I have always felt very connected to my Italian roots since both sides of my family were all from Italy. When I learned about citizenship by descent many years ago, I set to work tracing my family roots. I knew that my maternal grandfather was born in Italy and my other three grandparents were born in the US but their parents were born in Italy so I started collecting my grandfather’s birth, marriage and death records. I was under the mistaken impression that I could only go as far back to my grandparents in my quest to have my Italian citizenship recognized. I learned so many interesting facts about my grandfather. He was born in a small town, Buccino in the Campania region and when he was 17, in 1915, he got on a ship in Naples and sailed to the US to help them fight in WW1. He joined the US Army where he distinguished himself at the Battle of Argonne. He was honorably discharged from the Army at the end of WW1 and tried to find a job but no one would hire an Italian. He eventually went back to Italy but life there was so poor that he returned to the US. He eventually became a US citizen, married a girl whose family he knew from Italy and had four daughters, my mom being the eldest. His wife died when my mom was only 10 and he then moved his girls to the Jersey shore where he had a hotel and restaurant. My fondest memories growing up were spent there, eating my grandfather’s homemade Italian specialties and spending time with my sisters and all my cousins.
My dream of having my Italian citizenship recognized was crushed when I received my grandfather’s naturalization records from the US government and learned that he signed the oath a mere 18 months before my mom was born. I though that it was over for me and my siblings and our kids but the genealogy bug had bit me and I was anxious to learn more about my family and how and when they came to the US. Every time we visited Italy, we would try to visit the ancestral towns and I was anxious to learn more. I continued to gather documents to put together a family tree. It was an interesting journey and learned a lot of things that no one knew. I hit a few roadblocks along the way and at one point, hired a researcher on the ground in Campania to find information about my maternal grandmother as years of searching yielded no clues about her. Turns out that their name was Canco, not Cavico as they were known in the US and that she came from a neighboring town of Bucino, Ricigliano. It was nice to put an eight-year mystery for me to rest.
One day, many years after I thought my journey was at an end, I came upon the Italian Citizenship Assistance (ICA) website. After reading a few things and doing some more research, I learned that there was not a generational limit to prove citizenship. But then I ran into the rule of 1912 which excluded one of my paternal grandfathers but not the other. I then reached out to ICA and had many email exchanges with a very helpful client-intake team member. I put together a family tree for her and sent her copies of the necessary documents, and she agreed that my other paternal great-grandfather was a viable route as he did not naturalize until many years after my grandfather was born. During my interactions with ICA, I had ordered a copy of my great-grandfather’s naturalization certificate from the US government as I was working off a copy I had found online and knew I needed a certified copy or red ribbon package. Unfortunately, when it arrived, attached to it was a signed sworn affidavit from my great-grandfather attesting to the fact that he had naturalized many years before (before my grandfather was born), and that he had voted in many elections, but the government could not find his naturalization records so he had to reapply for citizenship. I sent a copy of the affidavit to ICA and they thought it could be problematic. Needless to say, I was crushed, thinking that my journey was at an end when I continued to read the email from ICA. The client intake assistant indicated that I could not go the consulate route but that I could file a lawsuit in the court of Rome, alleging the law that women could not pass citizenship was discriminatory, what is commonly referred to as a 1948 case. She explained the process and the costs involved and I knew that one of my sisters and her adult children would join with me and my minor child. At this point, being an attorney in the US, I knew that the choice of the right Italian attorney/firm was crucial.
I did more research and interviewed other Italian attorneys that handled these kinds of cases, but I kept coming back to ICA. One of the many things that impressed me was that in all the many months going back and forth with ICA, they never once pressured me to sign with them or asked for money and they were always quick to respond to my many, many questions. While ICA was not the cheapest, I always believed, you get what you pay for. We decided to hire ICA for our 1948 case and were extremely happy with the service we received. As I had been collecting documents all along, within a few months of signing with them, they were able to file our lawsuit in March of 2019. We were granted a hearing date in April 2020 and then the health emergency begun, which shut the world down, but after many years on this journey, I had learned patience. The hearing was adjourned and given a new date and then the courts decided to render their verdicts “on the papers” meaning no court appearance was required from our attorney. Finally in November 2020, we learned of a favorable verdict, we were recognized as Italian citizens. Eventually, the judgement was finalized and sent to our comune, Fisciano, where our birth and marriage documents were transcribed. In November 2021, my sister and her boys were able to get their passports in LA and in December 2021, my daughter and I were able to get our passports in NYC.
ICA was there every step of the way for us and I couldn’t be happier with the service we received. They kept us informed of every twist and turn and even after the favorable judgement, helped us in registering with the AIRE and in getting our passports. I highly recommend ICA.
Written by Patty Baglivi
