5 Tips For an Italian Ancestry Tour
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5 Tips For an Italian Ancestry Tour

Taking an ancestry tour in Italy can be a rewarding experience for those looking to explore their family history and connect with their Italian heritage. However, before embarking on this journey, you should know some important things to make the most out of your experience. Here are the top five things to consider: By considering…

Changes of Administrative Divisions of the Abruzzo Region in Time
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Changes of Administrative Divisions of the Abruzzo Region in Time

A remark about how we should name locations in Abruzzo for our genealogy purposes Currently the Abruzzo region includes four provinces (L’Aquila, Teramo, Chieti and Pescara) and 305 municipalities (“comuni”). To know more about them please take a look at our database. However, the current situation is the result of many changes that have taken…

What does the wording “in capillis” mean?

What does the wording “in capillis” mean?

While analyzing documents from the 18th century, or before, we may read sometimes the wording “in capillis” referred to a woman, often listed as daughter or sister of a head of the family. So we may read respectively “figlia in capillis” or “sorella in capillis”. This literally means “in her hair” that, out of its…

A Walk in Nature and History of Abruzzo: Mt. Porrara and the Freedom Trail
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A Walk in Nature and History of Abruzzo: Mt. Porrara and the Freedom Trail

Past week we did a hike on the ridges of the Porrara Mountain (Majella National Park). The hike allows to enjoy a pure nature and to live the traces of recent history. In fact the place was a strategic stronghold for Germans during WWII, because offered a wide view over the side valleys and over…

Infant Abandonment and the Foundling Wheel in Southern Italy
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Infant Abandonment and the Foundling Wheel in Southern Italy

We receive quite often requests from persons who look for ancestors that, at some point, are listed in the papers as born from unknown parents. Provided that it’s not possible to make a general analysis of this kind of situations, it’s quite common in these cases to find children that grew up away from their blood…

Some Successful Italians in the Argentina of 1899
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Some Successful Italians in the Argentina of 1899

Some days ago we came across this interesting book dated 1899, the Biographical Dictionary of the Italians in the Plata (“Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani al Plata”), that reports origin, a short biography, and the work and social position of the Italians emigrated during 1800s that achieved the success. Among them many were shop keepers, mainly…

Interview: David Priest is researching his origins in Abruzzo
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Interview: David Priest is researching his origins in Abruzzo

David Priest lives in North Carolina with his wife Maribeth and their two children, Ryan and Ryley. He was born and raised in Pennsville, New Jersey. David is the youngest child of Louis James Priest III and Beverly Longacre Priest. He has two older brothers Marc and Stephen. David’s father Louis is one of five children born to Louis Priest Jr. and Helen Ferrelli Priest both of them born in USA from parents who immigrated from the Italian region Abruzzo.

Historical Notaries in the Area of Guardiagrele, Chieti
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Historical Notaries in the Area of Guardiagrele, Chieti

The following are the notaries for the area of Guardiagrele. Please note that notaries of an area drew up deeds also for people of other towns, that used to apply to him, and the notary himself could have worked also in other areas. This sometimes can make harder the study of notary deeds, because finding…

The Napoleonic, Restoration and Italian Civil Registration
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The Napoleonic, Restoration and Italian Civil Registration

Napoleonic civil registration was introduced in Italy in 1806, after the fall of many regions to imperial France, and remained in place until 1815. The keeping of civil registration by the communities of that time has produced a series of records of births, marriages, and deaths, in duplicate, which, depending upon the time and place…