If you know the village they were from you can go to the church and the communi. You need to know the names and dates of birth. You can ask them to go a few years in each direction with the dates. Don't let them tell you that they aren't allowed to give you the information because they are.

Our family is in Ischia. We go a couple of times a year to visit. It would help if you can speak Italian because English is not a commonly used language. They speak German because many Germans vacation there. You can probably get someone from the hotel to help you. If not, you will get by don't worry.

We have done this a few times in other parts of Italy with other family members. I have gone back 140 years and gotten a lot of information just in the communi.

I had tried all of the websites mentioned before to no avail and only got a little information on Ellis Island.

Most of the information I received was from the communi and churches.

Wineries are big on Ischia. Our family imported and exported wine to and from Ischia and Tuscany.

You can do it. It's worth a try. If you don't find information on the websites mentioned before, don't give up. Go to Ischia and the village and do as I mentioned above.

Good Luck

I feel so stupid..but I have to ask...Ann..what is a communi?

fnarf99, have you been to Strachur? What a lovely place to have roots.

I wanted to put in a plug for the message boards on ancestry.com. I was helping a friend who is not very computer-oriented, but who had a loose end on her family tree she just couldn't tie up. Through the message boards I located a distant cousin who cleared up the question, and who even remembered the "missing link" (a great-aunt). I can't remember whether you have to pay to view the forums, but I don't think so. If you have a little bit of information to start with, this (and other genealogy forums) can be a good source of leads. Of course you have to treat all information with a grain of salt. Good luck with your search, gipsy.

Hi Gipsy: The Communi is basically the town hall. It's where all the records are kept.

May I ask, which village is your family from?

A couple of the common names in Ischia are Mattera, Iacono, Di Meglio, etc.

Last spring my great-uncle and cousins were successful in locating family records in Abruzzo - they were even able to meet some distant cousins who still live in the town where my great-grandparents were born, to visit the house where my great-grandfather was born, and to view many family records including birth and marriage certificates.

What worked for them was, as Ann1 suggested, writing directly to the comune of the town several months before they visited, explaining what they knew of the family history and when they would be there. They had to write a few times before receiving a response but their persistence paid off and it was a wonderful experience for them.

I agree with whoever above said make sure you write in Italian, as the recipient of your letter or e-mail is much more likely to respond if he/she doesn't have to bother to have it translated. If you don't know Italian, perhaps you could find someone who does who could translate your request for you.

Good luck - as I said, learning about our family history was a wonderful and very moving experience for my relatives - it wasn't an easy process but they felt it was well worth the effort involved.

All good advice. I have been actively researching "our" (husband and myself) families for about 20 years...that's 8 surnames!

There are many pitfalls along the way, as has been noted by other posters. Here are a couple more:

1) Some records will indicate the name of a ship that your ancester boarded...be aware that the name of a ship may have changed: e.g. the "Prinz Friedrich Wilhelm" changed its name to "Montnairn" in 1925. (This particular ship brought immigrants from Naples to NYC.) I have documents showing my GGF on both ships when, in fact, it was the same ship.

2) The Provincia (Province) di Benevento (Campania Region) was previously Provincia (Province) di Capitanata. The change was made in 1753, and original documents were moved and stored in The Regia Camera dell Sommaria, Napoli.

This may have happened in other provinces as well over the centuries.

It boils down to this: Take it slow, and read every detail - things change over the years.

This is a long-term journey you're on, if you want to go back centuries.

If you are writing to Ischia, you must write in Italian. Not a lot of people speak English there. When I write to the relatives I write in Italian and then repeat it in English. If I made a mistake and they can pick it up in the English part, that's good.

Writing is ok, and possibly might work, but I highly recommend that since you are going anyway, visit the communi and churches in person. With as much info as possible

I'm jumping into this thread a bit late in the game, but I have been working on my family's genealogy for more than 20 years and have traced several lines to the 16th century.

Many people here have recommended the LDS records, Ancestry, Rootsweb, etc. I would point out that these are not "records" in a legal sense (except for reproductions of actual government or church records), and the postings of family trees are more like personal files. There is absolutely no assurance that the family tree information is accurate, and anything you find should be verified through government/church records, family members/Bibles.

Several years ago, I found on LDS a family tree for a line I have researched thoroughly had multiple inaccuracies, and other filers had used the inaccurate information to "fill in" their own research. This line was actually one of the easier ones to trace using Colonial records, so the mess is really unfortunate and certainly turned me off to this "resource."

I've found the same problem at other websites, so it's not a Mormon thing.

Rather than start with Ischia, I'd start within your family and work backwards.