Following on from the recent Journeys into Genealogy podcast interview with Julie Goucher, here are tips, recommendations and resources for starting (or continuing) your own Italian research journey.
Julie has living relatives in Sicily in Southern Italy and has spent many years researching her Italian ancestors.
Downloadable guide
Julie has kindly put together a extremely comprehensive guide to researching Italian ancestors which can be downloaded from here. It contains lots of tips and resources for research across Italy.
In the podcast we discuss migration from Italy to other places including England, Scotland, Wales, Argentina and the USA.
One of her recommendations is the Anglo Italian Family History Society. Membership is very reasonable at only £6 per year. There are no family history societies in Italy itself.
Visiting Italy
Julie suggests that to really get a feel for your ancestors you need to visit the place(s) they lived in Italy. Many records are held in local archives and museums and are not available online.
Facebook groups
There are likely to be Facebook groups for the areas of Italy you are interested in so take a look to see if they are worth joining.
Orlando One Name Study
Julie’s Orlando surname one name study can be found here.
“Researching European Ancestors” Pharos course
Julie will be running this course in April 2023. Find out more and book your place here.
British Italian Society
Not a genealogy society more of a cultural society. More details available here.
Journeys into Genealogy “Researching Italian Ancestors” podcast episode
To listen to the podcast episode follow the links available from here.
Many thanks to Julie for all the tips and advice. Please let me know if they lead to any interesting discoveries for you.
