Unlike many of our previous articles which have outlined the different paths towards acquiring Italian citizenship, the eligibility requirements needed to apply and the stages involved in preparing a citizenship application, this article will focus on vital records needed from Italy. Firstly, we will provide you with information regarding the retrieval process per se and the type of vital records that are needed in order to apply for Italian citizenship by descent. Secondly, we will describe a few additional Italian records that can be requested in specific circumstances to support a citizenship application. Finally, we will explain how Italian vital records can be useful to make amendments to U.S. vital records.
As discussed extensively in our previous articles, in order to apply for Italian citizenship by descent – be it via an Italian consulate abroad or a municipality in Italy, or via an Italian court by filing a 1948 case -, you will need to collect certified copies of your family’s vital records in order for the Italian authorities to verify your Italian lineage. These comprise birth, marriage, divorce and death certificates. As a general rule, these records are issued by the U.S. state’s Department of Health, however, they might also be available at the county and city level. On the other hand, divorce records are held by the court in which the divorce was filed. Some consulates might also require the applicant to provide original copies (or photocopies) of the vital records pertaining to the spouses of the family members who are part of the Italian lineage, however, it is advisable to check the requirements of the specific consulate through which you would like to apply. Please remember that you will need to apply to the Italian consulate that covers the jurisdiction where you reside. You will also need your Italian ancestor’s naturalization records or proof that your ancestor was never naturalized. These documents can be retrieved from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) which hold government and historical records, or the county in which naturalization took place.
Finally, and most importantly, you will need to retrieve your Italian ancestor’s vital records from Italy. These can be retrieved from the Ufficio di Stato Civile (registry office) in the town hall of the Italian municipality in which the registration of the event occurred. In some town halls the registry office might be known as Ufficio Anagrafe; the Ufficio di Stato Civile (or Ufficio Anagrafe) will be able to provide you with your ancestor’s birth certificate, provided that you justify why the record is needed and that you provide your ancestor’s full name, date of birth and his or her parents’ names. Generally speaking, you will need to mail the municipality a written request and apply for the Estratto per riassunto dell’atto di nascita (a certified extract of the birth record). The information in the book copy of the birth registries that were once used in Italy – and which you can find on genealogy websites such as ancestry.com and familysearch.com – will be typed into a standardized format which will show the registrant’s date and place of birth, his or her parents’ names, and the number of the volume and page of the registry of birth from which the information was extracted. The certified copy of the record will most likely be issued in the multilingual version (Italian and French). The same applies to the Estratto per riassunto dell’atto di matrimonio (a certified extract of the marriage record), and Estratto per riassunto dell’atto di morte (a certified extract of the death record). With regards to marriage records, it is worth mentioning that if you cannot locate your male ancestor’s birth record because you do not have information regarding his place of birth, but you have details regarding where his wife was born, you can use that information to try and locate a marriage certificate because traditionally couples in Italy married in the wife’s municipality. Therefore, locating a marriage certificate might provide you with additional information regarding your male ancestor’s date and place of birth. Nevertheless, if you cannot locate your ancestor’s birth record you may use church records such as a Certificate of Baptism, which according to Italian law can be used to file a citizenship application only if birth registries did not exist when the birth occurred.
As for the processing time necessary to be issued a vital record from Italy, by law, municipalities have a maximum of six months to issue a certificate, however this may vary depending on the size and the workload of the municipality to which you apply.
*** the above is an example of a certified copy of a birth certificate from Italy.
If the vital record you are searching for is very old, it might not be held by the municipality but rather by the Archivio di Stato (state archive). As a matter of fact, most municipalities in Italy started registering vital records between 1861 and 1871; there is a state archive in each province. Often, state archives also hold other types of records such as military records, which show information regarding an individual’s height, eye color, skin color, birthmarks (if any), parents’ names, place of birth, profession, level of education and the date in which the individual began his military service.
If your ancestor’s name was misspelled when he or she moved to the United States, or if the Italian name was changed into the English version (e.g. Giovanni – John; Maria – Mary; Assunta – Susan) you can request a specific certificate from the municipality, which is known as Certificato di Esatte Generalità: when there are several records pertaining to you ancestor which show conflicting information, the Certificato di Esatte Generalità states that the individual named on the records is one and the same. Some municipalities might also issue a different document which is called “positivo – negativo”, which certifies that your ancestor was the only individual born with that specific name and on that specific day.
With regards to these discrepancies, your ancestor’s birth record from Italy might also be useful to amend a U.S. vital record, depending on the amendment requirements of the specific U.S. Department of Health, which is responsible for issuing the vital record that needs to be amended. For example, if there is a discrepancy on your father’s birth record which concerns your grandfather’s name, you might be able to use your grandfather’s Italian birth record to amend your father’s U.S. record. More specifically, in order to do so you will need to request an Apostille on the Italian birth certificate. This can be done by mailing the certified copy of the record to the Prefettura (Prefecture) which has jurisdiction over the municipality which issued the record. Once the record has been authenticated with an Apostille, both the birth certificate and the apostille will need to be translated into English and the translation will need to be certified before a public notary in the U.S. Finally, you can submit the translated documents to the Amendment Division of the Department of Health and file a formal request to correct your record.
We hope that this article has provided you with a more detailed insight into the subject of vital records from Italy. If you would like more information about Italian citizenship by descent or a free eligibility assessment, do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected] or at +1 323 892 0861. We will be happy to help you!
