How do I start my Italian genealogy research?

Start by gathering documents you already have, such as birth, marriage, or death records of your ancestors. Once we identify the likely Italian town of origin, our team takes over, searching local civil and parish archives to build your family tree.

What if I don't know the exact town in Italy my ancestors came from?

This is a common starting point. Our experts can often identify your family's town of origin by cross-referencing passenger arrival records, naturalization papers, and census data before initiating the targeted search in Italian archives.

What is a Family History Book?

It is a premium, beautifully designed keepsake we create for you. It includes your reconstructed family tree, digital copies or transcripts of original archival documents, historical photos, and the narrative story of your ancestors' lives in Italy.

Your Italian Ancestors Aren't Online.

I help Italian Americans transform a name and a hometown into a documented family history.

LET'S FIND THEM WHERE THEY ACTUALLY ARE: IN THE ARCHIVES.

No guesswork. Just professional, on-site archival research across all of Italy — rooted in Sicily and Calabria, where my own family's paper lives, and proven in the reading rooms of Veneto, Friuli Venezia Giulia, and Umbria.

I am Marina Martello, professional genealogist and President of Progenita. Every case is mine alone: my eyes in the reading rooms, my transcriptions line by line, my signature on the final family report.

Parish registers, civil archives, and military rolls — researched on site and delivered as a professional family history for the Italian diaspora in the Americas.

Find Your Starting Point ↓

President of Progenita · APG Member · RootsTech Speaker 2025 & 2026 · Winner, PNRR "Year of Italian Roots 2024 - Trentino Alto Adige" Grant · 2,000+ Research Cases Solved

Historical family photo: Marina's grandmother with two children in Palermo during World War I

Choose Your Starting Point

Wherever you are in your research journey, there's a clear next step.

Explorer

I Only Have a Surname

Explore the historical distribution of your Italian surname: over 70,000 names verified directly in the archives, not just scraped from the web.

Region and province distribution
Surname meaning from the house library
Verified and index layers, never mixed

Explore the Surname Map →

Free, no signup — the map answers in seconds.

Brick Wall

I Hit a Brick Wall Online

Most Italian records aren't digitized. On-site research breaks through where the digital databases stop — and these are the doors it opened:

Veneto: a marriage that was four births
Friuli: margins no database links
Umbria: one family, four spellings

Discover the Method →

Read how the paper beats the portal.

Ready

I'm Ready to Find My Roots

Send me what you already hold — even a single certificate. Within three working days you receive a one-page written pre-analysis of your research.

Certificates and civil records
Parish letters and family notes
Screenshots, manifests, naturalization papers

Send Your Documents →

No calls, no obligation — a written assessment you can keep.

How Your Research Unfolds

Home ground. Trentino, Veneto, the Mantua area, the province of Pordenone and Friuli: the archives I know shelf by shelf, the parishes where I am a familiar face.

Wherever the trail leads. When a family line crosses regional borders, I travel with it recent fieldwork has taken me to Umbria and beyond, anywhere in Italy your ancestors’ story requires.

Every region, online. Civil, parish and military records across all of Italy, through Portale Antenati, FamilySearch, Ancestry and MyHeritage.

Genealogy Services

Discover your Italian heritage

Ever wondered where your Italian story begins? My research starts where your family left off: parish registers, civil archives, military rolls and notarial acts, read page by page in the reading rooms across Italy. Every claim in my reports is tied to an original record transcribed, translated and documented with archival references you can verify. From the first surname hint to the final sourced family line, I build your ancestry on evidence, not on family legend. Ready to walk in your ancestors’ footsteps?