Da dove vengo (Where am I from)?

Italian American Heritage Month recognizes the achievements and contributions of Italian immigrants and Italian Americans. Over 5 million Italians immigrated to the United States between 1820 and 2000. Currently, there are over 26 million Americans of Italian descent in the United States. This makes Italian-Americans the fifth largest ethnic group.

Both United States records and family knowledge are essential to discover your ancestors’ town of birth. Italian records are kept at the local level, so the town they came from is important when tracing family history back to the old country. Here are some resources to get you started:

1. FamilySearch is a source of online records for Italian genealogical research (records of births, marriages, deaths, church records, censuses, etc.). They have videos to help you with Italian research as well. FamilySearch also has many United States records, including passenger lists, vital records indexes, and others. View FamilySearch’s Wiki for more information.
2. Italian Passenger List Indexes from the National Archives, 1855-1900. This collection is an index of over 800,000 passengers (all of whom originated in Italy) who came to the U.S. Information may include the passenger's name, age, last residence, destination, and other information.
3. Portale Antenati (The Ancestors Portal) offers access to records held in State Archives throughout Italy. Though some State Archives’ records have yet to be digitized, you can find contact information for that archive.
4. Comuni-Italiani provides information and statistics on Italy's regions, provinces, and municipalities. This resource will help you find the contact information of municipal offices throughout Italy. If your particular area in Italy is not online, you will need the contact information to request records.

Sheri V.
Midwest Genealogy Center