, particularly your senior members. Tape them if they will let you. You might find they were a little confused on some details but what might seem to be insignificant ramblings and story telling might turn out to be very significant. People who do this say they go back a year or so later after doing research and listen to the tape again and hear things they didn't hear the first time around.

Go to your public library and see what they have in the genealogy section. They might have a subscription to Ancestry.Com which has lots of records and is obtaining more all the time. They have all the U.S. censuses through 1930. The 1940 is not available for the public yet.

Call your nearest Latter Day Saints Church (Mormon) and find out if they have a Family History Center and if so the hours open for the general public. They are very nice and helpful. They don't get involved in religion.
They have obtained a lot of records from Churches in Italy. I am Catholic and I have never had them send their missionaries by to ring my doorbell.

Now, I have a friend whose father came from Sicily and whose mother came from Calabria. She visits her niece who is an attorney in D. C. and goes to the National Archives. She has found a lot of information on her family there. So once you get back to your immigrant ancestor, that is a good source, Actually a cousin of hers who went to Italy told her she got more information from the National Archives than she did going to Italy.

While you are at the Family History Center, you will probably have a chance to talk to people who can give you a lot of good ideas.

I might add as far as Italian royalty, unless you are related to one of the families of the small kingdoms that existed before Garibaldi overthrew the papal states and united Italy at the end of the 19th century, you might find your family line is connected to nobility.

Garibaldi turned Italy over to the House of Savoia and Italy only had two kings before the Italian government abolished the monarchy. However, the Savoia have not given up claims to the throne of Italy.

The Roman nobility has titles that a lot of American think are royalty. We are use to thinking that the title "prince" belongs solely to royalty, most particularly the son of a king or queen like in Great Britain.

Wikepedia has a good definition - for western countries. A prince can be a reigning monarch (like in Monaco and some German states before Germany was united)
a head of a noble family, or members of a royal or highly noble family sharing their titles with others of the same rank. The young man, Prince Lorenzo Borghese, who got a lot of attention about a year ago when he was on the TV Series the Bachelor, I understand, explained more than once that the Borghese are not royalty but nobility.

A woman in Italy and the Roman nobility only had the title Princess if she was married to a Prince. She could not inherit it.
She might have the title "Donna."

Now, some of the Roman noble familines claim their family lines go back to the Roman Republic, like the Massimo and the Orsini. Their lines can definitely be traced back to the first milennium. A lot of royal houses can't do that.

Are there titles still valid????? Italy no longer recognizes them but their titles came from the Papacy not Italy. Paul VI abolished the Papal court but still there is a member of the Roman nobility with a Vatican position and I understand if the Italian government deals with him as a Vatican official they must address him as Prince.

The Roman nobility are Black Nobility and White Nobiity. When Garibaldi overthrew the Papal states, some of the nobility went into mourning and draped their thrones and carriages in black and wore only black in public and became known as the Black Nobility. Therefore, those who accepted the new order of things were called the White Nobility. Pope Pius XII was descended from both Black and White nobility

Good Luck!

Additional informaton: Catholic records are a great source of information. I have in the past posted First Communion and Confirmation Records. They keep a log on Baptisms, First Communion, Confirmation, Marriage and Death.
These records reflect the name of both parents including the mother's maiden name.
The Confirmation record reflects the parish of Baptism. Back 30 years ago when a child was confirmed each ccnfirmand held a little card in their hand with the Baptismal information which was taken by a priest at the time the Bishop confirmed the child. That little card was mailed back to the parish of Baptism and the Baptismal parish noted the Confirmation information in the Baptismal record. I understand for Marriages a copy of the baptismal certificate is sent back to the parish of baptism so they can put the information in the baptismal record.

Periodically these registers were sent to the Diocescan Chancery office to be microfilmed.