Step 4 - Research in the 19th century

­­­>Use the resources available around you:

1. Interview your relatives, they might have info
2. Find the cemetery where your ancestor is buried. A visit to the cemetery may give you the date

­­­>Find your Abruzzo municipality: Pay attention, some municipalities do not exist any more as such and are included administratively in nearby ones - others may have changed province in the 20th century - check our list of places if unsure - consider that the provinces of Rieti, Pescara and Isernia were created taking municipalities from other Provinces:

• 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

­­­>Ask the municipality for a birth extract for a child of your ancestor: You have to give the right date. Since the municipality does not have a form to automatically supply the age of the parents, in the request you'll ask them to please include that too. If you cannot write Italian here is a model form: copy and paste it within your text editor, and make the necessary changes.

Make it easy for Italian municipality officials to fulfil you requests:

• state your connection to the person requested, so as to comply with the Italian privacy law, and give the reason for the certificate (citizenship, administrative, research)
• include an envelope with your address possibly already with Italian stamps
• include Italian money to pay for the certificates. Consider an average of 1500 Lire/1 euro per certificate.

­­­>Search in the Italian Civil Records: An original Act of birth will give you the age of the father, before 1865 almost always also the age of the mother. Check if the years you need are available for your province [A new window will open, when you have checked close it and you'll be back here] L'Aquila | Chieti | Pescara | Teramo

­­­>Your search must proceed to the municipality or parish

­­­>You can proceed in many ways

1. If you are near a Family Center of the Latter Day Saints' Church and are familiar with Italian language and handwriting, or at least want to give yourself a try: Go to the Latter Day Saints' website and order microfilms for the years you need.
2. If you have planned a trip to Italy, and want to spare some time in the archives: check addresses and opening times for the archive you are interested in, that is the province capital for your municipality. Before going, make a phone call to the archive there to check if your municipality is in that archive or in another, or missing: if the municipality was in the Stato della Chiesa, you won't have any Civil Records to search from until after 1870, or your municipality may have changed province during the 20th century
3. You want to hire a genealogist to make a search for you from archives in Abruzzo. To obtain a photocopy of an act of birth for which the date is certain, inform you by email, translate into English and ship to you by airmail, supply an estimate for further research.