ITALIAN GENEALOGY

Sites that focus specifically on Italian Genealogy

IL CIRCOLO CALABRESE – A genealogy group specific to Calabria but contains great resources for all Italian researchers, such as interactive form letters written in Italian.

ITALIANS TO AMERICA and elsewhere! – This database allows you to look up some years of the Italians To America book series (1880-1891)

POINT – The largest Italian genealogy organization in the world – membership in POINT allows you to submit surnames and you receive 4 quarterly issues of POINTers magazine and the annual directory of other researchers surnames.

Sicilian Surnames By Town

SICILIAN SURNAME SEARCH ENGINE – shows how surnames are distributed throughout Sicily in order to help you find your town of origin

CHICAGO/ILLINOIS GENEALOGY

Sites that focus on Chicago and Illinois resources but are not specifically Italian

A LOOK AT COOK – fantastic maps of Chicago wards and census enumeration districts – to help you find your relatives in the census when Ancestry.com can’t read the handwriting!

CATHOLIC ARCHDIOCESE OF CHICAGO – includes links to Catholic Cemeteries and Archdiocesan Archives Center.

CHICAGO GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY – Long-time organization has regular meetings and speakers discussing Chicago genealogical topics. 

ISGS – Hosts an excellent conference every year – works to get more Illinois records available to genealogists.

BIGWILL – British Interest Group of Wisconsin and Illinois – meetings every other month

Chicago Historical Society – Located on Clark St at North Avenue, it hosts a large collection of newspapers, photos, and many resources unavailable anywhere else.

Czech & Slovak American Genealogy Society of Illinois – meets 5 times per year to do for Czech and Slovak genealogy what we do for Italian genealogy!

DuPage County Genealogical Society – monthly meetings with speakers plus an annual conference – meets in Wheaton

Active group – 23 meetings per year!  Half during the day and half on an evening. 

Fox Valley Genealogical Society – Monthly meetings, annual conference, meets in Naperville

Lake County Genealogical Society – Meets in Mundelein monthly – Annual conference in November.

McHenry County Illinois Genealogical Society

Meets in McHenry monthly – qualterly and monthly publications

PGSA – Premier Polish genealogy society in America – regular meetings at the Polish Museum Library, annual conference and great quarterly magazine – great databases including Chicago Polish Catholic Marriage records

Scottish Genealogy group of the Illinois St. Andrew Society – quarterly meetings and newsletter

South Suburban Genealogical and Historical Society – meets monthly in Hazel Crest, IL.  Monthly meetings, library, databases, Pullman records

GRAVEYARDS OF CHICAGO – Companion site to a book about Chicago Cemeteries – loaded with photos of famous graves and interesting statues and markers.

GENEALOGY (GENERAL)

Sites that can help you with genealogy that are not specifically Italian

ANCESTRY – Billions of records available for searching including vital records, newspaper archives, census images, passenger arrivals through New York 1850-1891 and much more ($)

ELLIS ISLAND – Find your relatives who came to the US through the port of New York between 1892 and 1924.

FAMILY SEARCH – The genealogy web site of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints – includes the Family History Library microfilm and fiche catalog, and locations for Family History Centers throughout the country.

GENEASEARCH – Searches many genealogy sites at the same time and leaves out all that extra non-genealogy fluff that Google gives you.

NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATON (NARA) – Based in Washington DC and 13 regional buildings in the US, NARA has all US census records and thousands of other microfilm resources and maps and many other resources you didn’t know existed.

NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF ITALY – See the resources available by geographic area of Italy (entire site in Italiano)

PARISHES ONLINE – Find info about your local US parishes or those across the country,

ROOTSWEB – Largest free genealogy site – host of our web site plus many free databases and

 Steve Morse

Use more complex search techniques to find data in Ellis Island, Ancestry, and other sites

ITALIAN (GENERAL)

Use these sites to aid your genealogy research in Italy

Find information about the parish churches of your ancestoral home town, including name, address, phone and if they have a web site or e-mail.

Search for your surname in Italy and see a graph of how it is distributed geographically throughout Italy.  This is very useful if you want to find out how common your name is.

FRA NOI – Chicago’s Italian-American newspaper, released monthly – includes articles of Italian social and cultural importance – contains Italian genealogy column “Le Nostre Origini” written by POINTers in Person’s very own Dan Niemiec!

AMICI d’ITALIA – Italian-American group that meets in River Grove – they publish a quarterly magazine Amici Journal with articles on prominent Italian people and cultural and social issues.

ITALIAN CONSULATE OFFICE OF CHICAGO – Find out what you need to know before you travel to Italy to do your genealogy.

ITALIAN CULTURAL CENTER OF CHICAGO – Located in Stone Park, IL, this center is rich with tradition and history of Italians and especially Chicago Italians.  There is a museum and art gallery on-site and regular lectures and cultural programs throughout the year.

LANERA – A site that has a lot of history of the province of Bari and how they link with Chicagoans.

PAGINE BIANCHI – The Italian phone book on-line – Find your cousins in Italy and write letters and call them!

TONY NITTI – A tribute to the Grand and Ogden neighborhood in Chicago where Tony and many other children of Baresi immigrants grew up.  Includes recipes, anecdotes, photos and humor about Chicago and Italy!