Please help. Missing marriage certificate.

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.
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lisajenkins1981
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Please help. Missing marriage certificate.

Post by lisajenkins1981 »

Hi everyone,

I have my date for my application for Italian citizenship. But there is one problem....My greatgrandparents never “legally” married. They were the parents of my grandmother born in Delaware. Since there is no marriage license is there anything I can do for my dual citizenship paperwork? Both my grand parents and great grandparents are deceased.

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

-Lisa Jenkins
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jcat
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Re: Please help. Missing marriage certificate.

Post by jcat »

Hi,
you could shoot the consulate an email regarding your situation, not sure regarding them not being married. Do you have all of their birth and death certificates?
jamescatizoneitaliandualcitizenship.com
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mler
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Re: Please help. Missing marriage certificate.

Post by mler »

That your gg grandparents were not married does not disqualify you if your other documents clearly show the citizenship line. That being said, the consulates do ask, and will look, for marriage certificates.

If your grandmother is still living, you can ask her to write a statement (notarized of course) indicating that her parents were not married in a legal setting but were common law spouses. Failing that, your mom or dad can write a similar statement regarding his/her grandparents.

Again, understand that you are qualified regardless of your ggparents' failure to marry, and be ready to point this out if they try to make it an issue.
lisajenkins1981
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Re: Please help. Missing marriage certificate.

Post by lisajenkins1981 »

Thank you so much for your time, help, and information!
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belmoro19
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Re: Please help. Missing marriage certificate.

Post by belmoro19 »

I had similar situation with my grandparents and Lia at the Philly consulate advised me to get a certified copy of a census record showing my grandparents living in the same household, which I did and she accepted it with no problems.
lisajenkins1981
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Re: Please help. Missing marriage certificate.

Post by lisajenkins1981 »

That's a good idea. Where can you order a census from?

Thanks
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KarenChristino
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Re: Please help. Missing marriage certificate.

Post by KarenChristino »

Here's the link to order Census records from theNnational Archives. You should order a certified copy. However you need to find it first on someplace like Ancestry.com. It will have all the information that you need to place the order -- Date, place, names and I think district numbers at the top.

https://eservices.archives.gov/orderonl ... chives.gov
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belmoro19
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Re: Please help. Missing marriage certificate.

Post by belmoro19 »

This is what I used to get the certified copy 2 years ago. Hope the link works

http://www.census.gov/genealogy/www/bc-600.pdf
lisajenkins1981
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Re: Please help. Missing marriage certificate.

Post by lisajenkins1981 »

Thanks to both of you.
lisajenkins1981
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Re: Please help. Missing marriage certificate.

Post by lisajenkins1981 »

I've ordered my census paperwork. Just an FyI to anyone it takes 2-3 months to receive the paperwork
dcsavino
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Re: Please help. Missing marriage certificate.

Post by dcsavino »

Hi, I'm in a similar boat to others here. Any answers to the following questions would be greatly appreciated!

1: My situation: The New York City Clerk sent me a letter saying they can't locate my paternal grandparents marriage certificate. I've since gotten a certificate from their church, Our Lady Of Mt Carmel in the Bronx, but I'm wondering if that's really enough.

My relatives don't believe that they could have neglected to get a marriage license, so I've written back to the city clerk with a copy of the church record and n explanation in hopes they can find it.

My question is: if they can't is this a major problem? Some other ideas I've considered are census records, and a notarized statement from my great aunt, who was a witness to the wedding.

2: I'm researching both sets of my paternal great grandparents and one set of them also is missing marriage documents, both official and church. Names on my grandfather's birth and baptismal certificates do match up, though, and it is quite possible they didn't get married at all. I have also located census records (which I'm planning to order), and have even thought of ordering the record for my great grandmother's second marriage which might have my great grandfather's name on it a a previous, deceased spouse. Would any/all of these be enough?

3: For a bonus (on an unrelated issue) I'm having trouble locating my other paternal great grandmother's birth extract. I've written to Avellino comune and gotten no response after almost 2 months, so I'm wondering if she's simply from somewhere in the province instead of the specific comune (which would make things considerably more difficult). Since I'm claiming citizenship through my great grandfather, though, and not through her, when push comes to shove is it really necessary for the consulate to have that document? And would one of the paid services be able to help me here- do they have a more sophisticated method of locating these documents, or would it just be throwing my money away?

Thanks!
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