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.

Free Italian Genealogy Tools

Somewhere in a ship’s manifest, your great-grandfather is filed under the wrong flag. Somewhere in a DNA match list, a cousin shares zero centimorgans with you and is still your cousin. And somewhere in between, a surname sits scattered across three provinces with no reason anyone can give you. Three free benches in this reading room answer all three riddles in under a minute — and then tell you, honestly, exactly where their answers stop and the archive’s begin.

🗺️

Tool 01 · Cartography

Surname Map

Plot verified field-research households side by side with public historical indexes across every Italian region.

Open Map →

⚔️

Tool 02 · Military & Empire

Wars & Flags

Enter his birth year to light up every conflict his military class was enrolled in, from the Risorgimento to 1945.

Check Wars →

🧬

Tool 03 · Genetics & Law

DNA Kinship

Measure autosomal genetic decay against the Italian Civil Code and Catholic canon law kinship calendars.

Decode DNA →

Key takeaways from the reading room

Clues vs Proof: The surname map distinguishes documented families from simple index occurrences. An archival index entry is not yet a family tree.
Draft Windows: Italian levy classes were registered at 18 and liable until 45 (Royal Decree 24 December 1907, n. 1481).
Imperial Borders: Trentino, South Tyrol, Trieste, Gorizia and Istria answered to Austria-Hungary until 1918. Their soldiers wore Habsburg uniform, explaining why pre-1918 manifests state “Austrian”.
Genetic Dropoff: Autosomal DNA halves every generation. Beyond the 4th great-grandparent, biology can drop to zero while parish registers remain fully valid.
Kinship Calendars: The Italian Civil Code counts births across both lines; canon law calculates the distance from the common root.

Questions families ask first

Where in Italy does my surname come from? Search it in the surname map: verified diffusion plots documented households; historical indexes plot casual archival mentions. The space between the two is where research begins.

Open the surname map →

Was my Trentino ancestor Italian or Austrian? An Austrian subject until 1918, Italian after. Manifests before 1918 typically report “Austrian”, while family memory claims “Italian”. The military tool displays which uniform his class owed.

Check wars and flags →

Which wars could my great-grandfather have fought? Enter his birth year in the military checker: it calculates every conflict in his 18–45 levy window, along with the specific territorial draft rules.

Check his levy window →

How much DNA do I share with a second cousin? Around 3.1% on average (about 230 cM), with an actual range spanning from 46 to 515 cM. The tool illustrates both the average and the honest range.

Measure genetic decay →

Can DNA prove my Italian lineage? No. DNA suggests; original registers prove. The tools pinpoint the exact archive source, and field research retrieves it.

Open the DNA decoder →

All three tools give clues, never conclusions. A circle on the map says a name was there; a levy window says a man could have served; a DNA average says two people may share a line. Only the registers say whose, did, and do. That sentence is the whole philosophy of this house — and the reason its tools are free.