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Genealogy Surname Boards & Searches
This Surname Board List has hand-picked links to most of the popular Italian Genealogy Surname Message Boards where you can search and post your Italian surname originating in any of the municipalities / comunes of Italy. General Genealogy Boards & Lists are also included when they contain a good percentage of Italian Surnames. You will also find sites that list Italian Surnames that are to be found in or originated from a particular Town and/or Region in Italy to help you in your Italian Family Tree Search.

Surname Searches & Genealogy Message Boards - most are easy to use and do not clutter up your mailbox unless it is something directed only to you. Locality Specific - Specific Location Searches (ie: Australia) Message Boards for various areas in Italy and also other lists such as Volunteers in Garibaldi's Army in 1860, Italian Immigrants to Brazil, Italian Civil War Regiment, Cook County Naturalizations, New York Indexes and more E-mail Surname Lists - Yahoo E-groups, Italian Archives and more. USENET NEWSGROUPS and Mail List Feed Please note, if you are looking for Passenger Ship Arrival Lists - Castle Garden, Ellis Island Passenger Lists and other Immigrant Ship Passenger Arrival Records, these links are all located on the SHIPS section of this free website from Italian Genealogy ONLINE and all things Italian Dear People, It is always best to use a free-email not your ISP email on all and any mail-lists, websites, surname lists and etc. Kindest Regards, PMN NOTE: All off-site links open to a new page otherwise use your browser back button to return to this page..

Surname Searches & Genealogy Message Boards

• BYU Family History Archive - The Family History Archive is a collection of published genealogy and family history books. The archive includes histories of families, county and local histories, how-to books on genealogy, genealogy magazines and periodicals (including some international), medieval books (including histories and pedigrees), gazetteers and more.
• Ellis Island & more SHIPS Passenger Arrival Records  - Ships Passenger Arrival Lists including Ellis Island Wall of Honor, Ellis Island Passenger Lists, Castle Gardens and other Immigrant Ship Passenger Arrival Records links are all located on the SHIPS section of our free website here at Italian Genealogy Online & all things Italian.
• Family Search is a HUGE mega-database of Surnames prepared by the Mormons but containing thousands of Family Trees with information on over 105 million surnames, which are not necessarily Mormon. Try it and then check back as they are adding new records WEEKLY.
• SEARCH THE FAMILY HISTORY LIBRARY CATALOG for Italian Records - For example: click on "Place Search" then type in your town of interest in the blank next to "Place" - Leave " Part of:"  blank - then Click " Search"
• Family Finder Surname Homepage Search - search this site for FTM Home Pages researching your surname (you might find a connection)
• Family Tree Maker Online Keyword Search - keyword search locates information anywhere in the Family Tree Maker.com Web site, except the Family Finder and the Social Security Death Index.
• Find A Grave - Millions of Cemetery Records - a free resource for finding the final resting places of famous folks, friends and family members.
• GenCircles - from the creator of GenForum; Cliff Shaw. This was my favorite User Interface and display of information. The notes and sources are displayed very clearly. It is easy to use and very searchable.  I personally used it for many of my Family Tree studies until it was sold to myheritage. However it is still good to search.
• Genealogy Archives Searchpage - Search for your Italian Surname in 62 Genealogy Discussion Groups.
• GeneaNet Genealogical Database Network - universal register of all the world's genealogical resources whether Net-based or not and whether free or fee-paying.  You can find Italian Surname listings throughout the world on this one and Geneanet lets you create your family tree directly on it's website, or you can submit a Gedcom from your own genealogical software program and then you can easily present your genealogy on the Internet. 
• GenForum Surname Board Search - Search for a Surname Board dedicated to your surname. Post and Search for thousands of surnames. If they don't have a Forum for your surname, ask them to make one. They make it really easy. They are the best. Hope & pray they don't change for the worse like some big sites have recently done.
• Search Genealogy Queries - submit and browse genealogy postings at CousinConnect.com and in various general databases at one time. Beware of their commercial site links at the end of your search results always exercise caution. 
• Gen-Italian and other Mail-Lists - gatewayed to USENET newsgroups, online readers and FAQS
• Italian Names & Surnames page (on this site) -  distribution maps and other interesting statistical databases on Italian Names & Names in general on the Italy Names Page: This link takes you to the entire page of Italian Name & Surname links. 
• "Italy Roots Forum" Italian Genealogy Online Message Board - FREE searchable Italian Surname and Italian Genealogy Bulletin Board, easy, no registration, no sign-up, no fee required; moderated board.
• Italian Surname Collection - 
• Genealogy Forum: Italy - GenForum has over 35,000 online forums devoted to genealogy. If you disable scripts, java and activeX in your browser or use pop-up stopper software your computer won't freeze up due to pop-ups or spyware.
• Italian Genealogy Resources - at Distant Cousins.com
• Italian Immigrants worldwide who sent money to Italy via the Bank of Naples - click "Le Ricerche" >> "Servizio emigrati" & then >> "Indice emigrati"
• Italy Message Board at Rootsweb - Family History.com & Rootsweb are now owned by Ancestry.com
• Lineages.com - Free Database Search Scroll down for a free search through some "General Information Searches", some handy lookups for the beginning genealogist.
• Listado de Apellidos - from Apellidos Italianos in Argentina.  "Genealogía Italiana en Español" (in Spanish) To browse, simply scroll down or click on the first Initial of your Surname (Apellido) Interest.
• MEGAsearch Genealogy Italy - One window search very well maintained by Rob Kuijsten. LDS (Mormons) Italy, Ancestral File (LDS Mormons) Italy, Geneanet Italy, Google, genealogy Italy, Google News Genealogy Italy, Rootsweb message board Italy, People Finder Italy, Genforum Italy.  Ignore the ones that charge $$ to view like ancestry.com.  There will always be a way to find what you need without paying them.  Have Faith.
• MetaSearch at Rootsweb - goes through most of their databases quickly, SCROLL OVER and down a little to the right side of page to: Refine Search / Surname.
• Misc. User Contributed Databases - Birth, Marriage, Death, Census, Tax Lists and more from Rootsweb.
• RootsWeb Search -  Literally hundreds of millions of names and many categories.
• RootsWeb Surname Database - Add your surnames to this list so others can find you. You must register but its free to use.
• Search 3384 Genealogy books - directory of genealogy books on the Internet, featuring 3384 categorized and cross-indexed books
• Social Security Death Index Search - FREE lookup from FamilySearch.org. IMPORTANT NOTE: you will *not* find anyone listed who died before 1962 listed on the Internet. If you can't find your ancestors do what I did - obtain the Official State Death Notices on each grandparent. Their death notice will have their SSN on it. I also included a copy of each individual's Death Notice on the copies of the SSN app I requested.
• Surname Helper - Search for a Surname.
• Surname Navigator - by Rob Kuijsten.
• Surname Specific Message Boards at Rootsweb.- search for your surname you might have a Message Board devoted to it exclusively.
• The Computerized Ancestor - An internet database furnished by Yates Publishing, consisting of an index to over 840,000 family group sheets with contact information on submittor.
• US Census Records Search - are all on the Genealogy USA Tools page of this site. More are added periodically  Remember: the Latter Day Saints (Mormons) - Family History Centers have almost all of the Census Records in their Libraries and if you are new to research drop by one of their centers for some free tips. (use the SOUNDEX Code Generator on the USA Tools Page before you visit LDS.)  Heritage Quest Online is a terrific resource available from home via your free Public Library card from Public Libraries across the country.  Check with your local public library and any affiliate libraries which may honor your library card.
• WorldConnect Project, more than 640 million names - Click on SEARCH ALL DATABASES More than 650 million names on file.  Refine a search that yields too many "hits" by including more information, also, you may use a wildcard. For example, put 187* in the birth year field to search all years from 1870 through 1879.
• WWW documents at RootsWeb - search through all the registered homepages and databases at GenSeeker-Rootsweb for your Surname.

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Locality Specific / Italy & other specifics including Naturalizations Search the Italian Ancestry Pages (click here) for specific Italian comune extracts and Family Trees. When possible the sites are listed under the Italian Comune of origin otherwise the surname is followed by the various comuni involved. Contacting others who are researching ancestors in the same comune of origin as your ancestors' origin will help you tremendously!!

• 386 Italian families that came to Brazil - through the State of Espitiro Santo.
• More than 1300 Italians applied for a visa to return to Italy in late 1918, from Philadelphia. Were your ancestors among them?  This info is linked to the Pennsylvania USGenWeb Project (when you get there scroll down to PA Emigrants).
• AbruzzoForum.com -  forums for Abruzzo, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Emilia Romagna, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Lazio, Liguria, Lombardia, Molise, Marche, Piemonte, Puglia, Sardegna, Sicilia, Toscana, Trentino Alto-Adige, Umbria, Valle D'Aosta, Veneto
• All Italy Comunes & Regions are welcome on the "Italian Roots Forum Italian Genealogy Online Message Board" - FREE, Searchable Italian Surname & Italian Genealogy Bulletin Board for all Regions, all Comunes of Italy and all Italian Surnames. NO registration required. Read about it here.
• Apice, Provincia di Benevento, Campania - partial civil record extracts by Joan Victoria Manzo
• Australian Immigrants - National Archives of Australia search as a Guest or Registered researcher. Name Search turned up plenty of Italian Emigrants for every Italian Surname I tried including some cousins
• Brazil: Imigrantes Italianos -Italian Immigrants to Brazil - Scroll down through the page to their links & lists of Italians to Brazil and Descendants of Italy in Brazil researching their Family Trees.
• Calabria: Catanzaro Exchange - Actual birth, marriage and death state civil records from towns in Catanzaro Province in Calabria. Currently records from Brognaturo, Cortale, Curinga, San Michele, Serrastretta, Tropea, more soon.
• Calabrian Heritage - a forum at "Our Calabrian Heritage" maintained by George Lilli.
• Calabrian Soldiers decorated in WWI & WWII. - If you know of another to add to their list be sure to email the webmaster.
• Calitri 1753 Status animarum (State of Souls) transcribed by Richard Barclay Robertson
• Castiliano, Crotone, Calabria Civil Records - by Cynthia Milán de García
• Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court: Search the Naturalization Declarations of Intention - The Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County Archives is home to more than 500,000 naturalization petitions covering the years 1871 to 1929. More than 400,000 of these records are Declarations of Intention, 1906-1929 which were usually the first papers to be filed by those who wished to become U.S. citizens.
• COGNOMI ITALIANI 1800/1900 - compiled & maintained by Raffaella Matera and Riccardo Bruno. Big list of Italian Surname links and also some actual Vital Records links. 
• Garibaldi's Army Volunteers in 1860 - In Italian from an Italian Government Document.
• Gioiosa Marea, Provincia di Messina - a sprinkling of birth records extracted by Joan Manzo
• Italian Civil War Regiment - Italian Surname list from the American Civil War Rosters.
• Italian Records on Rootsweb - list of contributors is here http://userdb.rootsweb.ancestry.com/regional.html#Italy
• Italians in the Confederate Army - recorded in 1862 when New Orleans was captured by the Union Army 
• ITALY REGIONS at GenForum - as of my last check they cover -Abruzzo, Avellino, Bari, Basilicata, Calabria, Foggia, La Spezia, Latina, Milan, Molise, Naples, Rome, Sicily and Venice. 
• Lettopalena, Abruzzi list of Surnames  - started with surnames from in & around Lettopalena, Chieti, Abruzzo, Italy and other towns from Italy's central Adriatic Coast in the western Abruzzo Region. Now, includes a tremendous amount of non-Italian / non consanguineous surnames.
• Naturalization Index for Kings County (Brooklyn, New York) - 1907-1924 database searchable by surname or soundex. If you find a name then read their FAQs, which also includes details about their section on Missing Petitions vol 31.
• Naturalizations Southern District Court of NY - Naturalization Records Index 1906 - 1949
• New York Naturalization Project for Suffolk County - by the Italian Genealogy Group. The complete index to all of the Naturalization Records of Suffolk County, New York.
• New York City World War I Draft Board Data Base - extracted by Carole Glick Feinberg (scroll down to the bottom of their page and enter surname.
• New York City Death Index - 1891 to 1894 Manhattan Only, 1895 to 1897 Manhattan and Brooklyn Only, 1898 to 1936 All Boroughs
• NYC - WTC List of Names - searchable database of victims of September 11, 2001 tragedy.
• Parma (PR) Emilia-Romagna, Italia Surname List - Index of Surnames (click on "Indice dei nomi") in Italian
• San Fele, Potenza, Italy Surname list  - if your surname is on this list your heritage "may" be linked to the comune of San Fele in Potenza, Basilicata, Italy. Check it out.
• San Giorgio La Molara, Provincia di Benevento - partial civil record extracts by Joan Victoria Manzo
• San Paolo Albanese, Provincia di Potenza  (Use for) Italy, Potenza, Casalnuovo Lucano - birth & marriage extracts by Joan V. Manzo
• Sicilian Ancestor & Surname Registry - Old Information Center by Jeff La Marca with posting by people looking for Genealogy Information on Sicily, it has not been updated since 1999/2000 (you still might find some leads).
• SICILY Surname List - ITA-Sicily *Very well maintained* by Donna Guiffre researching all of SICILY.
• Southern District Court of NY - Naturalization Records Index 1906 - 1949.
• Tito, Potenza, Italy Civil Record Transcriptions - by Grace Lancieri Olivo (very inspiring work)
• Waldensian Ancestors - Surname List & Family Researchers sponsored by Piedmont Families Organization, Inc.

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Italian Archives, E-mail Surname Lists, Italy Mailing lists, etc.

Dear People, "IF" you contact someone on a "Mail-List or E-mail list and it turns out to be a dead link, please notify the Webmaster of *that* particular site. Thank You and Best Regards Always, Paula Nigro.

• Archives of Italy - Search the Archive of Messages for ITALY Mailing List & Read the Archives of Italy Mailing List from 1997 through 2005.
• Il Circolo Calabrese - A mailing list for anyone with a genealogical interest in the Calabria region of Italy.
• Clan Cyberesh Mailing List - Arbëresh are people who migrated, or fled, from Albania to Italy beginning in the 15th Century living mainly in the Sicilian Towns of Mezzojuso, Piana degli Albanesi, Contessa Entellina, or Palazzo Adriano, or the Calabrian town of Falconara moderated by John Cusimano contact the webmaster for more information.
• GEN-ITALIAN Search - put in your surname and select the database to search through the 1997 through current postings.  This is also archived by Rootsweb Click Here to view, but they are incomplete and also they do not know how to archive Italian characters, such as ì, è, ò, à and etc. GoogleGroups does not have this problem. 
• Italian Adoption - by John Campitelli. ITALIADOPTION is limited to adult *living* Italian born adoptees who have been adopted by North American parents and who wish to search for their birth family in Italy. They do not deal with genealogy research of ancestors who might have been adopted in Italy in past generations. 
• Italian Surname Collection - Over 32,900 names with email address contact. Add yours.
• Italian Surname Email Database - List maintained by Nuccia of Gente di Mare. Click on the letter of your Italian Surname of Interest.  Click "feedback" near the top of the page to add your Italian Surname.
• Lisa's Surname Sharing Email Exchange A-G  and H to Z. (Over 4400 Italian Surnames.) Please contact Lisa if you find dead-email links she will be happy to hear from you.
• More Email listings of Italian Surnames - Scroll down about the middle of the page, click on the initial of your last name & scroll down.  This site is commercial but has over 31,000 Surnames to check out.
• Italy Mailing Lists Signups - Big list of Italian Mailing Lists.  A good place to find out about Italian Genealogy events, lectures, meetings, research in your areas of interest, etc., and other topics on Italy. 
• Northern Italy Family History Research - well moderated free list by Regina Gualco, unfortunately not viewable unless you join (however this is how many mail-lists keep away spam).  Covers the regions of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Liguria, Lombardia, Piemonte, Trentino-Alto Adige, Valle d'Aosta, and Veneto as well as the bordering areas of France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Emilia-Romagna and Toscana
• RootsWeb: Italian Genealogy Mailing Lists - Rootsweb is the Oldest & Largest free Genealogy Web Site and continues today because of its volunteers in spite of having been bought out by a very commercial company. NOTE: if you sign up to these lists and post a message your email address will be put on the Internet so you need to use a free email like hotmail, softhome.net, yahoo, newspaper web-mail, etc, NOT your personal family email through your Internet Service Provider or else use a News Subscription for the connection and "mung" the email address you use when posting.
• Rootsweb GEN-ITALIAN Archives BROWSE - read through the complete postings archived by Rootsweb Mail-list of the Soc.genealogy.Italian postings from 1997 until present time.
• RootsWeb Mailing Lists Interactive Search - This is an interface to the archives for most of the RootsWeb mailing lists, current through the past day or so.
• San Fele Italy Connections - San Fele Research Interests Email Surname List contacts.
• Various Genealogy E-mail Groups on YAHOO - many private and public groups for Italian and other Genealogy Info (like how to do Genealogy Research with computer, etc.) It is fun to browse the "Public" Forums even if you don't want to join.

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USENET Genealogy Newsgroups archived on GroupsGoogle & ..

• What is USENET - Internet Exploration Station Information Center by Harley Hahn (© 2002) 
• Useful Usenet Resources - by usenet-newsgroups.com
• Genealogy Newsgroups have been around a long time and eventually Rootsweb started mailing lists which are "Gatewayed" to the Usenet Newsgroup..
• Browse USENET archives on GroupsGoogle - Searchable archive of more than 700 million Deja News Research Service Archives of USENET postings from a period of more than 20 years, which Google purchased from Deja News and now Google via "groups.google.com" continues to archive most of the USENET news.
• All groups > USENET > soc . genealogy
• All groups > USENET > alt . genealogy
• All groups > USENET > rec . heraldry
• Groups.google: soc.genealogy.italian - Google's USENET reader easily lets you read Newsgroups via a browser without a "mail-list" signup.  Google purchased the old Deja News Archives and still keeps them online.  It is better to read and respond to Newsgroups via a regular newsreader rather than a mail-list subscription because newsgroups are archived on the Internet and mail-lists do not allow address munging, which is the easiest way to protect yourself from Spam when posting in a USENET newsgroup.  In the Rootsweb archives of the USENET groups, posters email addresses are easily viewable & obtainable by users of Linux and other Web Browsers such as Firefox & Opera although not viewable to most people using IE browsers.  Unfortunately newbies using Mail-lists gatewayed to USENET tend to "freak-out" when a message they send to a munged address bounces.  This stress can be avoided by self-education on how to use newsgroups. There are thousands of articles online on how to use Internet Newsgroups; find one that you can easily understand.  
• A few Internet service providers operate news-servers for their users to access as part of their related services.
• There are also many, better Usenet Newsgroup services for a reasonable subscription fee. There are many newsgroup reader programs from which you can choose.
• The best thing is if you learn to use a Usenet Newsreader like Agent (Forte), MaxNews, Xnews, etc. to easily view & post to Usenet groups without using a Web-browser... such as 
• news:soc.genealogy.italian
• news:alt.genealogy
• news:rec.heraldry
• news:soc.genealogy.britain
• news:soc.genealogy.computing
• and many, many, more on the World Wide Web. Un-moderated groups are generally the best and eventually, if you lurk and read and watch for awhile before posting you will get to recognize Spam and then it is very simple and easy to ignore it or put it into your "kill filter" which is not that easy if you are in a mail-list.  Newsgroups do not fill up your email box. They are great!!!
• Public News Servers FREE access to text-only newsgroups - sites which allow free, public access via NNTP protocol to Usenet newsgroups. (you would use a newsreader with these) All servers listed in this category allow anyone to read articles. Some of the servers allow you to post messages. 
• Free access to text-only newsgroups - sites which allow access to Usenet newsgroups via a web page.
• Google Directory of  Web-based access to USENET newsgroups
• SPECIAL NOTES: 
  • Rootsweb Mail-List 'Gen-Italian' takes part in some of the Usenet discussions *however* after Rootsweb was bought out by ancestry/et-al - that takeover company "appears" to block answers sent to the Roots-Mail-List people's questions when those answers are posted by people with a newgroup subscription...**  So since this takeover, if you read a dangling, unanswered response to a Roots-Mail-List subscriber's question, which isn't even followed by a thank you or more questions, it is "often" simply because the newbie (and some are newbies forever) never "received" the message in their in-box. So if you belong to Rootsweb GEN-ITALIAN then you will need to use another reader to find all the answers posted to questions. Most of the Newsgroup Users in other countries don't want to fill up their mail boxes with large messages, which often contain ads at the bottom of the message, so they efficiently use their Internet Service Providers news access or a private newsgroup subscription.  After the "mail-list" newbies stopped receiving International newsgroup users messages this resulted in many genealogy research volunteers (particularly in Italy) to stop giving advice.  Most International users have to pay for bandwidth and they do not want to be bother with using Mail-lists so they use Usenet Newsgroups instead. 
  • Using a valid newsgroup subscription is preferable to subscribing to any mail-list archived on the Internet which will expose peoples legitimate email addresses to Spam because knowledgeable computer users can post USENET messages using a fake email address to avoid harvesting by Spambots. 
  • Utilizing address munging is one of the best way to avoid Spam from the Internet.  An easy way to disguise your email on USENET is simply to add words that anyone with a workable IQ could remove, such as;  "nameofposterDELETE@NOSPAMyahoo.invalid" -- and other various.  At the bottom of your message you might put in your real email in words only, without using the @ sign such as: Email: yourname [at] server [dot] com 

**I posted a test message to that newsgroup and it appeared in the GEN-Italian archives, so they/ancestry might be changing their policy.  However, the above will stay in effect until I know for sure that they are not blocking messages and actually using a newsgroup subscription is always a better choice on USENET.

DISCLAIMER:
This document reflects the opinions of the author. This document is provided "as is" without any express or implied warranties. While every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this article, the author/maintainer and/or contributors assume(s) no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

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If you know of other Italian Genealogy Message Boards or want to add your Genealogy Message Board, Mail Group Contact, E-mail List, Genealogy Listserver, Usenet Reader to this page send me the link for consideration. Sorry but Boards and sites with excessive amounts of advertising, spyware scripts (which the Firefox Browser or a popup & script stopper will not stop) fees to enter & other such "red-tape" can_NOT be added.
Thank You & Best Regards Always,
Paula Nigro

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