In Pursuit of an Italian Passport – the trail is cold

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ow 201`9, it has been some time since I have heard from my agency so I send an email asking for an update - I think they should be done by now but the response from them shows that, no, they are still looking for my great-great-grandfather's information (marriage certificate, birth certificate, and death certificate).

Also, they re looking for any naturalization that might have occurred in France (not likely but it needs to be done to demonstrate an unbroken claim). But they are having some issue finding this data – do I have any information that might help them?

I give them all the information – however inaccurate – that I have. I tell them I had contacted a genealogist and she had found the transcription of my great-grandfather’s birth in 1893 (although I had this information already) and the names of his parents. Unfortunately, my great-great-grandparents did not marry in Pozzilli. A search of the Marriage Banns, or Pubblicazioni, did not yield their marriage and the publications from 1883 through 1889 were missing. Furthermore, a search of the surname found a person of the same name as my great-great-grandfather but the information did not accurately match my ancestor of the same name.

However, the genealogist also explained that there was a technical problem as the years that would need to be searched (after 1865) had not been microfilmed and would require a hand search (somewhat time consuming as the exact year was unknown). But the genealogist was able to find the marriage banns my great-great-grandparents near Paris in 1888. At this point, I tell them, the genealogist was not able to get any further in the search.

I also tell them that some of my own research had uncovered various tidbits of information: A search of the 1910 Census for my great-great grandfather (Antonio) has an entry for father (Vincenzo), wife, two sons and a daughter (the children all born in France) whereas the parents are listed as Italian born. In this census, Vincenzo is listed as 44 years (putting his birth somewhere around 1866).

I also mention that my great-grandmother’s Naturalization papers it states that Antonio was born in Conca Casale on Sept 18, 1892 (not France) but that her English was not very good so maybe this was just easier to say when filling out the form. Lastly, I tell them that I think that Vincenzo died in 1929 in Conca Casale (Italy). Although this information was from another family tree (so could have questionable reliability), this information seems to be supported in that I cannot find a death notice in the US and he does not appear in the 1930 census.

With this information in hand, they are off to do more searching in the various offices – both large and small – for the paper trail of my ancestor Vincenzo.