I only know my ancestor’s name and last name and that he came from Italy, nothing else, nothing about his parents, or his date of birth, or the place or region where he was born, Can I still have any hope of finding his birth certificate?
Certainly yes, it is possible to obtain the emigrated ancestor’s birth certificate. It will be necessary to work both in the country of origin and in the arrival one, to work on the last names in Italy, to find the marriage certificate and the children’s birth certificates, to obtain the parents’ names; in summary, it is going to be a long way; however, it is certainly possible to get to the objective.
On the immigration registration done when arriving, my ancestor stated he was from Torino, but it turned out he was from the province of Cuneo. Why is there this discrepancy? Will his birth certificate be the right one?
The immigrants often quoted that they were natural from big cities which included their own territories, perhaps because they were better known, while with frequency they came from small towns, without considering that the territories went through a lot of changes as well as the regions and provinces.
In my great-grand father’s death certificate, it is stated that his name is Sebastiano, but in his birth certificate he appears as Pedro Sebastiano. Why is this? And above all, will the Italian Consulate accept this document?
In Italy, in the past, people had several names; they needed to pay tribute to their grandfathers, godparents, some dead brother, etc. That is the reason why we find ancestors having up to four names; however, the ancestor was only known and called by one of those names, and not necessarily by the first one. In general if the parents’ names match, then there is no problem, the identity is confirmed, eventually it is useful to obtain from the Italian Town Hall or Parish a copy of the complete Family Status. The problems, on the contrary, can arise if the ancestor shows a different name from the one that appears on other certificates, what happens rarely by fortune.
My ancestor was an Italian immigrant, he was born in the early 1800, but we do not know when he exactly died, can certain problems arise because of this when applying for the recognition of my Italian citizenship?
It is necessary to find the dead certificate before proceeding with the search of that birth certificate. If the ancestor died before March the 17th, 1861, date of proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, then the ancestor is not considered an Italian citizen and he cannot transmit the Italian citizenship to his descendants.