Italy Query
 

I was chatting with a friend last night and she was saying that she probably wouldn't be able to research her Grandfather's family as he came from Italy and all records were destroyed during World War II.

Would anybody happen to know if that would be true?

I doubt if ALL records would be destroyed. It's possible national records might have been damaged and maybe lots of local ones - but ALL???

Have you tried googling "Italian genealogy" or "Italian family history"?

Here's Cyndi's List Italian page to get you started:

http://www.cyndislist.com/italy.htm

Thanks Nell. I've just been doing a bit of googling but now I'm stuck in this country just before we get back to Italy :rolleyes:

I think I need to ask another question now lol

There isn't a central registry where all Italian BMD information is stored, so there's no way it could all have been lost during the war. There wasn't a huge amount of bombing in Italy, but maybe the records of the town that her grandfather came from were lost.

The main problem with Italy is the lack of an equivalent to the English GRO. After civil registration (about 1860) you need to know which town your ancestor was born in, because the records will be held there.

Before that, you need to know the parish, because the records are held by the church.

Thanks for that Mary :) She did tell me where her Grandfather came from but I've forgottten where she said :rolleyes: I'll have to ask her again. I know it was in the Bay of Naples area and it began with a P :d I did say to her that I thought it would be unlikely that all records had been destroyed

Pompeii?

The records are probably under 10 foot of lava...

LOL Mary.....no it wasn't Pompii :d