Over 25 million Italians have emigrated between 1861 and 1960 with a migration boom between 1871 and 1915 when over 13,5 million emigrants left the country for European and overseas destinations.
When seeking information about a deceased individual, proof of death must be submitted. Proof of death may be a death certificate, newspaper obituary, or some other form of comparable proof.
I recall reading that if the person was born over 100 years ago, proof of death is not a requirement, but I can not find where I read that.
Well, I am currently #34326 in the FOIA line. They said they clear around 5K to 6K per month, so I'm figuring I'll get a response some time in June or July (by the way, the FOIA request status check can be found by clicking on "Freedom of Information Act" at the bottom of the http://www.uscis.gov/ home page, then by clicking on the status request link in the right column of the FOIA page). So I figure that I need to start getting the documents I need from Italy in case it turns out that there is no record (and because I'd like to have them anyway).
It also has an address, phone and fax numbers, and an email address. My question is, what is the best method for contacting the town to request these documents, and is this the right place to contact?
Just wanted to give an update. I received birth and marriage records today for my great-grandfather and great-grandmother. It turns out that my 3rd cousin is an assessor for the town, and her father knows my great-uncle, who is still alive! It was nice to get a hand-written note along with the documents!
Also, my great-great-grandmother's maiden name was Peroo. I hadn't heard this name before, and apparently it's local only to the Piemonte region, and even there it is not widely distributed. If anyone has any information regarding the Peroo surname, I would love to hear about it.
My FOIA request is now #22230, that's 12,000 less than on Jan 8th, so it seems that the 5-6K per month the USCIS people gave me is an accurate number.
I'll update again when the FOIA documents come through.
OK, so I checked my FOIA request status, and it says it was processed on 6/9/09! Hopefully it won't take too long to mail, and I will find out if I am eligible or not. Total time from submission to processing = 15 months.
Does anyone know if this will be an official statement of "No Record" (I did ask specifically for that in the request) or is there another step?
OK, so now what? I received the response to my request, and it is not even close to the person for whom I sent the request (different state, DOB, etc...). I can't wait another 15 months, so what should I do? They did leave a number to call, which I will do on Monday morning. This is a very frustrating result for such a long process.
Just wanted to let everyone know that after taking a break for some time because of work and other things, I finally got back around to gathering all of the information, getting USCIS records, and finally had my appointment in Detroit in July of this year. I presented all of the records, copies, translations (in triplicate, as advised on another board). They picked through what they needed, and said they would send a letter within a week.
So, one week later, I received my letter saying that my citizenship had been confirmed along with an AIRE form to fill out and send back.
So now, I'll wait for them to register my birth in the comune's records, after which I can apply for a passport.
4 years off and on, but totally worth the time and effort!
As a nation state, Italy has emerged only in 1871. Until then the country was politically divided into a large number of independant cities, provinces and islands. The currently available evidences point out to a dominant Etruscan, Greek and Roman cultural influence on today's Italians. The earlies...