- You don't know the place of birth of an ancestor but you have the date
> One of the following documents (which someone among your relatives may also have ...) might give you the place of origin
- an extract of death, to be requested from the administration (county etc) where your relative deceased
- the immigration manifestoor naturalization paper : there are many websites and sources on the web and more are being added every day just to allow this research
- an extract of marriage, to be requested from the local administration or church where the marriage was celebrated
- The above documents cannot be found.
> Proceed to find where your ancestor's surname appears in Italy
Consider that Northern Italy and Rome were also favourite destinations of emigrants from the former Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Check where the surname you are researching appears nowadays in Italy. Before that, you can also print our province maps and write in the municipalities the "surname score" (how many surnames in that municipality) - the highest score will strongly point towards a place of origin.
When you click on the following links a new window will open, close it to come back here when you are done:- Print our Province Maps with the names of all the municipalities: L'Aquila - Chieti - Pescara - Teramo
- Check this database with surname distribution in Italy
- Search through the Italian white pages by province, where you'll specify your province and have results divided by municipality
- Search through our lists of surnames for municipalities in Abruzzo (not all ready yet, sorry) for the spelling
- You are unsure of the spelling, municipality or province
> Check in our lists of Comuni and Frazioni for Abruzzo
It is possible what your parents or grandparents knew and told you is different now. Places that were municipalities in the past may now be included in another municipality, and some municipalities have changed province when the new Provinces of Rieti, Pescara and Isernia were established. Also a new region was formed (Molise), which was previously one with Abruzzo. We'll have something online on Molise soon. We have a complete (we hope) List of "Frazioni" and "Comuni" for the four Provinces now in Abruzzo: - L'Aquila and Province - List of Frazioni and Comuni
- Chieti and Province - List of Frazioni and Comuni
- Pescara and Province - List of Frazioni and Comuni
- Teramo and Province - List of Frazioni and Comuni
- You know only the province and maybe approximate area, your ancestor is a man
>We can do the research for you
We'll search through 3 consecutive years in the conscription and military lists (Liste di Leva and Fogli Matricolari) for one area in a province (mandamento), and note all the names that match your ancestor's (some name+surname combinations may be very common). Often the date of request of passport (if emigration was not illegal) and residence abroad were also noted on the documents - With this procedure however you must know either names of parents or day and month of birth, to be sure you have the right person.
- You know only the province and maybe approximate area, your ancestor is a woman
>This is a very desperate case but ..
A thorough search through all possible Internet and archive sources might give some results. Another option is post the terms of your research giving all possible information on messageboards and guestbooks targeted to your area. You can contact us for advice