Religious and Civil Records

Information about Italian church records and links to some online records.

Searchable directory of parishes and dioceses in Italy. You can also browse using a map of the dioceses (Diocesi).

An Italian Parish look-up. If you are searching for a comune that starts with San, Sant or Santa use S. before the parish name.

Florence: the English Cemetery

Complete register, with photographs, of the Protestant cemetery in Florence.

Waldensian Families Research

Information about Italian Waldensian (protestant) family history.

Timeline of Jewish History in Italy

Italy: Jewish records

Genealogical records for Jews in Italy are not complete. Before civil registration, families recorded births, marriages, and deaths. After civil registration, civil authorities recorded Jewish births, marriages, and deaths. See Italy Civil Registration for more information. Around 1900, rabbis began registering births. This registration, however, was strictly voluntary.Jewish settlements have existed throughout Italy and Sicilia since the time of the Roman Empire. From the time of the Republic through the Middle Ages, Jews lived mostly in Roma and in the Regno delle due Sicilie. Few lived in the north until they began migrating there in the thirteenth century.

Jewish migration to Italy increased dramatically in 1492 when King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, rulers of the Regno delle due Sicilie, exiled all Jews who would not convert to Christianity. The Spanish Inquisition forced many Jews to move to Roma and the surrounding area and also to major cities in the north such as Milano, Torino, Genova, Firenze, and Venezia.

The Jewish population reached its highest mark in the seventeenth century at about 50,000. Since then it has suffered a steady decline, especially during World War II.