This year’s theme is “Follow the Path to the Past,” with a special emphasis placed on military records and African-American research. There will be nearly 100 classes and the guest speaker list is impressive and includes John Phillip Colletta, Ph.D., FUGA,  “Finding Italian Roots” & “They Came in Ships”, Connie Walton Moretti,  and Daniel Horowitz from MyHeritage.

For more information or to register to attend the event visit their homepage at Jamboree Southern California Genealogical Society.

Currently C|E hosts over 160, 000 extractions and images to various records for towns in the province of Reggio Calabria while ICC is largest Calabrese membership organization in the world devoted to the study and preservation of the genealogy, history, culture and language of the Calabria region of Italy.

The first database to be released is  Cittanova (RC) Birth Index (1842 – 1865) which is still being updated by volunteers including Livio Moreno.

2013 Student Genealogy Grant Recipient

We would like to congratulate Mike Savoca, the recipient of the 2013 Suzanne Winsor Freeman Memorial Grant.

Mike has been a part of our small Italian genealogy community for several years and we are proud to have him represent us at the Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree June 7-9 where he will receive his award during a scholarship breakfast.

Look for more on Mike in the coming months as he will be covering the jamboree and sharing his thoughts with us.

As an added bonus to Mike, the Gente Community would like to add an additional $100.00 to the grant on behalf of the late Carole Bienati, Gente’s co-founder and one of Mike’s biggest supporters.

For more about this award check out The Family Curator blog and website.

Log onto the Rootstech website to watch live streaming now!

Currently we are looking for Spanish-English and Italian-English speaking/reading/writing volunteers who are able to commit a few hours a week to help with extracting records, answering emails, and data entry. The interested person(s) should have access to Microsoft Excel, Word or Google Docs and have an understanding of Italian Vital records.  Most records will focus on the Southern region of Italy.

Interested parties can submit a short paragraph about themselves and what they’re skills are.   Additionally if you have already done research on a particular family, town or region and would like to contribute or link that research to our site please let us know.  Genealogy or Family History sites ONLY please (all sites will be reviewed prior to linking).

The site is now being broken down into Categories and an index has been added to the home page which I’ll be adding to as new content becomes live.  Due to the amount of files I have *buried* in the site this will take a while to get all linked.

The Italian Surname Database has also been updated to include a new search feature which now allows viewers to search not only by surname but by town, province and region.  It also allows partial searches which is helpful for displaying alternate name spellings.  Please note:  You can not search by email addresses or contributor names  so this should cut down on spam.  A widget has also been added to the site with real time posts linked to the Italian Surname Database Blog for easier viewing.

Hopefully you like the new features. As always I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the new look and any suggestions you might.  To add your surname to the database please continue to use the feedback form.  Names should be enter in to following format using normal text:

Surname
Town
Province
Region
Your Name
Your Email

Please refrain for using all capital or lowercase letters.  Thanks and Happy Searching!

Selected Locri Birth Extractions 1903 goo.gl/MalrQ #genealogy #familyhistory

— Calabria Exchange (@calabriaxchange) December 16, 2012

Misc Births Ardore 1901 goo.gl/ICNqq #genealogy #familyhistory #calabria #vitalrecords

— Calabria Exchange (@calabriaxchange) November 10, 2012

Gerace Births 1842 just added goo.gl/uMtxo #genealogy #familyhistory #calabria

— Calabria Exchange (@calabriaxchange) November 5, 2012

Ardore {RC} Births 1909 just added goo.gl/Z9NHx

— Calabria Exchange (@calabriaxchange) November 3, 2012