Argentina has one of the largest
Italian emigrant
communities in the world, so their
descendants
can access Italian citizenship.
For many of these Argentines who want to emigrate
in search of better opportunities
, whether for work or study, having dual citizenship and having a European passport is a fundamental step to ensure a legal and prolonged stay abroad.
To start the process, it is necessary
to obtain the original birth certificate of the Italian ancestor
, who can be a grandfather, great-grandfather or even a great-great-grandfather.
In general it is not easy to obtain, but there are
different ways to try to find this document
.
Having a European passport is a fundamental step to ensure a legal and prolonged stay abroad.
Photo: File
How to get the birth certificate of an Italian grandparent or great-grandparent?
There are several ways to obtain the
birth certificate of the Italian ancestor
when you do not have any document or record, beyond his name and surname.
These are the
national information sources
and the
Italian sources
.
Some are
free and others are paid
, and it will depend on how much time is dedicated to the process so that the process is as agile as possible.
However, it is necessary to know that it
usually takes a long time
and a lot of patience will have to be developed until the objective is achieved.
1. Family
All the information that the members of the family nucleus can provide is the most
valuable, reliable and economical of all
.
Many people concentrate on searching for their Italian ancestor data where it is hardest to find and spend little time researching
within their inner circle
.
Talking to
the older members of the family
, taking the time to chat with them can be very productive.
Obtaining agendas, photos from past times, intimate diaries, letters and personal documents can serve as sources of information or triggers to obtain key data such as dates and places of birth.
2. Local records
If you have already done an exhaustive investigation within the family and only found limited information and no record of the birth of your family member in Europe, then you are going to have to try elsewhere.
An interesting source can be
local records.
For example:
Police records (where the Italian held his driving license)
Voter records (if he voted)
Mortgage/property records
Civil registers
Registries of Italian Associations
union records
employment records
records in cemeteries
Argentina has one of the largest Italian emigrant communities in the world.
Photos: Diego Waldmann.
3. Disembarkation records of Italian immigrants
Another very valuable source is the
landing records of the Italian immigrants
, especially the lists that the captains of the ships delivered to the ports of arrival.
Information is available at the
Immigration Museum
, covering the
period from 1882 to 1950
, and has a
database
prepared by the Center for Latin American Migration Studies.
There you can access
very valuable information about the Italian ancestor
who arrived at the port of Buenos Aires, such as:
Names
Last name
Age
Nationality
Civil status
Date and place of shipment
Landing date and place
City or province of birth
Profession
Something that must be taken into account when consulting is that not in all cases the city where the passenger was born is mentioned, but only their nationality.
But it is possible that if the
arrival in the country of the Italian relative was from 1901,
there is a greater chance of finding more details and information.
This is due to the fact that in those years Law 817 was sanctioned and promulgated, the first to regulate immigration.
Contact information for the Immigration Museum:
(011) 4317-0285.
Av. Antártida Argentina S/N, 1104 CABA.
By email: museodelainmigracion@migraciones.gob.ar.
There are several resources that allow you to locate online birth certificates of Italian relatives.
Photo: File
4. Online searches
There are several resources that allow you
to locate online records
, that is, Italian birth certificates for free: parish records or civil records in image format or transcripts in the form of lists.
The
Italian civil registry can be consulted online
on the Family Search sites and on the Portale Antenati, where digital copies of the certificates can be downloaded for free (Italian certificate for free, although without certification).
There are databases of births in some provinces such as Udine and Trento.
You can also consult the voluntary projects Genea Index and Italian Parish Records, they are very complete pages with search engines for surnames, games, addresses of Italian communes, etc.
Once the information is obtained, you must
first contact by mail
and then
send a letter to the commune
(place of birth in Italy) requesting the sending of the legalized records to the address in Argentina.
In the list of communes you can find the data to make contact with the one that corresponds to the search.
It could happen that the
surname you are looking for has been very common in Italy
and not only a commune appears
as a reference to the place of birth.
In this case, as
Eliana Diehl
, CEO of ArgentApp explained to
Clarín
, "the request for the document can be sent to
several communes
, until receiving the response that confirms the correct place."
In the letter, if possible, photocopies of all documents that demonstrate data about the person from whom the certificate is being requested should be attached.
And an international postage paid response must also be attached.
The sending of the certificate could take between
one or two months
to arrive at the address in Argentina .
Once all the members of the chain are known, the birth, marriage and death certificates (if applicable) of each one must be obtained.
These legalized acts are requested in the civil registry of the place of birth, marriage and death in Argentina.
5. Do the search through a manager in Argentina
If you still have not been able to find the town or city where your Italian ancestor was born, a possible alternative is to opt for the advice and services of an agency to start the search for the original birth certificate of an Italian ancestor.
What must be taken into account is that in this case,
fees
must be paid .
As explained by the lawyer
Mariano Santillán Rafaniello
, to contract a genealogical investigation to detect the place of birth of the Italian relative, it will only
be necessary to know the name and surname of the ancestor
and what is the
relationship with the applicant
.
Regarding the
cost
, Rafaniello detailed it is approximately
$360,000 plus VAT
.
This sum is paid
50% at the time of starting the search
, and the other
50% only once it has been successfully completed
.
The time that the process could take is up to a year.
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