Finding Relatives In Ferrara, Italy??
 

Hello..
Going to italy for the first time and recently was given my grandfathers birth certificate. I would like to find out some info about our family. He was born Antonio Lamborghini. Someone told me that the churches in Italy handle those types of records. Are there city halls? This would be approx. 1880. Were lots of records destroyed in the war? Anyway, anyone w/ any info would be appreciated...
Thanks from san diego..oh yeah, no parla Italian!!

Hi mikeylambo, I am glad you reposted. I trust you read my post about the city/municipal hall etc.

A hint how to keep this thread of yours at the top of the first 50 threads. If it starts falling down due to new threads being added tomorrow just type "ttt" which mean "to the top" and then click "Post my Reply". That will keep your thread up towards the top where hopefully someone with good knowledge will see it. Sometimes after doing this it takes awhile for your "TTT" to activate as Fodor's seems to be acting up a bit lately.

Also, Fodor's is not as active on the weekends at it is during the week so if you don't get much in the way of answers this weekend don't get discouraged. Just "top" this thread a couple of times tomorrow, a couple of times Sunday and then again Monday. Weekdays tend to have more activity on Fodors.

Mikey, if you don't get any answers I have a friend in Italy that was born and raised in Ferrara. Unless you are leaving immediately I can ask him about your question and I am sure he would have a good answer. Best wishes to you.

The normal approach is to write to the comune where the person was born. Technically, you should write to the Ufficio Anagrafe Stato Civile of the specific municipality (comune), but if it's a small town with a small staff, it's probably enough just to write to the comune itself, in general, and the letter will be given to the right person. If your grandfather was actually from the city of Ferrara, you probably should address the envelope to the anagrafe office in the proper way. If your grandfather was from the province of Ferrara, but not from the actual city of Ferrara, you need to write to the specific municiplaity (comune) where he was born, because Ferrara, as the provincial capital, does not hold the records for all the individual towns. (Ferrara is one of the provinces in the region of Emilia-Romagna, as you probably know.) Here's a list of the comuni within the province of Ferrara: http://www.enit.it/comuniris.asp?Lan...;Luogo=FERRARA If he was born in a place that is village or hamlet, i.e. not a municiplaity that is a political unit, then you have to write to the comune that covers this village or hamlet administratively and politically.

I have no idea whether a lot of records were destroyed in the war. I don't think so, but I don't know. I do know that the Jewish history in Ferrara is especially interesting, but most of what I know I learned from a novel and a movie based on it (Garden of the Finzi-Contini).

You should write your letters in Italian. In Ferrara, unlike in the towns of my ancestry, there are probably people who know English. Nevertheless, I think it would be strange for them to get a letter in English. Anyway if you are serious about doing this research and meeting distant relatives, it will be much easier and much much more fun and interesting if you know Italian.

There's a small-circulation magazine that helps people who are doing genealogical research in Italy. The magazine is also of some interest to people like me who do not do genealogical research, but who like to read about Italy. I subscribed for a year or two, but let the subscription lapse mainly because I have a clutter problem. Here's info about the magazine: http://www.italianancestry.com/coi/

I can tell you that you need to go to the churches and commune. In my experience and many people I know, writing will not get you information. Sometimes it's hard to get the information even if you go. Persevere and you will get what you want.

I went to the little village my grandfather was born in. Even though we spoke Italian they gave us a hard time. But I got all the information I needed.

I got more information than I expected just by writing. In each case, I didn't even write specifically to the anagrafe office, but simply wrote to the comune. In one town, the person who replied turned out to be a cousin of mine, and he gave me his phone number, in case I ever wanted to visit. I did visit a few years later, though I declined to stay at his house and stayed at a nearby agritursmo instead. In another town, I got loads of info about a fascinating local festival, and about five years later I went to the town and stayed during this four-day festival. The second time I wrote to that town (the one with the festival), I got a reply from the nice person in charge of the anagrafe office, who tracked down whether I had any relatives in town. I did--a 5th cousin--and he introduced me to my cousin as well as to some other townspeople when I visited the town a few months later. When I was there, he let me look at the original books where my grandmother's and greatgrandfather's births were recorded.

I was about to suggest cmt :)

Hi cmt, you have had some interesting experiences!! How nice that people took an interest. And I am glad that you were able to give mikeylambo some good information. Take care.

CMT you were very lucky to have run into a family member. Most people who write don't get an answer. Even though I had problems, I was still able to see the original records. It was a small town and many times the residents are a little wary of what you want. That's why I said persevere. Try writing and if you don't get an answer, go. I found that by going, it was a very a emotional and wonderful experience. Even better finding the original records and seeing them for myself.