Questions: Apostile, No records found, and Chicago

[raynor]

Hi everyone, I'm slowly gathering documents to apply through Chicago, but I have a few, mostly unrelated questions. Hopefully someone who has gone through this can help me out.

1) Does the birth certificate of the Italian born ancestor need and apostille? If so, was this hard to get?

2) I have a certified statement of no records found from USCIS, as well as non certified letters from nara, and the state and county courts. Do any of these letters need certification?

3) I'm probably going to end up with lots of name and date discrepancies, how much of a hassle is it to fix these types of problems?

[johnnyonthespot]

1) No. Apostilles server the purpose of making US-issued documents legally regognized by other countries, Italy in this case. Your ancestor's birth certificate was issued by Italy, so no apostille is required.

2) I am really not certain. Don't think so, but don't want to commit...

3) Depends on the state(s) involved, whether or not the person is still living, and the type of document. Some states are easier to work with than others. My personal experience, fix everything that you can and be prepared to do battle over the things you can't fix.

[raynor]

Thanks for the answers!

Two of the individuals will have discrepancies, both are no longer living.

My great great grandfather's death certificate lists the correct birth date, but the wrong year, and lists his wife's anglicized name.

My grandfather was born with a traditional italian name, but used an anglicized name for the rest of his life. He also used a different birth date for most of his life.

Any advice on how to tackle this?

[johnnyonthespot]

You need to approach this from the consulate's point of view. Things not matching up make them nervous.

Suppose for a moment that your family name were "Smith". Now, as we know, there are billions (okay, millions?) of Smith's out there in the world. Now, you come along with a death certificate which has a date of birth off by exactly one year and say this document belongs to your grandfather, Robert. The consulate, however, looks at it and says, hey, this could easily be the death certificate of an entirely different Robert Smith who has a similar birthdate and was also married to a Mary Jones.

The more things match up, the happier the consulate is. The more discrepancies, well...

a) Identify all of your discrepancies

b) Contact the town or city where the event (birth/marriage/death) took place and inquire about the procedure for making changes. Sometimes local officials are easier to work with than those at the state level. On the other hand, some states only allow changes to be made at the state level.

c) Do keep in mind that the changes you make may possibly impact other people in your family in unforseen ways. "Fixing" your father's surname may get you out of a bind, but doing so will now introduce a discrepancy into all of *their* birth certificates, for example.

[raynor]

That's good advice, though I suppose I should clarify that I'm not talking about surnames, just first names. The last name is consistent throughout all documents. I'm also sympathetic to the needs of my family and the consulate, I'm just trying to figure out what my options are before going any further.

[corrado]

for first name with the normal italian to american changes like francesco to francis or frank, or gusippie to joseph , antonio to tony, I used the autocertification document, that I posted to this site. Chicago accepted it with no problems..

[Drew927]

Can I ask where you sent your request for the No Records found. I just recieved a letter from USCIS in Lee's Summit that said they no longer process this request.

[PeterTimber]

send e-mail to "genealogyUSCIS@dhs.gov" and ask them. =Peter=

[Drew927]

Thank's Peter, will give it a try.

[Mulé]

I might have a few of these name discrepancy issues as well. Not sure what the consulate will want me to handle, but will find out in February at my appointment. Most of my issues are first name issues. I do have one last name issue, which is a typo, a V transposed as a W. Not sure if it will be an issue or not as it is the m-GM and not in the blood line.

for first name with the normal italian to american changes like francesco to francis or frank, or gusippie to joseph , antonio to tony, I used the autocertification document, that I posted to this site. Chicago accepted it with no problems..

I might have to do this as well... thanks for the tip.

My m-GGF name at birth was Guiseppe but he always used Joseph or Joe (for short) in the US. I hope this won't be an issue.

My m-GGM was born Oretta but used Laura or Oretta at various times in the US, not sure why she chose to use one name or the other. Not sure how much of an issue this will be.

My m-GF didn't have a birth certificate and when the order was created at the courthouse the names went in as Father: Guiseppe Joseph LASTNAME and Mother: Oretta Laura MAIDEN NAME. Not sure having those "alternate/a.k.a" names actually appear on the birth certificate as "middle names" helps or hurts the issue. Or if they will say that they aren't the same people as their their original Italian birth certificates don't have middle names, as if someone would name their child Guiseppe Joseph anyhow... I will find out in about a week what my issues are if any, and get to work on fixing anything outstanding.