Sulmona, L'Aquila, Abruzzo

[beenealogy]

Hello there,

I was able to narrow down the entirety of my grandfather's side of the family (surnames: Grilli, Quattrocchi, Angeloni/e) to Sulmona. I don't really know much about it, and I was wondering if anyone knows if there are any online records, or if the records are exclusively available in churches, government archives, etc. I tried looking at family search recently and couldn't find anything searchable or viewable for the location. As I said, I don't know much about the history of the place, so is it possible that its records would have been mixed up with another location or are the records just not there at all.

Thanks,
Bryan

[AngelaGrace56]

It looks like there are some here, only the spelling of the town is different.)

Sulmona - (1809-1815ish) http://www.antenati.san.beniculturali.i ... o/Solmona/

Sulmona – (1816-1859ish)
http://www.antenati.san.beniculturali.i ... e/Solmona/

Sulmona - (1861-1865ish)
http://www.antenati.san.beniculturali.i ... o/Solmona/

With Italian records, once you know the name of the town your ancestor was born in, search for the Province of the town – in this case, as you say, it is L'Aquila. Search the relevant Province – you'll find the respective town you are wanting by clicking on the Province. There are some later records listed on Family Search but I can't get to them at the moment, and need to go out shortly. You could take a look and see what is there. I'd say that most of the records there will refer you to this Italian ancestry site I've linked you to here. Best to you in your search. (You probably need to be looking at the later records first, so you can work yourself backwards from them. Hopefully Family Search have them.)

Angela

[beenealogy]

Thanks so much for these, Angela! It's certainly laborious going through them, but I've already found one relative!

You said that records post-1865 can be found at FamilySearch?

[AngelaGrace56]

Thanks so much for these, Angela! It's certainly laborious going through them, but I've already found one relative!

You said that records post-1865 can be found at FamilySearch?

Happy to help. I'm pleased that you have already found one relative. Fantastic. It is quite an undertaking going through all those records individually - unfortunately it doesn't look like your records have any indices to them? If there were indices they would normally be found at the end of the respective year you are looking through or at the start.

Re: Family Search: These are the records listed for Sulmona here: https://www.familysearch.org/search/sea ... %3D1937372

They are the same records that are on the Italian ancestry site which I have linked you to on my previous post. You probably won't be able to view any of them online at Family Search and would need to go to either a Family History Centre or Affiliate Library. Unfortunately there are no post
1865 records on line. (It's a little bit misleading because there are records 1911-1943 for the town of Aquila and possibly other towns in the province.)

If you go to the following links you could search some of your names there to see what comes up as I notice that the records for the town of Aquila have been indexed, and also some of the other towns for the Province, but it doesn't look like the town Sulmona has been indexed:

https://www.familysearch.org/search/col ... lter=false

or here at the Italian site:

http://www.antenati.san.beniculturali.i ... arch]=name

(On Family Search I searched the name Quattrocchi and found the following indexed 1936 death record for a Vincenzo Del Signore, who died Aquila but was born circa 1907 in Sulmona, his mother was Maria Francesca Quattrocchi.
https://www.familysearch.org/search/col ... id=1937372

There is also the following, 1925 death record for a Nunziata Colaprete, born Sulmona, mother was a Lucia Quattrocchi.
https://www.familysearch.org/search/col ... id=1937372

These people may or may not be in your history? Just thought I'd take a look to see what was there.

Best to you in your research.

Angela

[beenealogy]

Thanks for all of this incredible information! I never even knew that there were so many Italian records available online. I had always been told that all the records were pretty much exclusively stored at physical archives and churches, so even though it's not the quickest, most convenient system, it's still much more than I ever anticipated.

Unfortunately, it would seem that only one of the collections had an index so far. I haven't had much luck since I found that one relative. I thought I might catch a break because I have what I thought was the birthdate of a 2x great grandfather named Nunzio Angelone, but he didn't turn up. I'm starting to wonder if it's possible that he could have actually been born in a nearby town and just used Sulmona because it was more identifiable.

Thanks so much for the diving in for me. None of those names look familiar to me, which I guess makes sense because my Abruzzo family members came over in the 1890's, but I'm sure it's possible that some of those people could be relatives. It's ironic because my 2x great grandmother's name was Lucia Quattrocchi, but she was born in c. 1861 and immigrated in 1899.

I appreciate all your help and the sources you provided. I'll let you know how my search progresses!

[AngelaGrace56]

You are very welcome for the help. Glad you found it helpful.

If you'd like to give me Nunzio Angelone's date of birth, I'll take a look for you as well. Also, do you know your Lucia Quattrocchi's parents names?

Angela

[beenealogy]

Hello again!

Apologies for taking so long to respond. I got very busy with school, but in the mean time, I did receive some death records for some of the members of my family. I found out that Nunzio Angeloni was born 25 March 1862, and Lucia Angeloni (Quattro/Quattrocchi) was born 29 November 1862. I am unsure of the parents of Nunzio, but Lucia's were Panfilo Quattrocchi and Concetta Pisauto.