Gente di Mare Italian Genealogy

Posts Tagged ‘Family Search’

Spett.le Direzione Generale per gli Archivi,

Come molti appassionati di genealogia, apprezziamo enormemente gli sforzi sviluppati dalla Direzione Generale per gli Archivi per rendere pubblici gratuitamente i documenti di Stato civile. Siamo dunque stati entusiasti all’annuncio del lancio del “Portale degli Antenati” e dell’accordo firmato tra la Direzione Generale per gli Archivi e Family Search International per la digitalizzazione, l’indicizzazione e la pubblicazione dei registri italiani.

Read more…

If you haven’t been on Family Search for a while then you’re truly missing alot. Family Search has been busy adding new records almost daily including several for the provinces in Italy. Just added this past week:

• L’Aquila – Nati, Matrimoni, Processetti and Morti 1809 – 1865
• Pescara – Atti Diversi, Nati, Matrimoni, Processetti and Morti
• Rieti – Atti Diversi, Nati, Matrimoni, Processetti and Morti

Also added this month:

• Italy, Biella, Borriana, Catholic Church Records, 1740-1938
• Italy, Genova, Chiavari, Civil Registration (Tribunale), 1866-1941
• Italy, Messina, Messina, Civil Registration (Tribunale), 1866-1939
  All records available can be accessed through the

Europe

listing on the Family Search Website.

Handwritten Marriage Act 1873

Old Italian record can be difficult to read at first glance – especially if you have no knowledge of the language or are expecting it to be similar to American records. They can be quite detailed and some, like the marriage record posted courtesy of Cosenza Exchange are completely hand written.

Example of a Standard Birth Act 1888

But most Italian vital records are similar to the birth act posted on the right where a standard form is used and the remaining information is filled in as the event occurred. Because these forms were so standard, much of the *important* information is easy to pick out once you know where to look.

There are several great sites available to help you decipher the old handwriting and Family Search even offers a three part online course for this on their site. Each course is between 25 and 30 minutes long and covers The Italian Alphabet, Italian Words and Phrases and Reading Italian Records.

Another excellent site I really enjoyed going through is Italian Family Search. There are several examples of vital records and Italian Handwriting sheets available for download and which make a great reference guide.

Over 700 people attended and participated in this years Ontario Genealogy Conference held last weekend in Toronto. I spoke with several people who attended the Conference (due to expected events I was not able to attend after all) – all who enjoyed the event immensely and were excited about the sessions they attended. I met with a good friend of mine, Henri Malizia on Sunday night who flew in for the Conference from the US and we discussed the series over dinner. Henri has been extracting the records for Settefrati, Frosinone, Italy and has joined with Family Search to host those records on the website where they will be available to researchers everywhere for free.
John Philip Colletta was a big hit with the crowd – one person’s summary about the way she felt was “John Coletta was amazing to listen and watch.. such an icon to Italian American Genealogy”. I’m also told he had a wonderful sense of humour and really inspired the group to pursue their Italian ancestry.
I hope to be posting some of the highlights of the weekend soon.

Next year’s OGS will be held in Hamilton, Ontario, during May 13th to May 15th.

FamilySearch has added 300 million new indexed records at its FamilySearch Record Search Pilot – there are lots of new and wonderful things available. To see if there are new records available for the part of the world you are interested in, go to Family Search . From the drop-down menu under the heading Search Records, choose Record Search pilot. From the newly loaded page, click on Search or Browse our Record Collections. This will load a map; you can click on the map for the collections that are online for that area. The new ones are highlighted with a red star. To look at the collection, just click on its name. Some are indexed with images; others are just indexes; and some collections are images only.

FamilySearch and Family Family Tree University are hosting a webinar on Tuesday, April 20, at 7 p.m. EST.

Learn how to use FamilySearch to find your ancestors!

Thanks to an active research and development department, the FamilySearch website is growing and changing quickly. In this webinar, you’ll learn how to use FamilySearch and the FamilySearch Record Search pilot to find your ancestors.

In this one-hour Webinar presented by Diane Haddad, Managing Editor of Family Tree Magazine, you’ll learn:

• Searching the databases on FamilySearch

• Using the FamilySearch Record Search Pilot

• Finding historical books

Read full article…..

The Family History Library in Salt Lake City Utah now offers free online Research Classes to help you get started in tracing your roots. Some classes are broken down into 2 or 3 lessons about 30 minutes long each. Others, have only one class that is about an hour long. Videos can be paused and resumed at your convenience so if the phone rings or you need to step away for a minute you don’t need to worry about missing something.

There are basic tips on how to research using records for several countries including a 58 minute class on Basic Italian Research. The video file is a bit large for downloading so I would recommend using a fast connection. There are some great handouts that you can print out as well that highlight key points of the class and list some interesting links to visit.

Although quite basic, the video is definitely worth watching.

You can read more about the online classes on the Article posted on Family Search on 12 Mar 2010 and written by Paul Nauta – FamilySearch Public Affairs Manager, – Family History Library Classes Now Available on Internet