genealogy trip

Tilio-we just showed up in the small town of Corleone in Sicily. We had hired a driver from Palermo to take us up for the day and I had intended just to look at the church or square but he suggested we go to the city hall. Sure enough there were gigantic books with the paper records of marriages and births and between the 4 or 5 elderly ladies that staffed the place and using our driver as a translator we were able to find my grandfather's birth certificate as well as the marriage certificate of his parents. They gave us a hand writ tend certified copy to bring home and also told us the address of the house where he was born and I walked over and got a picture of that too. Admittedly this was not a lot of research on my part, but I had to guess at the names of my great grandparents and was amazed when we were able to pull it all together. Good luck with your search.

Here's an interesting NY Times article, written by someone who went to Sicily to find family roots, and had a very positive experience: http://travel.nytimes.com/2013/08/18/travel/digging-up-family-roots-in-sicily.html?pagewanted=all

Attilio, Karen is right on. You could also try church records. Bring with you any info you may have already have about your family written down on a piece of paper with names, dates, places of birth or marriage. There may be more than one person with, for example, your grandfather's name but if you have a birth date or any other info that might help identify him that would help. This will be one of the best experiences of your life! Good Luck!

Hi Tilio I just did that this past March. All four grandparents were born within a few miles of each other. We never made it out of Celano, where my maternal grandparents were born and married because of the magic that unfolded. We actually found family while there and so never got to the other two villages. We ended up spending three days in Celano and only left because we had a plane home to catch. You go to the Anagrafe (Registry Office at City Hall) and ask for Certifico di Nasita (birth certificate). It helps to have their birth dates (though they actually corrected the birth year for my nonna) The birth , marriage and death (if they died in Italy) will all be recorded on those beautiful ancient pages in the old books. If they were born in a really small town or village then the records are probably at the closest larger town that has an Anagrafe. Celano is a town of about 10,000 so there was Anagrafe there. If you are staying at a hotel in the area, someone there should be able to direct you to the right town to find the records. Italians love family and go above and beyond to help us find our ancestors and living relatives. Sometimes, the church in a small village will have births recorded and will have baptismal records. So that is another avenue to consider. Oh, you are going to have such a wonderful journey. I hope you are fortunate to find some living cousins!! I'd love to hear how it went for you.

Thousands of Italian records are now available online also. Go to familysearch.org, sign up (it's free), and you will be able to access birth, marriage, and death records and more. I was able to find my paternal grandmother's birth record as well as my paternal grandparents' marriage record in Sicily. If you need any help, let me know. Here's another site that might be useful:
http://www.antenati.san.beniculturali.it/en Good luck. I hope to make a similar live search in Sicily in the not too distant future.

Sicilian Cultural Institute of America based in New York has a facebook page. There are links on there that can tract your family name to the city. Also, I personally know that legendsofsicily.com has a guide service that will take you to your home town if it is on the Eastern part of Sicily -- pretty far inland. Had friends who used them. Their English is perfect - even though they have lived in Sicily their whole lives. They are based in Taormina, which is beautiful. Also they rent self-catering apartments in all different sizes and price ranges. Fra Noi also has a facebook page, and there are links here as well. Whether or not you actually take these trips, I think you'll enjoy looking at these two facebook pages.