What we need to know about Italian Genealogy?

A colleague use to say that genealogy without documents is mythology, and it’s precisely there where our passion is targeted: to discover documents about our ancestors
First, we need to get information about the Italian documents where we could find records about our forbears, for instance:  Civil Records, parish records, census, military records, titles of property, etc.
Going forward we’ll need to understand how the Italian Archives are organized, especially if we are thinking about a travel to Italy to search for records personally.
Every Italian region has suffered particular historical situations, generating their own type of documents.  We are going to analyze every one of them little by little. For a better understanding of these documents, we need to know about the political and social changes on the age our grandparents lived.

Researching Your Italian Ancestors - When researching your Italian ancestors, it is important to understand their history, culture and language in order to uncover the records they may have left behind. Understanding when and why your Italian ancestor left Italy, as well as their preferred foods, clothing styles and dialects, may help to shed light on their town of origin, a necessary starting point for researching Italian roots. (By Kimberly Powell, About.com Guide)

Thirteen things you can do to start tracing your Italian ancestry

What do we look for? - The past is a fiction. But an absolutely necessary mis-en-scene.

Finding Records of Your Ancestors in Italy 1809 to 1910 - This document is available only in a PDF file. There is a black and white version or a color version (FamilySearch).

Italy Research Outline - This outline can help you find information about people who lived in Italy. It gives information about records of genealogical value for Italy and helps you decide which types of records to search (FamilySearch - Version of Data: 10/31/2003).

The town of origin

Finding Place of Origin of Italian Immigrant - The most important step in doing your initial research is to find out exactly which comune in Italy your ancestors came from and where they were born. The place they were living in Italy before they emigrated may NOT be where they were born. (Italian Genealogy Online)

Genealogy Research in Italy - The town of origin is the most important piece of information needed to begin your research of Italian ancestry. Usually, the hardest thing to do in the research process for any immigrant ancestor is to determine the precise town of origin. In fact, it is often more difficult than adding four or five new generations to the pedigree once the location is known. Once the name of the immigrant ancestor's town of origin is known, then there are several resources to help determine more about the records that will benefit your ancestral pursuits. Fortunately, Italian immigrants are generally much easier to trace back to their town of origin than other ethnic groups. This is because of two main reasons. First, the largest wave of Italian immigration took place when U.S. record sources were very informative as to place of origin. Second, Italian culture was such that origin was part of the oral traditions often passed on to posterity. (Pro Genealogists)

Finding the Emigrant’s Town of Origin. Unfortunately, few Italian emigration records exist. You can, however, find many records in the United States of Italians who moved there. (FamilySearch Wiki)

Related Links

Introduction to Italian Genealogy - Regalis
Thirteen things you can do to start tracing your Italian ancestry

Finding Italian Records - D'Addezio.com
Hot Tip Tuesday: Italian Females Retain Their Surname after Marriage in Italy
Italian American Adoption Resources
Researching Your Family History in Italy
How to start?
Italian Genealogy Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Italian Translation Guides

Italian Genealogy Letters
Words for family in Italian
Italian Genealogical Word List
Italian Genealogical Word List - FamilySearch
Italian Genealogical Word List - Italian Family Search
Glossary of Professions Start Learning Italian

How do I read an old document?

Italian Script Tutorial
Translation of printed civil birth forms
Translation of printed civil marriage forms
Translation of printed civil death form