Question- have you emailed the Houston Italian Consulate with your situation to see what they recommend/require? If you haven't, I recommend doing this first just to make sure the extra effort is even required. They may have other suggestions as well.

I faxed a letter to one commune and received the birth certificate within 3 weeks. I sent a letter with a few dollars to another one and received the certificate within a few weeks with my dollars sent back to me. I included a self addressed envelope for that one which they used. Both letters were ...

This site includes a translated 'follow-up when there is no response' template. You could try that.
http://www.angelfire.com/ok3/pearlsofwi ... tters.html

I used Gabriella. They were accepted by the San Francisco consulate without question. She is the most reasonable that I found at $15-$20 per document or page.

How exciting! Congrats!

The San Francisco consulate requests the documents be in chronological order with the most recent on top. I organized it BC, MC, DC. I started with my Italian born ascendant's records, then their spouse's records and went in that order. I then put the list of discrepancies and, finally, all the ...

Yay! Very exciting. One thing I have been wondering about is how they decide which commune to register you in? Or do you get to choose?

The NARA does not actually issue a naturalization certificate, just the application, oath, etc. I believe the USCIS issues "certified true copies" but it is a process to get one from what I have read. Also, people can request replacements of their original naturalization certificates if they were ...

The San Francisco consulate paperwork also indicates they need a certified naturalization certificate; however, as Steverino3006 indicates,a certified copy from the NARA seems to suffice. Everything I have read leads me to believe this is true for the other consulates as well. Nonetheless, if you ...

Thanks again Priere.

I second jflore's statement. You can get a lot of helpful and useful information from forums and websites but it is ultimately the Italian consulate that makes the final call. Every consulate is a little bit different and looks for different things. Same holds true for ...

Thanks Priere- follow-up question. Is this actually enforced by any of the Italian consulates? In other words, if your ancestor was born in Italy and immigrated to the U.S. as a minor after 1912, does the consulate require you prove his/her parents did not naturalize while they were still a minor?

It certainly makes sense. On a side note, I'm not sure it matters, but one thing I should have mentioned is my great grandparents, Nunzia and her husband, were married in the U.S.

Paul, thanks for reminding me about the Family History Center. I'll give it a shot.

Thanks. Interesting thoughts. I'll write Messina and see if they have record of Benedetto's marriage.

BTW: Nunzia's marriage certificate does list her mom's name.

JJ313, would you mind sharing where you got the information about the different treatments of US VS Italian born minors? In my research, I have not seen anything that indicated it mattered where the child was born whether before or after 1912, so if this is still the case, I would imagine this would ...

I don't really think it matters where they were born. My understanding is, if the parents naturalized before mid-1912 and they had minor children, the children lost their Italian citizenship, regardless of where they were born (as you said). If the parents naturalized after mid-1912, it does not ...