When the dust settled and the Tribunal of Cassino was seen to have been almost completely destroyed in the WW2 bombing of the town, work began to recover as much of the documentation as possible. What was salvageable was stored in the “attic” of the Palazzo Provinciale in Frosinone where it remained gathering mould until 1963 when hundreds of cubic metres of documents were transferred to the State Archives.
What remained of the second copies of the Civil records for the Province of Frosinone were eventually digitized by Family Search and will be uploaded to the Antenati site when their turn comes.
However, many of the volumes were too badly damaged and this is evident in the scarcity of records available in the State Archives.
Most towns managed to conserve their original copies with the exception of, Cassino, Villa Santa Lucia, Sant’Elia Fiumerapido, Cervaro, and a few others.
This week Angel Research completed a search of the salvaged documents from the Prefettura di Frosinone. We were looking for any document with a name that might help our clients identify an ancestor whose civil documents were destroyed.
Among the records we found are: –
- passports applications
- Passport (actual passport!) of Vito Gizzi of Fontechiari
- nulla osta for military and passport applications
- stato di famiglia documents for exclusion from military service
- Allowances paid to the soldiers in Campo Fraschetti in Alatri in 1915
- 1931 Census of Cassino – by address, number of rooms in the dwelling, name of Head of the family and signature of the person who signed for the Foglio di famiglia they had to complete for the census.
- Lista di Leva for 1868 for Frosinone (incomplete)
- List of the “carbonai” arrested in Alatri/Veroli in 1915
Villa Santa Lucia was the only town in the immediate area of Cassino for which we found records. Following is a list of the names for which we have documents.
- Serra, Luigi, Rocco and Antonio
- Iannarelli, Michelangelo
- Maiorca, Antonio and Rocco
- De Felice, Orazio Antonio
- Fiore, Innocenzo and Rocco
- Cavalieri, Costanzo and Rocco
- Iannacone, Gaetano
Thanks to one of our Brazilian clients who helped to fund this huge undertaking.
Angel Research and Genealogical Services 
Hi Ann, Thanks for the documents on Vito. I guess since his passport was left behind, maybe he was a stowaway. I don’t know. I don’t know where the connection is with him, but it may show up one of these days. It is probably quite distant. It was really cool to see these records. I found another one online where a man with his name and approximate date of birth was living in a poor house in the city I grew up in, so I saved that also. It really helps to bring the past to life, as does all of the info you and Rita have helped me find.
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Hi Ann. Its Jan from Liverpool. A you know I have a few names I have been researching of my family. I have a great grandfather on my mothers side from Cassino who came to Liverpool early 1900s He was born in 1885 Cassino. Antonio Cavaliere. Do you think his records could be found in the recovered records and how do I take a look.
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I will make a list and publish the names.
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Hi Ann. My name is Erika Jenneman from Flowery Branch, GA. My husband’s grandmother was Pauline Serra Jenneman from Michigan. Three of her brothers were born in Italy. Grandma’s father was Rosato Angelo Serra born in Saint’Elia Flumerapido. Do you have any history of our family? We would like to visit. Thank you sincerely for any help you may offer.
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Hi Erika,
Reconstructed documents for Sant’ELia can be found on line at familysearch.org. Anything you can’t find can probably be located in the parish records. If you need help with this please email me with the names and birthdates and I will give you a quote. italysearch@gmail.com
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Hi Ann. My name is Iona. from the UK. I am trying to locate my town of origin. I can’t find anything on FamilySearch. Maybe I have the names spelled wrong. My great-grandparents moved to Scotland in the early 1900s. They were Carmeno Tamburrino (or Tamburrini) born 1873 and Vincenza Liccardo (or Mingella? I have different names for her) born 1880. They had one daughter Francis in 1895 before they moved to Scotland and had lots more children. I find it very frustrating, living with surname and not knowing the location where my ancestors come from. I just want to visit my town of origin and retrace my ancestors footsteps. DNA tests and other research keep pointing towards Frosinone, Cassino and Lazio. But I have no concrete evidence or documents. Do you have any information on my family? Or can you help me in any way? I look forward to hearing from you. Please email me your reply.
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I am pretty sure we can find them for you. Both surnames are familiar to the area where I live and research.
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Hi Ann, I have discovered the town of origin. It is Cervaro. Is there any hope for finding records from there?
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