Italian genealogy includes an overview of the Italian surnames during the years and of the records sources for those who wants to explore their Italian heritage.
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A brief Italian history
Italy is a country located in the South part of Europe, surrounded by Adriatico, Ionio and Ligure-Tirreno, (Mediterranean) sea, and bordering with Austria, France, Switzerland and Slovenia with an area of around 300,000 Km2. Its name derives from the word Italói, used by Greek to identify the Vituli a population living in Southern part of the country (where now you can find the city of Catanzaro) who worship a viriel symbol, or vitulus, in latin. From the fall of the Roman Empire (in the year 476) and until the mid-19th century (1800), Italy was no longer united, but divided into many small or very small states. [1]
Independence arrived after a series of revolutionary uprisings, which later became full-fledged wars against foreign occupiers. Three Wars of Independence were fought to gain unity in Italy. The Italian state, as a nation-state, came into being as a monarchy in 1861. Since its formation, the order of the Italian state has been inspired by liberal-democratic principles; however, from 1922 to 1945, it turned into a dictatorial regime (fascism) that ended with the end of World War II.
Italian regions
Italy is divided into 20 administrative regions:[2]
| Region | Capital | Area | Population | Density |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Valle d’Aosta | Aosta (34 390 ab.) | 3 261 km2 | 127 329 ab | 39 ab./km2 |
| Piemonte | Torino (890 529 ab.) | 25 387 km | 4 404 246 ab. | 173 ab./km2 |
| Liguria | Genova (586 655 ab.) | 5 416 km2 | 1 571 0532 ab. | 290 ab./km2 |
| Lombardia | Milano (1 345 851 ab.) | 23 866 km2 | 10 008 349 ab. | 419 ab./km |
| Veneto | Venezia (263 352 ab.) | 18 407 km2 | 4 915 123ab | 267 ab./km |
| Trentino Alto Adige | Trento (117 317 ab.) | 13 606 km2 | 1059 114 ab | 78 ab./km |
| Friuli Venezia Giulia | Trieste (204 420 ab.) | 7 862 km2 | 1 221 218 ab | 155 ab./km2 |
| Emilia Romagna | Bologna (386 663 ab.) | 22 453 km2 | 4 448 146 ab | 198 ab./km2 |
| Toscana | Firenze (382 808 ab.) | 22 987 km2 | 3 744 398 ab | 163 ab./km2 |
| Marche | Ancona (100 861 ab.) | 9 401 Km2 | 1 532 752 ab | 164 ab./km2 |
| Umbria | Perugia (166 134 ab.) | 8 464 km2 | 891 181 ab | 105 ab./km2 |
| Lazio | Roma (2 864 731 ab.) | 17 232 km2 | 5 888 472 ab | 342 ab/km2 |
| Abruzzo | L’Aquila (69 753 ab.) | 10 832 km2 | 1 326 513 ab | 122 ab./km2 |
| Molise | Campobasso (49 431 ab.) | 4 461 km2 | 312 027 ab | 70 ab./km2 |
| Campania | Napoli (974 074 ab.) | 13 671 km2 | 5 850 850 ab | 428 ab./km2 |
| Puglia | Bari (326 344 ab.) | 19 541 km2 | 4 077 166 ab | 209 ab./km2 |
| Basilicata | Potenza (974 074 ab.) | 10 073 km2 | 573 694 ab | 57 ab./km2 |
| Calabria | Catanzaro (90 612 ab.) | 15 222 km2 | 1 970 521 ab | 129 ab./km2 |
| Sicilia | Palermo (674 435 ab.) | 25 832 km2 | 5 074 261 ab | 196 ab./km2 |
| Sardegna | Cagliari (154 460 ab.) | 24 100 km2 | 1 658 138 ab. | 69 a./km2 |
Italian surnames
See also: Italian surnames
The reasons why we count about 400,000 different surnames in Italy are numerous. One of the most consistent concerns the abundance of first names, personal names, from which surnames have been fixed over time. Such surnames represent the largest class of the Italian surname heritage, quantifiable at more than 35 percent of the total. [3] Among the top 200 in the national ranking by frequency, at least 110 can be considered to derive from patronymics or matronymics, terms by which paternal and maternal names are defined respectively and, by extension, the name of any ancestor who gave rise to a hereditary name later crystallized into a surname.
This is an extraordinary variety, unrivaled in Europe, due to the linguistic fragmentation of Italy and the delay of standardization processes and due to the late and slow spread of the national language.
Italian surnames of occupational origin
In hundreds of cases, the jobs to which our surnames refer may not be recognizable or clear in content. And this is for two main reasons, one historical and the other linguistic. Historical: the professions indicated by the surnames no longer exist, because they have become useless for a thousand reasons. Linguistic: because the professions are designated by other words or since the Middle Ages were signaled in dialect or by voices not derived from Latin. And thus surnames constitute a kind of linguistic museum where ancient memories survive.
Italian first names
See also: Italian first names
The first Italian personal names can be traced to the days of the Romans, which adapted the best of every civilization with which they came in contact to the Roman way of life, which did not exclude personal names, like Aldo, Amabile, Giovanni, Tarquinio, Tullio, Ilario, Maria, Pancrazio and Sebastiano which were added to their own Flavio, Fulvio, Attilio, Claudio, Livio, Romolo and Remo.
Later in time, with the complex geo-political changes that have taken place in Italy, from the Risorgimento to the Italian colonial expansion in Africa and the birth of movements like socialism, communism, secularism and fascism, some given names started to be fashionable, like Avanti (Forward), Progresso (Progress) and Riscatto (Redemption), as well as others derived from the first and last names of people distinguished for their ideas or actions, like Battisti, Bixio, Cafiero, Lenin, Marx, and Oberdan, or from places associated with Italian wars, like Adua, Asmara, Bengasi, Gorizia, Libia, Magenta, Trento and others.
Doing family research in Italy
With the Unification of Italy, it became compulsory to register the civil status of the population in order to know the sex, social status and level of education of Italians to form electoral lists, municipal councils, to fulfill the obligation of military conscription, and to collect taxes. Civil status registers record births, marriages, marriage publications, deaths, and sometimes citizenship; they are therefore the serial and primary source for undertaking registry and genealogical research and may also contain significant data from a social point of view, such as the profession practiced by the parents or the level of literacy possessed (through signature).
A law of 1871 made the registry compulsory for all municipalities,[4] which from this date onward were responsible for keeping birth, marriage and death records of the resident population. Therefore, it is always advisable to begin research from the archives of the municipality of origin.
For the period prior to September 1, 1871, the functions of civil registrars were carried out by parish priests, therefore, for the period prior to 1871, it is necessary to apply to the parish of birth and the parish of residence-if different from the former-to obtain the registry certification (useful search engine for Italian parishes is the website Parrocchie.it); projects for the protection and enhancement of Italy's historical Registrazioni anagrafico-sacramentali (parish registers of baptisms, marriages, burials and the state of souls prior to 1901) include the database La Memoria dei sacramenti, to which many parishes have adhered.
In the archives produced by Prefectures, Police Headquarters and Courts, which are transferred to the relevant State Archives after 40 years from the exhaustion of the files, it is also possible to find sporadic documentation related to passports or expatriation permits.
Of particular interest in this regard is the Ancestry Portal, which arose from the need to organize and make available the enormous documentary heritage of civil status records existing in the State Archives in order to conduct registry and genealogical research, aimed at reconstructing the history of families and individuals, but also social history in a broader sense.
Explore more about Italian genealogy
- The Italy - Collection Catalog at MyHeritage contains 25 collections with 56,155,932 records, among them the following:
- Andiamo! Finding Your Italian Family webinar at Legacy Family Tree Webinars
- Italian Local and Parish Censuses webinar at Legacy Family Tree Webinars
- Long Distance Italian Genealogy Research webinar at Legacy Family Tree Webinars
- From Venezia to Catania: the Basics of Italian Research webinar at Legacy Family Tree Webinars
- How to Research Your Ethnicity with Genealogy on the MyHeritage Genealogy Hub
- Sistema Archivistico Nazionale