Tutorials

Where Do I Begin?

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

First, get yourself an account at Family Search www.FamilySearch.org. It is free and probably the most extensive genealogy resource site on the planet. If you can afford it, a subscription to www.Ancestry.com is great to have. Even better is the World Explorer level, even if only while you are doing research in the old country. You can always downgrade it later.

Second, On Family Search, under the "Search" drop-down menu select "Research Wiki" and spend a LOT of time poking around and seeing what is there. So much information about all things related to family history research.

Third, consider a software program for your computer. I highly recommend Family Tree Maker https://www.mackiev.com/ftm/index.html. It is easy to use, highly customizable, and very reasonably priced.

Fourth, yes, I do mean use a computer with a decent-sized monitor. You will be looking at old, faded documents with scratchy handwriting, and the ability to give your eyes a break and see it bigger is a very good idea. Plus, the websites all seem to work better than the apps. Trust me on this.

Fifth, familiarize yourself with the FamilySearch Research Wiki NOW! I spelled out the steps under "TIPS"

Sixth, see next section!

It All Begins At Birth

You have to start at the beginning and that not only means birth, but the tree starts with YOU!

The first rule of thumb: to avoid being overwhelmed, start with what you know (yourself and your birth) and work one generation and one ancestor at a time.
It may seem silly to begin with yourself but it's important and good for your research skills. What information would you want your descendants to know about you? How about: Full name, place and date of birth, education, marriage date, places spouse, children's names, dates, place of birth, occupation...what else.
Now take on your father. Search for his Full name, place and date of birth/baptism, education, marriage date, places spouse, children's names, dates and places of various occupations, retirement, death. What do you know about him, what do you want to know about him? What do you want your descendants to know about him? Make a list and start researching (and if he's alive, ask him!!!).
Next move on to your mom or your paternal grandfather - depends on your goals. I find it best to stick with one line at least for a while.
Do you have an ancestor who immigrated to the US (I'm assuming like most of us you do)? To go any farther back accurately, you MUST find his/her place of birth Country>Region> Province> Municipality/town or city. If you are unsure of the town or province, start by looking for the ship manifest, which often gives the place of birth or last residence. It may only say Italy so now what?
Look in the US records for marriage, death, retirement, Social Security, census, and Naturalization, and look for these things for any siblings you are aware of because what one person's records may not have, another just might. Leave no stone unturned because place of birth is key!
As before, gather all the info you can before attempting to go one generation farther back.

Once you have done all of the above you can proceed to the next section!

My grandfather and me.

Finding Ship Manifests - An Important Second Step,(but not always easy)

Did your ancestor leave their homeland and settle in another country? Here's how to find their ship's passenger list and why you should look for it.

www.stevemorse.org TIP: to get more hits, put in only the person's name and country.
TIP: Try spelling variations, including phonetic spellings.
TIP: Try just entering the town and see who comes up. That worked for my husband's great-grandfather. His name had been mistranscribed, but I recognized it on the list of those who had come from the same town.
TIP: Try just entering the person's first name and town. The first name tends to be mistranscribed less often in my experience.
TIP: Try as many spellings as you have seen and can think of.
https://heritage.statueofliberty.org/ TIP: click all the options under "Narrow your search"
TIP: Family Search (free) and Ancestry ($ubscription) also have ship manifests, too.
If you don't find it on one of these sites, try the others. Search engines, transcriptions, and indexing can vary from site to site, giving you different results.
See my FAQ about names that were (not) changed at Ellis Island and other ports of entry.

Searching the Antenati Archives

Once you know the town your ancestor was born in, you can start at the website of the Italian State Archives of Vital Records

1. Go to https://antenati.cultura.gov.it/

2. On the home page where it says Località, type in TOWN NAME (be sure you are spelling it correctly), then click "Cerca" (search). Don't fill in the rest.

3. Then, on the left side of the page, click SERIE > Espandi, and you may get many towns.

4. Click on the town you are interested in, i.e., Cautano.

5. then, on the left side, choose TIPOLOGIA: Nati=births, Morti=deaths or Matrimoni=marriages.

6. On the next screen, choose Anno=years > Espandi=expand to see what years there are for the type of record, then choose an approximate year. If there is more than one entry, check them all by clicking on “Vedi il Registro.” When you are done with that register, use your back button to get back to the other options and repeat.

7. In the upper right, you will see several icons. Hover your mouse over them, and one will say, "Galleria."Click on it, then click Galleria, and you will see lots of thumbnails

8. Look over all the thumbnails. Either at the beginning or the end, there is often (not always) an index, which makes searching faster. Just by looking at the thumbnails, you can see that some pages will look more like a list than a written record or form. Double-click any thumbnail to enlarge. If there is no index, you just have to click page by page and read the names in the margin, looking for your person.

** If you don’t find the person you are looking for in the estimated year, look at least 5 years on either side. Dates on many records are inaccurate.

Doing a Catalog Search in Family Search

Family Search is a site of immense information! The good people have scanned and digitized Billions (yes, Billions with a B) of records and research tools for just about anything you might want to know. However, they have not and cannot index it all even with the help of countless volunteers so you have to learn to search the catalog just like going to the town and searching through all the old, dusty record books, except you don't need an appointment with a town registrar, you don't have to leave the comfort of your own computer (in most cases), and these are not dusty! It's not as quick and easy as typing Great-grandpa's name in a search bar, but if Great-grandpa's records are among the billions not yet indexed, it's the only way. Bring snacks and be prepared to spend hours!

Here is a tutorial for searching the Catalog

Go to www.Familysearch.org

Under Search: click “Catalog”
Place: type name of town (Santa Maria Capua Vetere)
click: SEARCH
Under Search Results: click on Civil Registration (since you know from the citation that it was the Tribunale, choose the first link)
On the next page, scroll down until you find Santa Maria Capua Vetere, CLICK on that.
On the next page, Notes in bright red, click on the word HERE at the end.
Click: BROWSE ALL 1,097,228 Images
Click on Santa Maria Capua Vetere
Then choose the type of record (nati=birth, matrimoni=marriage, morti=death) and the time period, in this case, the record was from milleottocentoottantatre 1883. (Hint: it’s the 3rd column, 3rd choice)
On the next page, put it in thumbnail view.
You will see some pages that look like
cover or title pages, others look like records and some will look like lists or indexes.
Click on each cover page and see what the section is until you find NATI 1883. (Hint: it’s image 162). Then click until you get to the document you are looking for.

Voila! Now you can find lots more records, especially those that are not on Antenati.

How to download documents from Antenati

Once you find the document you are searching for you will want to save it to your computer, add it to your Family Tree, add it to a book, and maybe share it with family members. Here's a tutorial I created, followed by a video.

Find the document you want, this is my grandfather:
https://antenati.cultura.gov.it/ark:/12657/an_ua1668638/LyNkq9q
in another window/tab open this link (You WILL get an error message):
https://iiif-antenati.cultura.gov.it/iiif/2/[TARGET]/full/full/0/default.jpg
then copy the last several numbers/letters after the last/in this case, LyNkq9q and paste them in the part of the URL that says [TARGET] (eliminate the brackets and the word target, do keep the backslashes on either side of it). The new URL should look like this:
https://iiif-antenati.cultura.gov.it/iiif/2/LyNkq9q/full/full/0/default.jpg
4) Click "return". It should open the document.  
5) Right-click and choose "Save Image As", rename the document and it will be wherever your computer saves downloads (mine is set to go to the desktop - easier to find).

P.S. Every once in a while I find a document with a URL that does not have that type of ending digits. In that case, you have to take a screenshot or use the snip tool.

AND

Here is a good video to watch ( I don't know who to credit for this) https://streamable.com/dy19dc?fbclid=IwAR0PdnHqQDdnNIpruxV62PYCo4sUBTHNLbXSZRh4tgfMVtkBaWl7lXLJB4Y