Restrictions on obtaining old Italian birth certificates?

[Poipuo4]

A friend of mine in Italy found my grandmother's birth certificate but said that the law prevents him from obtaining a copy at the moment. The certificate is from 1901 and my grandmother has been dead for about 20 years. Would you happen to know what restrictions may prevent him from making a copy? Does the request for a copy have to be directly from a relative?

[ricbru]

Hello,
the italian law says that integral copy of civil record can be issued if the civil record is older than 70 years old, sometimes you have to push a littlebit with people working to the Ufficio Stato Civile.
Anyone can request the integral copy of civil record, in the request you have to write down why you are requesting it (exzple: genealogy, family tree, family history, ecc)
I hope it helps, bye Riccardo

[trevisan2]

In Italy you can get birth, Marriage and death records from the Comune
( City Hall) for free from 1871 and later. Earlier that that you have to go to the parish level and have the priest certify one for you. I don't know about the rest of Italy, but this is how it is in the Veneto region. Some places were bombed during the war and may not exist.

Regards,
Trevisan2

[ricbru]

The State of Italy was until 1860, made of many different little states inside his boot, like Kingdom of Two Sicilies, Kingdom of Lombardy-Veneto and so forth.
In the Kingdom of Two Sicilies the office of Stato Civile (civil records office) starts between 1809 and 1820.
In some other region, like in the North between 1861 and 1871.
In the region of Trentino Alto Adige, that belonged to Austrian-Hungarian Empire until 1918 - the end of WWI - Ufficio Stato Civile starts on 1923.
All the record before Ufficio di Stato civile are kepth in the churches.
The law about Stato Civile comes out after the unification of Italy, on 1865. The law says that in the Stato civile there are 2 books for every year about birth, marriage and death.
The second book of civil record goes, at the end of the year to the Court, and after 70 years it goes to the Archivio di Stato (State Archive).
The books kept to the Court house can not be used for the research, as the italian law says.
Those books microfilmed by LDS are kept to Archivio di Stato.
Anyone can go to any Ufficio di Stato Civile to request a civil certificate or integral copy of civil record (only if civil record is older than 70 years ago, it means you can have integral copy of civil records before 1936. In your request written in Italian you should write the reason why you want the record or certificate, for genealogy research or for family tree or for famly history,etc.)
Anyone can go to Archivio di Stato to request only integral copy of civil record (Archivio di Stato doesn't make any certificate because it is not a Vital Statistics office, but it just keeps the records for who want to make the research).
Integral copy of civil record are not worth to apply for Italian Dual citizenship
Sometimes Ufficio di Stato civile and/or Archivio di Stato don't have all the records because lost, destroyed from fire or flood, or for bombing during WWII
I hope it helps, bye Riccardo

[Poipuo4]

Thank you for all of that great information! When I was in Italy, I gave my friend a copy of the birth certificate that my grandmother brought with her from Italy (she emmigrated in 1909 and was born in 1901). I am so lucky she saved things! It was a copy for immigration purposes, as opposed to the document that registered her birth. My friend was looking in the archives of the town hall of the village where my grandmother was born (in Paduli di Benevento).

Because I am new at this, I don't understand all the terminology yet. He was trying to get a copy of the original birth certificate on parchment as a family keepsake for us. What does an integral copy mean? Is that a copy of the original. Sorry for my lack of knowledge in this area.

[ricbru]

Yes, an integral copy of civil record is a photocopy from the original.
A certificate, is a document stating the most important facts written in the record.
I hope it helps, bye Riccardo