The Family Tree Italian Genealogy Guide: How to Trace Your Family Tree in Italy

by Melanie D. Holtz

Discover your Italian roots!

Say "ciao" to your Italian ancestors! This in-depth guide will walk you through the exciting journey of researching your Italian famiglia both here and in Italy. Inside, you'll find tips for every phase of Italian genealogy research, from identifying your immigrant ancestor and pinpointing his hometown to uncovering records of him in Italian archives.

In this book, you'll find:
--Basic information on starting your family history research, including how to trace your immigrant ancestor back to Italy.
--Strategies for uncovering genealogy records (including passenger lists, draft cards, and birth, marriage, and death records) from both the United States and Italy, with annotated sample records.
--Crash-course guides to Italian history, geography, and names.
--Helpful Italian genealogical word lists.
--Sample letters for requesting records from Italian archives.

Whether your ancestors hail from the island of Sicily or the hills of Piedmont, The Family Tree Italian Genealogy Guide will give you the tools you need to track your family in Italy.

Genres: Italy, Nonfiction, History

240 pages, Paperback

Published November 20, 2017

Reviews

[patrick Lorelli]

This book will give the information and guides to begin your search of your Italian Heritage. The author gives you useful tips but then also provides you with information from Italy on who to go about searching for your relatives. Weather through church records or some legal records. She also gives you address as well. You must remember that in Europe and especially Italy that a lot of the time the local church kept all birth, death and marriage records, so it is easier to start their first then move on to the local office. Also some regions because of the lack of funds especially in the South towns were not able to keep very good records, so the church is where everyone turned to. This is all explained by the author. She does a great job in giving you the information and then at the end of the book giving you all of the addresses that she explained during the book. A very good book. I received this book from Netgalley.com I gave it 4 stars. Follow us at www.1rad-readerreviews.com

[Cammie]

This book gave a ton of valuable information (websites, where records would be, how to go about contacting archives). As someone who had started their search on Ancestry.com and wasn’t getting very far, I needed a book that specifically targeted how to research Italians from the homeland. I feel like this book has given me the necessary details to really dive in deep into the Italian research. Looking forward to using the resources given in this book! The appendices are a must to look at even if you don’t read the whole book.

[Diane]

Great resource. Lots of information. The information about the history of Italy was very helpful too.

[Christine]

Gives clear and detailed background on how to begin or continue your family history search, along with resources and examples. Written in a very clear and interesting way.

[Giulia]

What a rich and thorough resource! I can't wait to use it to help me on my family history journey.

[Books In Brogan]

God I wish I had this book years again when I was trying to research my Italian history.  Since I am Italian on both sides of my family and fell in love with Italy 20 years ago I had to research my Italian heritage the hard way, it would have been much easier if I had this book then.   The background and cultural pit falls that one might find are easily explained and a solution for them clearly written helping you to find the information you need.  This review was originally posted on Books In Brogan

[Nostalgia Reader]

A well-written and well-organized resource for seriously researching your Italian ancestors. Holtz goes in-depth into all the varying types of documents that you can come across or seek out in your research, discussing why they were important, what types of info are contained in them, and where they're stored in Italian archives. She also provides a short, but informative history and geography lesson of Italy.

If you are currently researching Italian family history and are wondering why you can't find certain things, or aren't sure where to look next, this book likely will have some tips and tricks to guide you in the right direction.

[Jessica Del Fino]

This is a very interesting and helpful book for tracing back your Italian roots. It contains many links to help you navigate through records, explains how they were most likely recorded and by whom, even the histories of different regions of Italy and how it may affect the records of the time. I had a few Aha! moments while reading this book, and think I will have a much easier time understanding that part of my family and finding where they are from.

[Kristy]

This is a really nice reference book for researching your Italian heritage. The author through explains all the different types of records and includes examples. I would highly recommend this book for genealogists.