Waiting Time on Italian Birth/Marriage Certificates

[mattera]

I mailed my requests for birth and marriage certificates to Serrara Fontana, Panni and Montenero Val Cocchiara approximately eight weeks ago. I know that it is still early, but I wanted to get a sense from others on response times--either from these places specifically or from Italy in general.

Thank you all in advance for any help you can provide.

And Biff, how about an update on your newly discovered relative?

Alex

[Biff83]

Hello Alex,
I haven't had much experience requesting documents from Italy, but it took a little over four weeks to receive my grandfather's birth act from the date I mailed my request. On May 31, I emailed my grandmother's village and requested her birth act as well as the birth acts and marriage act of her parents. Obviously, the email request did not include a photo ID nor an IRC. I received all four documents on 18 June. Eight weeks does seem like a bit of a wait; I'd send a follow up letter reiterating the details of your first request.

My newly discovered cousin, the archivist in San Mango, is turning out to be my newly lost cousin. I mailed a letter with photos, documents, etc. to him on 6 April to his home address and remailed the same letter and photos on 12 May to both his home and work addresses. I also mailed a letter with photos to all the Epifanos in San Mango on 19 May. As of now, I have received zilch--no letter, no email. niete. I'll be mailing yet another letter this weekend.

The connection to the archivist is through one of the daughters of my grandfather's brother Angelo who never sent for his wife or children. My mother in law thinks that he must have abandoned them and that all the brothers who emigrated share the blame. Thus, the US Epifanos/Bifanos are persona non grata even though the event happened a 100 years ago. Whatever the case may be, I'd like to get a reply from someone even if it's an Up Yours letter. Pretty frustrating. Apolgies for hijacking your post to vent.

Best,
Biff

[mattera]

Biff,

Vent away; it sounds incredibly frustrating. Having watched numerous ancient aunts loathed each other across holiday dinner tables all through my youth, I am not surprised that the grudge survives a century. Talk about bad blood.

I'll have to follow up with another request. I hope you get some reply to yours.

Alex

[denman922]

Alex, I e-mailed to Italy requesting docs, and I recieved them in less than 14 days, others took 2 mos. I guess maybe different towns may be busier than others, I dunno. My self, when ordering docs from Italy, I like the Certificato di Stato di Famiglia Originario. It's one doc with the name of the parents, where the parents were born, the date, when they married, and died, The children they had, who the children married, when they died, and the dates. An excellent document, because you learn who the siblings are of your grandparents/ great grandparents, etc, and you are able to learn the married names of women.

Dennis

[mattera]

Dennis,

Thanks for the great tip on the Certicato di Stato di Famiglia Originario. I did not know of the existence of this document. I will request it going forward.

How did you email the relevant authorities? I do not know where to find email contact information.

Thanks,

Alex

[denman922]

Alex, I put the name of the town or province of my ancestor in the "search bar" and visited the websites of those towns and provinces. I had to sometimes hunt thru thier site looking for an e-mail address to write to. I use en.wikipedia.com alot also. That site provides alot of info on everythng with lots and lots of links on thier own site and then near the bottom of every page, links to sites related to the topic.

I did get sort of a reprimand by e-mail from one town employee that it was terribly time consuming for her and that the ownly reason she was doing it was because she was from the same town.

good luck, Dennis

[bbfuoco]

My typical response cycle for Southern Italian towns is 6 months. However, I am currently hoping for responses from requests mailed in October - 8 months ago and counting.

[Poipuo4]

I have received responses within 2-3 weeks from my towns: all Southern in the provinces of Benvento, Reggio Calabria, and Salerno. I think that after waiting 8 weeks, you should write to them again. Did you include a photo copy of your i.d.? Did you offer to pay for postage or enclose money? Did you give them the exact date of birth or year of birth? My one unanswered request did not have a photo i.d.or an exact year of birth (just a range). I think I read that there is a law that they must reply within 30 days. Some towns charge you per name for the Certificate of the State of the Family. I would not ask for this without enclosing payment and inquiring about payment or you may get no reply or a scolding as our previous poster mentioned.

[mattera]

Thanks, all, for the advice. My previous requests all included a photo ID and a self-addressed reply envelope, along with an international reply coupon for each reply envelope. I included full names and exact dates of birth (not just years). I'm not sure what the trouble is, but I'll have to try again. Given all that I included, I'm not sure what I could do differently this time to ensure a response.

[Poipuo4]

I don't think you can do anything differently. It sounds like you followed all the right steps. Perhaps a letter just saying you are following up on your first request and you want to confirm that they received it and that it is being processed.

[nuccia]

I have received records from Italy anywhere from 6 days to six weeks and never longer. It also depends on which comune you sent it to..some do take longer. I found many comuni do not know what IRC are so that also could be a problem. Try a follow up letter and see if that helps.

As for the Certicato di Stato di Famiglia Originario, that could take a lot longer. They are under no obligation to send it since they are not required to do the search. Its a very long and time consuming procedure and some will only do it if they have the time, some won't do it at all..so keep that in mind if you ever send away for one.

[bsnclr]

How can you request brith/marriage certs? I am new to all this and any info would be greatly appreciated...
Thanks
Barbara

[denman922]

To request different types of docs, I have done it two ways. If you know where your ancestor is from, see if they have a website, find an e-mail address on the site, and send one e-mail in both Italian and English. I use the "google translate" it works pretty good, but I send it in english also, just in case the translation does not come out perfect.

Also, you can just write your request and mail it to them. That costs about .90 cents and I always include my e-mail address in the correspondence. I have never sent any form of payment, nor has it ever been asked for.

Also, you can hire a researcher in the area of Italy that your ancestor is from. I have not done this yet. But, I wonder what that costs. There are a few "posters" to this forum that reside in Italy that can help if you need.

[nuccia]

Barbara..

Where is your relative from?

Maybe this site can help you.

http://www.circolocalabrese.org/resourc ... civile.asp

Just follow the instructions. Keep in mind though..you will only receive a birth certificate, no a birth record with grandparents name, etc usually.

[wldspirit]

Here are two other sources for writing to Italy, although these sites are not interactive:

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/search/ ... talian.ASP

http://www.anzwers.org/free/italiangen/ ... tters.html

I prefer the Lds letter, it gives more choices as to the content.
Lee