Starting birth certificate search

[oregonian]

I'm beginning to search for my grandparents' birth records. I'm not even sure what towns they were born in though family stories say Poviglio and Carema.

What is the best way to search records from 1891 and 1900. Is there a recommended database? Or, do I simply start my contacting these two city offices?

Thank you in advance for any advice.

[johnnyonthespot]

Do you know whether your grandfather became a naturalized citizen of the US? If so, his naturalization papers will indicate his date and place of birth as well as other very valuable information.

There may be other options for finding the actual place of birth - ship's manifests for thier journey from Italy to the US are typically helpful, for example.

If you would like to share some detail (names, approximate birth years, year of arrival in the US, city or state of residence in the US), there are many people here who are happy to assist with locating relevant documents.

Other than that, an ancestry . com subscription can be extremely useful.

[Tessa78]

Welcome to the forum!

In addition to the suggestions Carmine has offered above...

If your grandfather had a Social Security #, you can request his SS Application which has his parents' names and his place of birth. This can be requested from SSA for a fee...
Knowing his place and date of birth is important when requesting records from Italy.

https://secure.ssa.gov/apps9/eFOIA-FEWe ... t/main.jsp

As Carmine suggested, we can assist with manifests, etc. if you provide some details

T.

[oregonian]

Thank you both for these excellent leads. Yes, he was a naturalized American citizen and he had a SS number. I can get that information. I will return to the forum after I get this information. again ... thanks.

[corrado]

Those are great suggestions, can I add one more, if his children were born in Italy or if he was married here get the parish marriage records, they will indicate what town. I love that source, also the death cert. may be usefull or may not be as the case may be.

Frequently they put the town of the provience as to where they were from, this is a not good. One other suggeston is your name is not very very commom to go to the Italian white pages on-line and do a search of people with that last name in the city and if there an't any it will tell you were in the provience they are. This sorry to say is only usefull if you name isn't common. Good luck

[Tessa78]

Here is the link for the Italian whitepages mentioned above.

Put last name where it asks "cognome"
Put the town name where is asks "dove"

http://www.paginebianche.it/index.html

T.

[johnnyonthespot]

Here is the link for the Italian whitepages mentioned above.

Put last name where it asks "cognome"
Put the town name where is asks "dove"

http://www.paginebianche.it/index.html

T.

Or, click the flags at the top-right of the page to change the site's language.

English: http://www.paginebianche.it/index_en.html

French: http://www.paginebianche.it/index_fr.html

German: http://www.paginebianche.it/index_de.html

Spanish: http://www.paginebianche.it/index_es.html

[Violam]

How do you find the papers for SSN if you have none? On My Grand Mothers death cert. there is just a line thru that space.

[johnnyonthespot]

How do you find the papers for SSN if you have none? On My Grand Mothers death cert. there is just a line thru that space.

If your grandmother died after 1964'ish, there is a good chance you can find her by searching the Social Security Death Index. See http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/

You can order a copy of her SS-5 even without knowing her social security number; it just costs a little more for the search. See http://genealogy.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi= ... t/main.jsp

[Violam]

[quote="johnnyonthespot"][quote="Violam"]How do you find the papers for SSN if you have none? On My Grand Mothers death cert. there is just a line thru that space.[/quote]

If your grandmother died after 1964'ish, there is a good chance you can find her by searching the Social Security Death Index. See http://ssdi.rootsweb. href="/http://www.jdoqocy.com/click-3166187-10456885" TARGET="_blank">Ancestry.com</a>/

You can order a copy of her SS-5 even without knowing her social security number; it just costs a little more for the search. See http://genealogy.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi= ... t/main.jsp[/quote]



She died in 1947..thank u for your time.

[Violam]

[quote="Tessa78"]Welcome to the forum!

In addition to the suggestions Carmine has offered above...

If your grandfather had a Social Security #, you can request his SS Application which has his parents' names and his place of birth. This can be requested from SSA for a fee...
Knowing his place and date of birth is important when requesting records from Italy.

https://secure.ssa.gov/apps9/eFOIA-FEWe ... t/main.jsp

As Carmine suggested, we can assist with manifests, etc. if you provide some details

T.[/quote]

[Violam]

good lord, I thought this was info on my family! Im so embarressed...sorry.

[Violam]

sorry again. my brain hasnt been thinking to clearly...Iam still mourning my Mom and some times I just cant think straight..

[Tonio70]

Did your grandparents migrate to the US? If so go to Ellis Island website and put their names in a search and see if any manifest records appear. This is how I first did a search and I was able to pinpoint the town of Italy they came from and I started there.

[Violam]

They both came into Ellis Island. I will try this, thank you.