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Catasto Onciario – How and why it was created
In 1740 the Catasto Onciario was proposed by King Charles III (who reigned from 15 May 1734 – 6 October 1759) and and by 1742 regulations had been sent out to all the towns in the Regno delle Due Sicilie with instructions to complete the work by the end of January 1743. Ten years later, … Continue reading
Indexes – how accurate are they and what to do if the name isnt there?
Let’s discuss first the indexing currently underway by Family Search and Antenati. This indexing is being done by volunteers who may, or may not be familiar with the elaborate handwriting of our Italian ancestors. You should try your search on both sites and on Ancestry.com. I have a feeling Antenati is not sharing this project … Continue reading
Violence against women and the law.
It’s a hot topic today but check out this Italian law. To repress the disordered (uncontrolled) vice of the flesh the death penalty is imposed for incest up to the third degree of consanguinity and to the first and second degree of kinship, after which, in both cases, is imposed the penalty of jail, which … Continue reading
Was your ancestor a hunted man?
One of the reasons your ancestor may have left Italy in a hurry is that he was an Anarchist or a socialist, or at least suspected to be one. On June 15th 1904 the Sotto-Prefetto of Sora sent a list of suspected anarchists and others suspected of belonging to subversive parties, to all the … Continue reading
Italian Passports – a good source of information? Not always.
Anyone who is lucky enough to have their Grandfather’s Italian passport would expect that the name, parents’ names, date and place of birth would be as accurate as it could get. And yet, in the past couple of years I have found this not to be the case. From 1869, passports were required to leave … Continue reading
Sins of the father….the story of Anna
Stories about women are rare so I would like to take a few minutes of your time to focus on a kind of heroine. One who went against the culture and traditions of the time. A young woman whose true story we will never know, but one that we can imagine, based on various documents … Continue reading
When records can’t be found.
Morgan was having difficulty locating records for his ancestral town of San Lazzaro in Campania and asked for help. The first thing to do is to check the Family Search catalogue. Nothing there! Next stop is a Google search for Comune di San Lazzaro. In the list is a item ‘La frazione di San Lazzaro … Continue reading
Legal assistance for dual citizenship and inheritance issues
We have been seeing an increase in dual citizenship applications and really felt we needed to offer clients some help with difficult applications or refusals. We are lucky to have found Avv. Norma Cecconi who lives in Rome and is a lawyer with experience in the field of immigration and citizenship requests and in dealing … Continue reading
Italian/Albanian ancestry? We can help!
Please welcome Giuseppe Baffa to our team. Giuseppe has a degree in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage. He has published many papers and books on various issues related to Arbëresh culture and tradition, which he knows very well. In addition to being interested in Albanian culture, he is an arbëresh living in Santa Sofia d’Epiro, … Continue reading
The battle against epidemics in the 1800’s
With all the hype about today’s epidemic of the Coronavirus I couldn’t help rereading a book written and researched by the schoolchildren of Sora 10 years ago about the fight against epidemics in the 1800’s. I have translated and extracted some of the more interesting information for your entertainment. The two big epidemics of the … Continue reading
Customised Italian genealogical research
