I felt it appropriate to post this here. I cannot encourage you enough to check out Apellidos Italianos website and look at their database of surnames which includes the town of origion and approx. date of immigration. Today I received from Chile a book that was written for a big reunion in a few weeks. It is an amzing book with photographs of the ancestral homes, businesses, family members, genealogy charts and stories. Amazing. The South Americans are proud of their heritage and have documented it well. Not just this man - all of them that I have been in contact with. I cannot wait to hear about the reunion and see the pictures. Although there are no close family ties here (but many of their names are in my family tree) I have learned so much from them that I would not have known. An all around amazing experience.
The web address is: www.apellidositalianos.com.ar/
If you need help, let me know.

Um..its in spanish..lol What are the words to bring up the surname list. I have family that migrated there..argentina. I am curious to see if they are on the list.

Ooops! Sorry about that. On the left border there are all the links to the site. Click on "Listado de Apellidos" which means list of surnames, then 2 more links will appear "base de datos" means database - click that. The right side of the page will load the database options. You will be given 2 choices: Buscar (search) todos los apellidos (all of the surnames) if you choose this option a drop down menu will appear and allow you to look at all available names. The list is HUGE and you can also start typing to get what you want to see faster. When you click a name it will take you to a table that gives province, town, year of immigration and an email address. These email addresses were submitted by people looking for information just like us. They are all South Americans so you may want to write in spanish. See my post in the translation board or ask for your own. As for the rest of the site, Im pretty clueless.

Ok..thank you..I have to try this again. I think I was on the right path..just stopped when I thought maybe I should ask here, first.

Ahh..got the list. One of my names were on it...wrong location...but, definitely worth a read.

Found a few of the names I am interested in as well. Not sure if it will help me but an awesome site anyway. Thanks for posting it.

For me the problem is the language barrier. I had only 2 years of high school spanish but could carry a simple conversation way back when - an essential skill in the Miami area where my family spent the winter. But over the years I lost most of what I knew. The people I have made contact with know a lot about their family history and so far, at least 2 of them have pictures dating back pretty far (1880's-1890's). If it weren't for the language barrier, I would know a lot more, although I was lucky enough to find 2 english speakers.