Do any city directories exist in Southern Italy? And if so, did they exist in the 1880s?

Lets say i need to know who lived at a certain address in 1881, is there anyway i could find that info out?

thanks again. I hope all is well

~Mauro

Hi Mauro,

I believe the italian census records list the address of each person or family. If you have a specific comune you may want to write to the registrar for the census records for a particular year or range of years. Maybe Riccardo could comment on this and give you a definitive answer.

Mauro,
Census in Italy start after the unification (1870). It is made every 10 years.
This kind of census used to state just how many people lived in the city/town/village.
Sometimes Fogli di famiglia can be found in the municipalities, but not always.
Also Family record office (Ufficio Anagrafe) starts from 1930, so, if you want to know the name of the people living to a certain address you can know it after 1930s
You can always write to municipality and make a request.
You never know
Good luck
Riccardo

Thanks Billie & Riccardo for the advice.

Riccardo,

The time period I'm looking for is 1881. What is the name of the Census that i should be looking for? And where exactly would i send such a request?

thanks again,
Mauro

Dear Mauro,
you should send a request to Registrar and Family record offices ( Ufficio Servizi Demografici) writing in Italian, if there is any census of 1880/1881 - kept in their office - about the person you are looking for.
Maybe if you write that letter, I can easily translate it into italian for you
bye Riccardo

Actually Riccardo, instead of wasting your offer on a request i'm not sure about, I would like to instead ask you to translate a letter requesting my GGF & GGM marriage record from Molfetta.

They got married in 1915 (the LDS microfilm records for Molfetta end in 1910). So i would like to write the following letter in hopes that they can send me a transcript of their marriage record.

Dear Sir/Madam

My name is ....... I am writing to request a copy of the marriage record of my great-grandparents, Vincenzo Ghiberti & Maria Luigia Amato. From other records i have found that they were married on April 21 or April 25, 1915. The marriage record number is #98.

Please send a copy of this record to the following address (.....) and please inform me about any fees for the copies

thank you,
Mauro

If there is a better procedure for writing this kind of letter, i am totally open to suggestion. Should i be asking for the "Allegati" instead, since they provide more records?

thank you very much!
Mauro

Here is a record of their marriage i extracted from my GGF birth record

Here is the other one




Riccardo,

Once again, i really appreciate any help you can offer


~Mauro

Mauro, please follow my suggestions.
With this letter I let you request marriage act, marriage bann and marriage allegati (if any). I also write that you put inside a copy of your ID (don't worry about that, no one is going to steal your personal informations, the law states that when someone makes a request to office of Public Administration he needs to show his own ID), a middle size envelope and a couple of international reply coupons, so you pay in advance their costs, so this way no one from Molfetta civil record office deny to send u the documents you need because they can not afford it or because u didn't send any money or anything to afford the costs from your pocket. This way for sure they are going to reply you.
I also suggest you to put inside the annotations of marriage at the boarder of their birth records.
Below u find the translation:

"Egregio Signor Sindaco, Egregio Ufficiale dello Stato civile,
mi chiamo...........Le scrivo per richiedere la seguente documentazione:
1) la copia integrale dell'atto di matrimonio,
2) la copia integrale della pubblicazione di matrimonio e
3) la copia integrale di eventuali allegati dello sposalizio dei miei bisnonni:
- Vincenzo GHIBERTI e Maria Luigia AMATO sposi il 21 o 25 aprile 1915 a Molfetta, atto n. 98.
Allego alla presente:
-copia del mio documento di identità,
- alcuni buoni di risposta (IRS- International Reply Coupons - facilmente scambiabili all'ufficio postale per ottenere regolare affrancatura),
- una busta per l'invio dei documenti e le annotazioni a margine del loro atto di nascita.
La prego di spedire il tutto al seguente indirizzo (.........).
La ringrazio in anticipo e rimango in attesa di cordiale riscontro.
Distinti saluti
Mauro"

I hope it helps
bye Riccardo

MauroMags wrote:

Actually Riccardo, instead of wasting your offer on a request i'm not sure about, I would like to instead ask you to translate a letter requesting my GGF & GGM marriage record from Molfetta. They got married in 1915 (the LDS microfilm records for Molfetta end in 1910). So i would like to write the following letter in hopes that they can send me a transcript of their marriage record. Dear Sir/Madam My name is ....... I am writing to request a copy of the marriage record of my great-grandparents, Vincenzo Ghiberti & Maria Luigia Amato. From other records i have found that they were married on April 21 or April 25, 1915. The marriage record number is #98. Please send a copy of this record to the following address (.....) and please inform me about any fees for the copies thank you, Mauro If there is a better procedure for writing this kind of letter, i am totally open to suggestion. Should i be asking for the "Allegati" instead, since they provide more records? thank you very much! Mauro

One thing I would like to mention Mauro, is that the LDS microfilmed at the Archive Level not the Comune. The atto#'s and index will be different.

I wrote to the Comune di Reggio Calabria with a copy of the index entry and exact date of death for my great-grandfather I copied from the LDS microfilm. They sent me back a letter stating they did not have the record.

Frustrating!

Thank you so much Riccardo! I plan to get this out as soon as possible.


James, i see your point. I guess i'll send it first to the commune, and if there is no reply, i'll send another request to the state archive.


Are international reply coupons available at any US post office? I've never seen them before?

thanks again,
Mauro

Can someone help me find the address for the Ufficio Servizi Demografici for Molfetta?

Comune
Ufficio Servizi Demografici
Piazza Municipio 5
70056 Molfetta (BA)
Italy

I hope it helps,
bye Riccardo

p.s. message for Jim: I don't know what happened in your research, but I would like to let you know that the registrar, at the tim he reports any civil record (birth, marriage, marriage bann, death, or citizenship), he has to make two copies of it, in two different books, puting the same number of record.
One copy of the book is always kept at civil record office, the second copy of the book goes (at the end of each year) to local courthouse (today with the new law goes to local government office) and this second copy goes to local state archive after 70 years. I hope it helps, bye Riccardo

ricbru wrote:

p.s. message for Jim: I don't know what happened in your research, but I would like to let you know that the registrar, at the tim he reports any civil record (birth, marriage, marriage bann, death, or citizenship), he has to make two copies of it, in two different books, puting the same number of record. One copy of the book is always kept at civil record office, the second copy of the book goes (at the end of each year) to local courthouse (today with the new law goes to local government office) and this second copy goes to local state archive after 70 years. I hope it helps, bye Riccardo

I don't know what happened either! But the town did not have the record, this happened I believe to Nuccia as well. I had to order the corresponding LDS film for Reggio death acts (Archive) to get a copy of the record. I emailed the comune and then wrote, giving date of death, wife's name and even his parents. When that didnt work, Nuccia emailed them as well, both times they had no record of his death.

Frustrating! But in the end I got his death act

Riccardo,

I have one more question...

If i were to send a request to a church archive, like this one....Archivio diocesano di Molfetta

Would it be smart to send a donation? I'm not sure since it would be a request to an archive and not to a specific church.

If i should send a donation, how should i send it?

thanks again,
Mauro