A new challenge - mid-European research.

[Mary from Italy]

I suppose you've already seen this?

https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki...land_Genealogy

[marquette]

Originally Posted by Mary from Italy

Part of Switzerland is Italian-speaking, as you probably know.

Are there any Italian-sounding names in the family?

I suppose you've looked at online trees?

Have a look at those on MyHeritage and Geneanet as well as Ancestry if you haven't done already; they're sometimes better for non-English-speaking countries.

FamilySearch is also worth a try.

Thank you, ladies for the links, I will look at them.

I have yet to look further afield than Ancestry, but there does not seem to any family trees there.

familysearch is not showing any Swiss or Italian "Dolo" surnames, mostly Brazil or South America and Spain. I am wondering if he has the spelling slightly wrong, but will keep looking.

[Mary from Italy]

This Italian site shows the distribution of surnames over the country:

https://www.cognomix.it/mappe-dei-cognomi-italiani/DOLO

I think it must be based on the current phone book, because my non-Italian surname is showing for the area where I live, but it at least gives you a clue where they might be from.

Northern Italian regions most likely for Dolo, as you'll see.

[Mary from Italy]

Some Dolo trees on MyH, and a couple of entries for Dolo in the Swiss phone book:

https://tel.search.ch/?was=Dolo

There are even a few in the Australian electoral rolls, I see (you never know, some of his mother's family may also have emigrated).

[Mary from Italy]

Your friend's Australian birth certificate is going to be the key to going further, because it should show his parents' ages and birthplaces.

[marquette]

Thank you, Mary.

Seems like there's plenty to look at and lots of clues, if I can just get a few more details to focus on an area or region.

We may be looking at events that are too recent and are still bound by privacy laws. Even our Australian states vary greatly in end-dates for access to marriages and deaths records.

[Mary from Italy]

I know, that's a nuisance.

[marquette]

Just a progress report - I have been able to connect one of the DNA matches to my friend's family! Its a very small match (10cM), but a large tree helped find the Common Ancestor!

The very helpful familysearch records of the Swiss Catholic and Reformed Church go all the way up to 1996. They also list parents' names on marriage records. With this information I am pretty sure I have my friend's paternal lines back to his 5th great grandparents.

Also I have been able to sort out his paternal grandmother's maternal line - no father is listed on her marriage record, so I don't know if she was illegit. (her mother is listed with the same surname) or if he was deceased.

The big hole is my friend's mothers side. I found his fathers and uncles baptism records from the 1950s and 1960s and their parents marriage, but not a thing for his mother or her parents.

I am beginning to think that the name she is known by is not the one given at birth.

The only two records I found for her are in Australia - a current business registration and an immigration/citizenship record at the National Archives. I have requested access to the NAA record, but don't know whether it will be successful as its from 1984. Oddly, there are no immigration records for her husband, even though her record is in her married name.

I am surprised at how quickly this has come together but I think that was the "easy" bit.

The NAA are saying they will advise within 90 days, so I will have to be patient for the next few months, and then it may not have anything useful.

[Mary from Italy]

Did you get to see your friend's birth certificate eventually?

[marquette]

Originally Posted by Mary from Italy

Did you get to see your friend's birth certificate eventually?

No not yet, he forgot last time we got together. I dont like to nag too much!