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.
Can you please help me read and translate a short Paragraph that I have on a document?? thank you
Can you post the article here or send me a message http://www.calabriaexchange.com/feedback.html
my wife is Italian American who has received some really old Italian family records. she is having a very hard time finding someone who can understand and translate them for her. She is very proud of her Italian blood and it would mean the world to her if you could help or find someone who could translate these ancient documents. thank for your time joseph
Hi Joseph. Please send me a message http://www.calabriaexchange.com/feedback.html and I’ll see what I can do.